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DEVELOPMENT OF A PAPER RECYCLING

PROCESS
CONFERENCE PAPER FEBRUARY 2014
DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4078.8802

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2 AUTHORS, INCLUDING:
Muhammed Kamrul Islam
Chittagong University of Engineering & Tech
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Proceedings of the 15th Annual Paper Meet

07-08 February 2014

Dhaka, Bangladesh

DEVELOPMENT OF A PAPER RECYCLING PROCESS

1

Dibakar Bhattacharjee, 2Md. Kamrul Islam

Maintenance Engineer,BSRM steels Ltd E-mail
2
Lecturer ,Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology
1
dibakar_me07@yahoo.com ,2kamrul.cuetme@gmail.com
1

ABSTRACT: Modern civilization cannot be imagined without the use of paper. Large amount of papers
are being used in everyday life; among them most of are treated as useless and they are thrown here and
there after using. Sometimes it causes environmental pollution. Today, 90% of paper pulp is made of
wood. Paper production accounts for about 35% of felled trees, and represents 1.2% of the world's total
economic output. Recycling one ton of newsprint saves about 1 ton of wood while recycling 1 ton of
printing or copier paper saves more than 2 tons of wood. So, it is the necessity of paper waste
management to save the environment from its annihilation and pollution. Newsprint papers, Printing
paper and tissue can be made by this recycling process that can be repeated at least 5 to seven times. The
ratio of waste paper and water is a vital factor in the paper recycling process. So the motive was to find
out the desirable waste paper and water ratio, analysis the quality and decide the usefulness of the
particular need. In this experiment the best pulp was obtained at a ratio of 100 gram paper and 4 liters of
water. The grammage value of the paperboard was 315.58 gm/m2, bulk was 2.535x10-06m3/gm., moisture
content 16%, absorption time 5.4 second and tensile strength was 4.58 kPa. Though the recycled paper
from this paper recycling machine are not so smooth and thin as like the produced paper from mill by
wood, they can be used for banner, title, poster cards; also for making box where numbering or leveling
is very easy. Automatic recycling machine will increase the turnover ratio significantly and the use of
plate heater will be an advantage to heat in wet condition.
Keywords: Paper pulp, Pulp machine, Grammage, Turnover ratio, Tensile Strength.
1. INTRODUCTION
Industrialized paper making has an effect on the environment both upstream, where raw materials are
acquired and processed and downstream .Today, 90% of paper pulp is made of wood. Paper production
accounts for about 35% of felled trees, and represents 1.2% of the world's total economic output.
Recycling one ton of newsprint saves about 1 ton of wood while recycling 1 ton of printing or copier
paper saves more than 2 tons of wood. So the designing and fabrication of waste paper recycling plant is
therefore a welcome development as it will ensure that the source of raw material for paper production is
multiplied and also waste paper that could have constituted into wastes are recycled for various
productive purposes.
Papermaking and producing paper from recycled materials came to the United States simultaneously in
1690, when William Rittenhouse, who had learned to make paper in Germany, founded America's first
paper mill on Monoshone Creek near Germantown, which is now Philadelphia. Rittenhouse made his
paper from discarded rags of cotton and linen[1]. On April 28, 1800, an English papermaker named
Matthias Koops was granted the first patent for paper recycling-English patent no. 2392, titled Extracting
Ink from Paper and converting such Paper into Pulp. In his patent application, Koops described his
process as, "An invention made by me of extracting printing and writing ink from printed and written
paper, and converting the paper from which the ink is extracted into pulp, and making thereof paper fit
for writing, printing, and other purposes[2]."
In 1801, Koops opened a mill in England that was the first in the world to produce paper from material
other than cotton and linen rags-specifically from recycled paper. Two years later, the Koops mill
declared bankruptcy and closed, but Koops' patented paper-recycling process was later used by paper
mills all over the world. As early as 1921, Britain established the British Waste paper Association to
encourage waste paper reuse. Recycling has become a major industry in the United States, employing
thousands of workers and saving energy, reducing land fill demand, and conserving valuable resources.
In 2010, 63.5 percent of the paper used in the United States was recovered for recycling [3,4].
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Proceedings of the 15th Annual Paper Meet

