The international technology group ANDRITZ and a recovery technology pioneer Weeefiner have signed a cooperation agreement to develop metal removal concepts, technologies, and processes for pulp and paper mills’ liquid streams.

ANDRITZ PULP & PAPER is a leading global supplier of complete plants, systems, equipment, and services for the industry. Its special CircleToZero™ initiative is aiming to support customers world-wide to reduce their overall emissions and waste generation by elimination, reduction, purification, or conversion into value-added products. This requires new technologies and solutions with clear environmental and financial payback. On this journey towards CircleToZero, ANDRITZ is relying on cooperation and partnerships with customers and technology suppliers like Weeefiner.

“Weeefiner provides advanced water treatment technology which can be used to remove and recover almost any soluble metal or nutrient from industrial streams. The goal of this long-term cooperation is to combine the know-how and resources of Weeefiner and ANDRITZ to develop the technology to meet the needs of pulp and paper industry,” says Mikko Hänninen, COO of Weeefiner.

Need for advanced recovery technology

As a major supplier of pulp and paper industry, ANDRITZ has customers all around the world. Many of the pulp and paper mills’ processes dissolve wood metals into different streams and they eventually accumulate into the process cycles and may impair the process efficiency.

Currently, there are no cost-effective methods for metal or nutrient recovery from industrial process waters and the options to remove these non-process elements can be costly, cumbersome, and complex. In addition, current wastewater treatment methods generate considerable amount of unused side streams, which notably increases the mill operating costs.

The state-of-art 4D Scavenger solution combines water treatment and innovative technology to overcome even the strictest operational challenges. The metals will not only be removed but they can be recovered for reuse and recycling purposes. This maximizes the utilization of the dissolved metals, increases sustainability, and lowers operating costs considerably.

First recovery projects already in development

“We have been studying different pulp mill side streams for many years and have encountered several obstacles in the processes due to contaminants such as metals. These metals not only restrict the side streams usage but also create problems in pulp mill operations. There is no easy way to remove or extract wood originated metals in the process streams", says Naveen Chenna, Head of Business and Technology Development at ANDRITZ.

"Recently we have launched the CircleToZero initiative that aims to convert unused side streams of the pulp mill to value added products, and we identified that 4D Scavenger technology could be one of the best fits to selectively remove the metals from process streams. With the simple and well-integrated 4D scavenger technology applied to mill liquid streams, we can expect good benefits to mill operations and at the same time gain the environmental benefits by using side streams efficiently."

The first development projects are already underway, and the technology has been tested with different process streams and mill by-products.

About Andritz

ANDRITZ is an international technology group providing plants, systems, equipment, and services for various industries. The company is one of the technology and global market leaders in the hydropower business, the pulp and paper industry, the metal working and steel industries, and in solid/liquid separation in the municipal and industrial segments.

The listed Group is headquartered in Graz, Austria. Since its foundation almost 170 years ago, ANDRITZ has developed into a Group with approximately 26,800 employees, and more than 280 locations in over 40 countries worldwide. As a reliable and competent partner, ANDRITZ supports its customers in achieving corporate and sustainability goals. Andritz.com

About Weeefiner

Weeefiner is a technological pioneer providing solutions to streamline current industrial processes and to increase utilization of production side streams.

As the environmental regulations and targets continue to tighten, the need for practical and cost-effective ways to enhance circular economy has increased. The fast-growing startup company provides tools and services for recovery of soluble metals and helps to turn low-value and toxic waste streams into valuable and sustainable products. Weeefiner.fi