Background

The search for an effective communication material started from the past centuries

leading to paper discovery. After discovering that paper is indeed one of the most effective

ways to communicate, a lot dwelled in its production until now. The pulp and paper

industry is one of the oldest and biggest industry in the planet. The industry has produced

a lot of opportunities and developments. Continuous development in the paper industry

made paper become versatile in its applications. The innovations in the paper

manufacturing process also required improvements in the pieces of equipment and process.

Mass production of paper is one of the primary reasons why paper production utilized

machineries to have a better and faster production.

It is widely known that paper manufacturing usually and traditionally utilizes

fibrous materials such as trees and grasses in producing papers. However, due to the

increase and accumulation of waste, which includes paper, a solution was proposed. Paper

recycling became one of the solutions proposed to counter the continuous increase in solid

waste. Today, a lot of paper manufacturing companies utilize recycled papers in preparing

new sets of paper.

The first step in paper manufacturing process is the production of fibers to be used

to make papers which is the pulping of waste papers. The production of fibers is done

through pulping. Chemical pulping is done when fibers are derived from trees, grasses, etc.

However, when recycled papers are used as raw materials in the pulp and paper industry,

the production of a solution of fibers and water called slurry, is done by a hydropulper

(also usually spelled hydrapulper) – which resembles a giant blender. The hydropulper

mixes water and the raw material to produce a homogeneous slurry. The raw material is
being sliced and cut into thin fibers through the agitation blades in the hydropulper. The

produced homogeneous slurry’s consistency is being monitored for it is important in the

next processes.

Review of Literature

Different kind of waste paper are being used in recycled paper industry: broke paper

from paper factories, waste paper from printing and cutting and used paper from shops and

family usage. Operational steps in paper production may vary depending on the process

being followed by a particular plant. According to (Sahin, 2011 cited by Yilmaz, 2015),

the operation may include pulper (which uses hydropulper), sieving and cleaning,

dispersion, ink removal and whitening. Hydropulper is being used to produce low-

consistency slurries for paper manufacturing. Also, hydropulper is mainly used in handling

waste paper which also removes wore, plastic clips, stapes etc. from the recycled paper

(pmc1.com, retrieved October 23, 2017).

In hydropulper, the hydropulper tank is first filled with water then the agitator

blades are turned on. The materials (recycled papers) are dumped in the tank and the

hydropulper will mix the recycled paper and water until a homogeneous slurry is produced

(everything2.com, retrieved October 23, 2017).

Methodology

The consistency of the resulting slurry (controlled variable) is being adjusted and

controlled to a set point by varying the amount of water being introduced in the tank

(manipulated variable) since the amount of waste paper (disturbance) being introduced to
the hydropulper cannot be controlled because it is mainly due to the supplier. The

consistency of slurry, in most plants, is being checked by a sensor which then gives signals

to control the amount of water being added – a feedback control.

References:

Hydrapulper. (n.d.) Retrieved October 23, 2017 from

http://www.pmc1.com/Applications/hydrapulper/.

Hydropulper (n.d.) Retrieved October 23, 2017 from

https://everything2.com/title/hydropulper.

YILMAZ, M. (2015). Recycling costs: A research in the waste paper industry. European

Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance Reasearch. Retrieved October 23,

2017 from https://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=

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AQFgg6MAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eajournals.org%2Fwp-

content%2Fuploads%2FRecycling-Costs-A-Research-in-the-Waste-Paper-

Industry.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3g7ezyS2Ke0AlxbJk3MQIV