The Papermaking Industry: Mechanical Pulping
Mechanical pulping methods avoid many of the environmental impacts created by the Kraft pulping process. Several different mechanical pulping methods are commonly used today, but they all rely primarily on energy rather than chemicals to convert wo...
The Papermaking Industry: Recycled Pulping
Approximately forty percent of the fiber in U.S. paper products is recycled, or secondary, fiber. Re-pulping fibers that have already been processed shortens them and weakens their bonding capacity, so secondary fiber is often mixed with virgin fib...
The Papermaking Industry: Kraft Pulping
In the Kraft process, making pulp begins by conveying wood chips of uniform size into a vessel called a digester. Once the pulp-making process is complete, the pulp is transformed into paper. However, not all mills make both pulp and paper at one ...
The Papermaking Industry: Papermaking and Pollution Control
From pulping, to bleaching, to forming sheets on the paper machine, papermaking creates air emissions, water emissions--or effluent--as well as solid waste. However, the environmental impacts of the process are mitigated by a variety of treatment m...
The Papermaking Industry: History of Papermaking
A variety of materials and methods is used to create paper, but the basic process still involves techniques that are centuries old: the moistening, separating and intertwining of fibers to form a sheet. Different kinds of fibers are used to make pa...