The name Tall oil originates from the Swedish word

Tallolja (pine oil).

TALL OIL PRODUCTION AT ITS BEST

Swedish Tall oil Solutions, STS, is a part of the Projektengagemang® group which specializes

in solutions in recovering tall oil. Besides from our own tall oil production plant concept, we also

deliver engineering services with main focus on optimizing soap quality. Our team also provides

feasibility studies regarding all aspects of the mill when a new tall oil plant is to be installed.

Our mission is to give our customers the best possible solution when it comes to producing tall

oil. The goal is to deliver a complete function, taking all aspects of tall oil production into account.

As this is specific for each individual mill, we customize every plant to fit our customers’ needs.

The STS team always aims to optimize both function and results.

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• High yield, quality and availability

• Simplified plant operation

• Reduced mainte-nance and media consumption

MODERNIZED TECHNOLOGY FOR OPTIMIZED TALL OIL PRODUCTION

Based on efficient and proven technology, Swedish Tall oil Solutions offers a modern and high performing plant for producing tall oil. Our plant is a result from a close collaboration with experts and operators with practical experience of tall oil production.

It all started with a vision to produce high quality tall oil in a safe, easy and cost effective way. In order to make our plant as effective and easy operated as possible, the development team identified a few important problem areas within existing techniques on the market. Furthermore, specific limitations connected with batch technology were listed as important factors for improvement.

Today, thanks to the thorough work carried out by our development team, STS is proud to offer a modernized plant with significant improvements in areas such as:

• Yield, quality and consumption of media• Plant operation • Maintenance and availability

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All components in the STS plant come from high quality

manufacturers and suppliers.

IMPROVED YIELD & HIGHER QUALITY

When producing tall oil, the quality of the soap is a vital keystone. Functional skimming methods and large storage volumes are important factors for an optimized soap handling and enhanced tall oil production. But even if the mill does not provide a satisfactory soap handling system, the STS plant is the best alternative available on the market. It performs remarkably well even when the quality of the soap is not optimal. By increasing the reaction time between soap and acid in the STS plant, we have managed to enhance the quality of the tall oil as well as improving the yield. To verify the high quality of the end product, it is measured in-line as the tall oil leaves the reactor. In addition, the operator can visually inspect the tall oil from the control room via camera surveillance. Thus, proper quality for further processing is secured both visually and by in-line measurement. In order to make our plant as competitive and effective as possible, the media consumptions have been optimized to a minimum. Since the process requires minimal usage of water, there is no need to dry the tall oil and decrease its water content. Furthermore, due to long reaction time, the usage of acid can be kept low. In the STS plant, even the electrical costs are optimized to a minimum, since the pumps is the only equipment requiring electrical power. Every plant is optimized for the specific needs of each mill; no equipment is oversized and electrical power is set to correct levels. In every project STS performs extensive laboratory researches on the specific soap of each mill, in order to find the optimal dosage of chemicals and size of equipment.

SIMPLIFIED PLANT OPERATION

One of the highlighted problem areas in former batch techniques was the time consuming operation of the plant. With modern control equipment and built-in cleaning sequences, the operator of the STS plant can easily operate other departments in the mill simultaneously.

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There are only a few operating sequences included in each batch, and none of them requires the operator to leave the control room. The operator can visually inspect the produced tall oil at any time from the control room, since a camera is located above the reactor hatch. Hereby, time spent on operation is significantly reduced and control room work is made as easy and effortless as possible. Normally, less than 5 minutes of active control room work is required during a full process cycle.

EXCELLENT PLANT AVAILABILITY

The STS plant is adaptive and highly functional, even in poor production conditions. For example, when soap has high contents of calcium, fibre, lignin or dirt, the plant is still able to perform remarkable results. Compared to many other techniques available on the market, variations in soap quality are handled significantly well.

Quite frequently, many pulp mills has irregular production of soap, depending on season, or if using hardwood or soft-wood in the production. Furthermore, the content of tall oil in the soap depends on the storage-time of the wood, and season of the year. However, these irregularities are not a problem, as the STS plant does not require a minimal flow in order to function. Instead, tall oil is produced whenever enough soap is available for one batch, which guarantees effective production.

After each batch is completed, the reactor and the surrounding equipment in the STS plant are rinsed in the built-in cleaning sequence. This feature enables short shutdown and start up times between productions.

REDUCED MAINTENANCE

Since cost effective operation depends on high availability and steady production, the maintenance in the STS plant is kept to a minimum. Thanks to the built-in cleaning sequence there is no need for manual cleaning, and the plant is optimized for short shut down and start up times.

Furthermore, since all the components in the plant come from high quality manufacturers and suppliers, and since there are no moving or internal parts in the reactor, the need for repairs and maintenance can be kept low.

Modern control equipment and built-in cleaning sequences simplifies plant operation.

