Sulfite pulping in Russia:

In anticipation of the conference on Russian Pulp and Paper Industry in Vienna in December, we had the opportunity to chair a virtual round table discussion on sulfite pulping in Russia. This is a very interesting subject as sulfite pulping has largely disappeared from Scandinavia. It turns out that in Russia the sulfite industry is doing well after overcoming the challenges in transitioning from Soviet Union times.

Central reasons for the good fortunes of sulfite pulping in Russia are a CAPEX efficient mode of operation by developing old assets and an approach of specializing on products where the unique properties of sulfite pulp bring a benefit. The high yield and high brightness/easy bleach ability of sulfite pulp are seen as clear competitive advantages. Also, currently the by-product of lignosulfonate from the sodium based mills is in high demand, further brightening outlooks, in longer term, switching to magnesium base and full chemical recovery is being discussed at several of the mills.

Eric Enqvist recently took part in the new magazine section “Round Table” for the Russian Pulp & Paper journal:

Sulfite pulp production. Will there be a revival?

Dear readers! We are happy to inform you that starting from this issue we are opening a new magazine section – “Round Table”. It is an open platform for discussions on the  most pressing industry topics. We invite heads of enterprises, analytical agencies, pulp and paper industry experts to take an active part in this section. We will post the topics and questions of the next issue at the ASPPI webpage.

Today we invite your attention to discussion of “Sulfite production problems”. The sulfite process is the second most common (after the sulphate process) pulp production method in the world. All the pulp and paper industry in Russia has experienced a strong depression during 1985-1991 and sulfite pulp production was no exception. However, this production has a number of characteristics that cause its specific problems and , at the same time, unique opportunities and prospects. This is what we want to talk about with the help of our new section – “Round Table”, where we will discuss a series of issues related to the sulfite pulp production.

The original article (in Russian) can be found here:

https://www.asppi.ru/ppi/ppi-j-20211101/