06-07 December 2013

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Approximately 80 percent of U.S. paper mills use some recovered paper fiber to produce new paper and
paperboard products. The first Australian paper mill to use recycled material was built in 1815 - it used
recycled rags to make paper. Waste paper collections from households and factories started in Melbourne
in the 1920s.
In Bangladesh paper production mainly depends on pulp made from wood. But it is necessary to recycle
paper in Bangladesh to save the environment from pollution. Fransiab Limited Company, Habib Trading
Corporation, Holy Trading Corporation, the Angles Corporation, Prokiti Hardware Company are the
leading companies who have started paper recycling. It is the first project on paper recycling at CUET.
Recently Eusufzai Z. (2012) has made the hand operated pulper machine to make pulp [5]. I have carried
out the other process of paper recycling and testing according to my project proposal submitted.
2. MODEL AND FRAMEWORK
Paper recycling generally involves the collecting of waste paper, sorting them by their types, processing
them into raw materials and manufacturing new products using these recycled raw materials. The whole
process is briefly described below. To start the paper recycling process, the waste paper needs to be
sorted such as by newsprint, computer paper, magazine paper etc, as different types of paper are treated
differently during the paper recycling process to make different types of recycled paper products. The
sorted paper is usually soaked in a pulper, which contain water and chemicals. The waste paper is shreds
into small pieces. Heating the mixture breaks the paper down more quickly into tiny strands of cellulose
(organic plant material) called fibers. Eventually the old paper turns into a mushy mixture called pulp.
The pulp is forced through screens containing holes and slots of various shapes and sizes. The screen
removes small contaminants such as bits of plastic and globs of glue. This process is called screening. In
addition, the pulp may also be spun around in large cone-shaped cylinders. Heavy contaminants (e g.
Staples) are thrown out of the cone via centripetal forces, while lighter contaminants collect in the center
of the cone and are removed. This process is called cleaning. The next stage in the paper recycling
process involves deinking removing the ink from the paper fibers of the waste paper. Sticky materials
(referred to as stickies) like glue residue and adhesives are also removed at this stage.
During refining the pulp is beaten to make recycled fibers swell, making them ideal for paper making. If
the pulp contains any large bundles of fibers, refining separates them into individual fibers. If the
recovered paper is colored, color stripping chemicals remove the dyes from the paper. Then if white
recycled paper is being made, the pulp may need to be bleached with hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide
or oxygen to make it whiter and brighter. If brown recycled paper is being made, such as that used for
industrial paper towels, the pulp does not need to be bleached.

Fig. 1 : Design of hand operated pulper

In the last stage of the paper recycling process, the cleaned up pulp is ready to be made into recycled
paper. The recycled fiber can be used alone, or blended with new wood fibers (i.e. virgin fibers) to give it
extra strength or smoothness. The pulp is mixed with water and chemicals, such that the pulp is 99.5%
water. This watery pulp mixture then enters the head box of a paper making machine, and is sprayed in a
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Proceedings of the 15th Annual Paper Meet

07-08 February 2014

Dhaka, Bangladesh

continuous jet onto a huge wire mesh-like screen moving very quickly through the paper machine. On the
screen, water starts to drain from the pulp, and the recycled fibers begin to bond together to form a watery
sheet. The sheet then moves rapidly through a series of felt-covered press rollers which squeeze out more
water from the pulp. In this way recycled paper is created. The following equipment is necessary for the
experimental setup of paper recycling process: Pulper, Screener, Roller.
3. SETUP AND PROCEDURE
In order to recycle paper the following equipment were made in CUET workshop. The hand
operated pulper machine was made by Eusufzai Z. (2012). The total height of the pulper is 13
inch. It has support at its middle to hold on pulp container. Screener was made with stainless steel
net and wooden frame as shown in figure 4.3. The stainless steel net has 80 holes per inch. After
making the pulp it was settled down on the screener. In order to make roller the following
materials were used.
>> Stainless Steel Pipe(Length - 1 feet; Outer Diameter 2 inch, Inner Diameter 1.5 inch)
>> Mild Steel Bar(Length - 1.5 feet, Diameter -0.75inch )
>> Two Ball Bearings( Bearing no. 6904ZZ, Inner Diameter 20mm, Outer Diameter 37mm,
Width 9mm.)

Fig. 2: Pulper machine and screener

In recycling of waste paper mainly the following process were followed.