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HOW THE PLANT WORKS

Tall oil production in the STS plant involves seven process stages, which the plant operator performs in four sequences from the control room:

1. Tall oil reaction2. Separation3. Emptying of reactor4. Cleaning

A full process cycle of the plant is approximately 6 hours, but normally the operator does not have to spend more than 5 minutes in the control room in order to carry out the process. However, during the reaction sequence (around 70 minutes), the operator is recommended to monitor the process from time to time, in order to guarantee a good result.

Daily supervision of the plant shall be carried out, but as mentioned earlier, there is no need for maintenance of the STS plant during normal operation thanks to built-in rinsing sequences. At total, with a tall oil production of 10 000 tons/year, less than 20 hours/year are normally needed for manual cleaning and supervision of the plant.

PRODUCTION OF TALL OIL IS BEST EXPLAINED IN SEVEN STAGES.

1. Soap handling 2. Tall oil reaction3. Separation of tall oil and residues4. Drying of tall oil5. Acid water recovery6. Residues and rinsing water to evaporation plant7. Ventilation and gas handling

1. Soap Handling

As mentioned earlier, the key to successful tall oil production is proper soap handling.

Soap, consisting of fatty acids, is released from wood when pulp is produced. The soap is separated from the

black liquor and since its density is lower, the soap floats on top of the liquor. The difference in density between the soap and the liquor makes it possible to separate the soap by skimming and store it in a soap tank before it is being processed into tall oil.

Tall oil production starts by pumping soap from its storage to the homogenization tank until it has reached a satis-factory level. The purpose of the homogenization tank is to maintain a high and even soap quality throughout the whole batch.

Before the soap enters the reactor, it is possible to drain it from liquor even further.

This process is carried out in the homogenization tank by draining the soap from liquor and pumping the drained liquor back to the evaporation plant. When the draining is completed, soap homogenization takes place by circulation of the soap in the homogenization tank.

The homogenization tank is an extra option for the plant, since good quality soap can be pumped directly from the soap storage tank to the reactor.

2. Tall oil Reaction

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2. Tall oil Reaction

Before the process starts, the reactor is heated by direct injection of low-pressure steam. When the temperature in the reactor reaches a sufficient level, the soap is pumped from the homogenization tank – where it has been circulating – into a static mixer. Here, the soap is being mixed with sulphuric acid before entering the reactor.The temperature is constantly monitored and thus also the reaction. The main reaction proceeds as long as acid and soap is still being pumped to the reactor. When the whole batch has entered the reactor, the soap, acid and steam flows are shut off. Then, the mixture settles and the separation process starts.

3. Separation of Tall Oil and Residues

Tall oil separates from the residues as its density is lower. Since this separation occurs slowly during a long period of time in the STS plant, it enables the remaining reactions in the process to be completed. Furthermore, it creates an even better separation between tall oil and residues than other plants.

Tall oil leaves the reactor in the upper part where it overflows, either to a storage tank or to the optional dryer cyclone. Recovered acidulation water, pumped from the acid water tank, slowly presses the tall oil upwards and causes it to overflow. The conductivity of the tall oil is measured when it leaves the reactor. The in-line conduc-tivity measurement controls the overflow; overflow is stopped when conductivity changes, hence all of the tall oil is recovered from the reactor.

4. Drying of Tall Oil

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When producing tall oil with other techniques, water is normally added to the process, resulting in a need for drying the oil before further processing. In our plant, however, the produced tall oil has a water content of less than 1,5 %, when leaving the reactor. Hence, there is no further need of drying.

However, if our customers specifically request the water content to be below 1 %, the tall oil can be further dried in the STS plant through our optional vacuum drying system.

5. Acid Water Recovery

The residues from the reaction can be handled in the mill’s evaporation plant. In order to minimize the load in the evaporation plant, acid water is recovered to the acid water tank to be used in the next batch. As soon as the tall oil has left the reactor, the fluid is pumped back to the acid water tank until it is full.

During the recovery process, the acid water is mixed with cold water in order to reduce temperature of the fluid and thereby minimize its impact on the piping system.

6. Residues and Rinsing Water to Evaporation Plant

The goal is to deliver a complete function, taking all aspects of producing tall oil into account. As this is specific for each individ-ual mill, we customize every plant to fit our customers’ needs.

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When all recoverable acid water has been retrieved, adding NaOH in the reactor neutralizes the remaining residue. Then, the neutralized fluid is pumped to the evaporation plant where it is mixed into the mill’s liquor system.

After each batch, the reactor and surrounding equipment are rinsed with hot water. As soon as the reactor is emptied from residues and rinsing water, it is ready for next batch. When the STS plant is running at full capacity, the preparation of soap has already taken place at this point. This means that the reaction sequence can start immedi-ately after the reactor has been emptied.

