North American producer of pulp and paper products Port Townsend Paper Company (PTPC) has invested in ABB's digital solutions to ease operations at its mill in Port Townsend, Washington, US.
Image: PTPC produces kraft pulp, paper, containerboard, and specialty products. Photo: Image by bluebudgie from Pixabay.
As part of an agreement signed earlier, ABB has provided services and upgrades during planned downtime at the mill as its distributed control system (DCS) was nearing the end of its operational life.
ABB was responsible for migrating the mill’s existing Human Machine Interface (HMI) to ABB Ability System 800xA control system which also serves as an integrated electrical control system.
The 800xA control system serves as a collaboration enabler with the capacity to improve engineering efficiency, asset utilisation and operator performance, ABB said.
Additionally, ABB equipped the mill with OPT800 Cook/B, which is part of the ABB Ability Advanced Process Control offering for pulp mills.
Said to be the latest version of the Advanced Batch Digester Management System, the OPT800 Cook/B system helps PTPC to schedule batch digesters to process wood chips into pulp more efficiently thus increasing production.
The system also helps PTPC reduce kappa variation and steam levelling which would result in lessen overall chemical and steam usage.
ABB is also responsible for providing ABB Pulp and Paper Care at the mill as part of the agreement, to cut complexity, control cost, and maximize capital. ABB Pulp and Paper Care can address customer needs such as:
At the mill headquarters in Port Townsend, Washington, US, PTPC produces kraft pulp, paper, containerboard, and specialty products by blending virgin and recycled fibres.
The firm, along with its sister corrugated packaging facility in British Columbia, offers a variety of sustainable solutions to its customers.
Recently, wheat straw paper manufacturer Trident has selected ABB’s KPM KRT Retention Measurement system to reduce variability in paper quality at its Dhaula mill near Barnala in the Indian state of Punjab.
ABB said that the retention measurement system will help Trident measure the total consistency of the white water as well as to provide retention monitoring and control on their paper machine.