Pulping

Screening

Rolling

Drying
3.1 Pulping
Pulp was made by adding waste paper with water. After using various waste paper and water ratio the
best pulp was found at a ratio of 100gram paper and 4 litres of water. Pulp was made with the help of
hand operated pulp machine.
3.2 Screening
After getting the pulp it was poured on the screener. As a result the pulp slurry was settled
downed on the screener.
3.3 Rolling
After screening the pulp, it was rolled with the help of the hand roller in order to remove extra water from
the pulp.

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Proceedings of the 15th Annual Paper Meet

06-07 December 2013

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Fig 3: Pulp making and screening

3.4 Drying and Paper Making
After rolling it was dried in the sunlight for about 2 hours. After drying it was pulled over the screener
carefully. The final recycled paper was as like as shown in the figure 4.

Fig 4: Rolling and recycled paper

4. PROPERTY ANALYSIS AND TESTS
The basis weight, substance or grammage is obviously most fundamental property of paper board. The
Basis weight of paper is the weight per unit area. This can be expressed as the weight in grams per square
meter.
Length of paperboard 26cm
Width of paperboard 19.5cm
Area of paperboard 0.0507 m 2
Weight of the paperboard 16gm
Grammage is 315.58 gm/m2
Bulk is another very important parameter of paper particularly for printers. Bulk is a term used to
indicate volume or thickness in relation to weight. It is the reciprocal of density (weight per unit
volume). It is calculated from caliper and basis weight
Bulk = thickness/Grammage
Thickness of the paperboard 0.8 mm and Bulk is 2.535 x 10-06 gm
Almost all grade of paper has some percentage of moisture. Moisture in paper varies from 2 12% depending on relative humidity, type of pulp used, degree of refining and chemical used.

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Proceedings of the 15th Annual Paper Meet

07-08 February 2014

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Most physical properties of paper undergo change as a result of variations in moisture content.
Moisture control is significant economic aspect of paper making. Poor moisture control can
adversely affect many paper properties. All strength properties are sensitive to moisture about
1% change in a samples moisture content changes the compression strength with an average of
8%.
Weight of the paperboard before drying in a microwave oven 15 gm
Weight of the paperboard after drying in a microwave oven 12.6 gm
Moisture Content = (15-12.6)/15 =16%
Water absorption is an important parameter for paper used for writing and also the paper used for
the manufacture of soft drink cups. Nowadays cobb absorption tester is used to measure water
absorption property of paper. Here water absorption property was measured manually. Average
absorption time T =5.4s.
The tensile force required to produce a rupture in a strip of paperboard. Tensile strength can be
used as a potential indicator of resistance to web breaking during printing or converting.
Here , Length of the paper strip 120mm
Width of the paper strip 20mm
Thickness of the paper strip 0.8mm
Area of the paper strip 2.410 -3 m 2

Fig. 5: Stress Strain curve

5. CONCLUSION AND FURTHER STUDY
The development of manually operated paper recycling process is much cheaper than the automated
paper production process. It can serve dual purposes, it can be manned permanently at a stationary
position or it could be shifted from one place to another as the case may be. One great advantage to be
derived from the use of this process is that the cost of running it is minimal compared to what it takes to
run a full plant. The simplicity of operation of this machine ensures that no too much technical skill is
needed to operate it. In addition it is an environment friendly process.
As my recycling process is manual, so if it can be automatic electric motor operated then recycled paper
will more practical and turnover ratio will increase with a large amount. Then the recycle paper would be
perfect for writing. As sunlight is needed for heating purpose, in rainy season it will be difficult to heat.
So a plate heater can be used for heating purpose.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These should be brief and placed at the end of the text before the references.
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Proceedings of the 15th Annual Paper Meet

06-07 December 2013

Dhaka, Bangladesh

REFERENCES
[1] Counsell T.A.M and Allwood J.M (2005), Desktop Paper Recycling: A survey of novel technologies
that might recycle office paper within the office, Journal of Materials Processing Technology 173 (2006)
111-123
[2] Kenneth W.B (1970), Handbook on Pulp and Paper Technology, 2nd edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold
Co. , New York.
[3] Perry R. H. (1984), Green D.W. , Perrys Chemical Engineers Handbook, 6th edition, McGraw-Hill,
USA.
[4] Sinnot R.K (1984), Coulsons and Richardsons Chemical Engineering , Volume 6, 3rd edition,
Butterworth-Heinemann, Woburn, U.K
[5] Eusufzai Z. (2012), Design and fabrication of Paper Recycling Machine, Chapter 4, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology.

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