7. Ventilation and Gas Handling

When sulphuric acid reacts with soap, hydrogen sulphide H2S is formed. The gases from the reactor are led to a scrubber where they are washed with white liquor in order to remove the H2S. The fan evacuates the gases into the atmosphere or to a suitable gas collecting system.

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CONSUMPTIONS (KG/TON TALL OIL)

Cold water (20°C) 410

Sulphuric acid (96 %) 190

White liquor 100

Hot water (55°C) 90

Low pressure steam 60

NaOH (50 %) 50

* Based on typical Swedish softwood

RECOVERED CRUDE TALL OIL PROPERTIES

Water content without drying

Water content with drying

Acid number >140

THE STS PLANT IN STATISTICS

< 1%

0,8 – 1,5 %

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KEY FEATURES OF THE PE PLANT

Modern & Easy Operated Technology

The STS plant is one of the most modern plants on the market. All its functionality is based on well-proven technique of producing tall oil. With up-to-date control equipment and only a few minutes of active control room work, there is no need for a separate operator. Instead, another department, such as the evaporation, can operate the plant. Furthermore, the production of tall oil can be stopped at any time, if there should be a need for this, without any further actions such as cleaning or draining.

Availability and Yield

Thanks to its highly adaptive functionality, the STS plant is less sensitive to calcium, lignin, fibre and dirt. This means that the plant performs remarkably well even when the quality of the soap is not optimal. As a result from the increased reaction time, the tall oil yield is improved. In good production conditions more than 95 % of all available tall oil in soap can be recovered. The quality of the produced tall oil is secured by in-line measurement and visual inspection through camera.

Built in cleaning sequences, in combination with no moving internal parts and high quality suppliers, assure an average availability of above 97%.

No Minimum Requirement for Operation Flow

Since soap is processed whenever it is available, the STS plant is ideal when pulp is produced in campaigns between hardwood and softwood, or when soap production is subjected to other irregularities.

Cost Effective Operation

Thanks to the plant’s effective and modern technique, together with a mill specific optimization, the media consumption is kept to a minimum throughout the whole process. The low media consumptions, combined with the energy efficiency of the plant, leads to a very cost effective operation. Additionally, the maintenance of the plant is kept to a minimum.

REASONS TO CHOOSE SWEDISH TALL OIL SOLUTIONS

Each STS Plant is Customized According to Your Conditions

Since your production and effectiveness is crucial to us, our plants are customized to fit your demands, whatever they are. For example, each STS plant is tailored according to mill capacity and quality of raw material, in order to make it as effective as possible.

Furthermore, we can help you adapt your new STS plant into an existing building. We also offer the possibility to reuse some of your existing equipment and implement it to your new plant.

Engineering Services and Feasibility Studies

Our specialists are available for analyzing all steps in your process having an impact on tall oil production. By optimiz-ing soap skimming, soap storage, usage of media and all other aspects having an influence on a new STS plant, successful tall oil production can be ensured.

Our experts can also assist with a variety of feasibility studies, including determining the impact on existing mill when tall oil production is initiated. The STS team delivers a complete solution when it comes to optimized tall oil production.

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Service

Service of our tall oil production plants is performed by our service team. A part of our service concept is also to make improvements and upgrades of existing

tall oil production processes.

Soap handling

Our experienced process team has many years of experience with improving existing liquor and soap systems. The team can provide recommendations of actions needed in order to have the best possible conditions for high quality tall oil production, with high yield and availability of the plant.

The STS team can:

• Collect process data from the black liquor and soap recovery, and compare these with theoretical process values to determine the efficiency of the system.

• Perform mechanical inspections of existing soap skimming system and tanks.

• Perform mass balances of the black liquor and soap system.

• Study current routines and strategy on how soap is recovered from the system.

Logistics

Together with our partners, STS are able to provide transportation solutions of tall oil to refineries.

Finance

STS can provide financial counseling, and find ways for investments, in order to help our customers to secure the project funding.

Feasibility studies

STS can provide a pre-engineering phase, where we execute a process- and mill mapping of existing systems.

The feasibility studies can include:

• Studies, reports and recommen-dations on actions that should be taken to prevent issues that may

occur in the evaporation plant, when a tall oil plant is installed at

the mill.

• Mill mapping and recommenda-tion on actions of improvements, regarding existing process media

systems needed in new tall oil production plant.

• inding the best possible location and providing a layout proposal

for the new tall oil plant in existing mill.

• Recommendations on how to reuse existing equipment in the

tall oil production.

Sales Manager

Jan Ljunglöf

Mobile: +46 (0) 70 510 83 42Tel: +46 (0) 10 516 06 60Fax: +46 (0) 10 516 06 61

jan.ljunglof@swedishtalloil.se

Swedish Tall oil Solutions Projektengagemang i Stockholm

Strågatan 3 Årstaängsvägen 11653 43 Karlstad 100 74 Stockholm

Sweden Sweden

projektengagemang.se info@swedishtalloil.se www.swedishtalloil.se