Literature

"Closure of Mill Whitewater Systems Reduces Water Use, Conserves Energy," by B. Panchapakesan. Pulp & Paper, March 1992, 57-60. Alkaline papermaking permits more complete closure of the whitewater system than acid papermaking does. When the same water is used again and again to make paper, the benefits include lower consumption of fresh water, chemicals, and energy for heating new water; less waste of fines, filler and fiber; and better environmental compliance. Disadvantages are higher dissolved & suspended solids in the water, and more deposits, biological growth and corrosion. This article describes the problems and the solutions currently used in the industry.

"Papermaking Additive Revisions Help Fuel Industry's Revolution," by Jim Young. Pulp & Paper, April 1992, 72-75. The increase in alkaline and recycled paper making, and other sometimes related changes, have changed the use of calcium carbonate, clays, starch, titanium dioxide, retention/drainage aids, alum, wet and dry strength agents, surface sizing, biocides, defoamers, and deposit control products. Starch is used to maintain strength in carbonate-filled papers and improve sizing efficiency (because high filler levels interfere with fiber bonding), and in recycled papers to compensate for strength lost in recycling. Retention and drainage aids are important in alkaline systems, partly to keep the whitewater clean and partly to ensure that fillers used at levels up to 30% or higher stay in the sheet and are evenly dispersed. The trend is to the use of anionic polyacrylamides, dual-polymer systems and microparticulate retention systems. Biocide use is increasing rapidly, because of recycling and alkaline papermaking. (Waste paper stored outside gets wet and molds, and is full of nutrients.) Use of defoamers and deposit control agents is growing because of closed whitewater systems.

"Put it in Print: An Opinion," by Joel Shulman. Tappi Journal, Jan. 1992, p. 239-240. The author, a publisher, speaks convincingly of the usefulness, appeal and irreplaceability of the printed book, and urges readers to put their knowledge in print. ". . . For some strange reason," he says, "our industry continues to rely heavily upon the oral transmission of information from one working generation to another.... I have seen people come and go-and when they go their knowledge all too frequently goes with them."

The paper conservation profession on the continent of Europe is starting to make the transition from the oral tradition/apprenticeship training method, which is Well suited to periods of unchanging technology, but which also slows down the evolution and acceptance of new technology, to the university-based training and education method. In the U.S., this transition is largely complete, and American paper conservation is the best, or nearly the best, in the world.

The "Grade Profile" in the March Pulp & Paper opens with a useful description of the qualities, weights and uses of coated paper. Coated freesheet papers, it says, contain less than 10% mechanical pulp with none in superpremium, No. 1 and No. 2 grades. Numbers 3 and 4 may or may not contain mechanical pulp.

According to the Paper Buyers Encyclopedia, quality is defined partly by brightness (opacity counts too, but varies with the weight of the paper, of course). The brightnesses it lists for the different grades are:

Super Premium No. 1 - 94-96
Premium No. 1 - 88-93 No. 3 - 80-82
No. 1 - 85-87 No. 4 - 74-79
No. 2 - 83-84 No. 5 - 69-73

No. 3 is the most common, making up about 28% of coated freesheet.

An informative overview of deinking around the world, including methods, costs, environmental considerations, and a comparison of washing vs. flotation, is in a paper by Huntly G. Higgins, misleadingly entitled, "Paper Recycling in Australia and New Zealand," published in Tappi Journal, March 1991, p. 99-104. There is a 23-item bibliography. In an acknowledgement note, the author says, "The author is indebted to A.W. McKenzie for helpful discussion. The subject matter of this article was gleaned largely from a recent deinking conference in Australia cosponsored by Appita and Jaakko Pöyry Pty. Ltd."

The Mill on the Third River, A History of the Davey Company, by Helen Baker Cushman. The Davey Company, 164 Laidlaw Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07306 (201/653-0606). 1992. Hard cover, 146 pp. Well researched, written, illustrated, edited and bound; in fact, for a book that was apparently commissioned and published in order to give better visibility to the Davey Company, everything is better done than it had to be for the purpose. This 150-year anniversary history of a well-known manufacturer of binder's board properly emphasizes events in the company's history, but puts them into local, national and international contexts with plenty of facts, quotations and illustrations. Even the technical aspects get some coverage, and the photographs of machinery, ads, work settings and products from earlier days give the kind of background that is hard to get from written sources.

"The Computer Connection," by Joe C. Steelhammer and Barbara Wortley. PIMA Magazine, May 1992, p. 40-41. This is a list of online computer databases relating to paper, with addresses and telephone numbers of suppliers: Dialog Information Services, a database about databases; PAPERCHEM, available through Dialog; PIRA Abstracts, available through Orbit Search Service; PTS Newsletter Database, which has 5M newsletters of all sorts (not just paper) online and is available from Predicasts and Dialog; RISI Pulp and Paper, which provides business data; Pulp & Paper Canada, which contains the full text of the journal of the same name, and is maintained by Southam Business Information and Communications Group; and various chemical databases (including Chemical Abstracts) available through STN International, operated by Chemical Abstracts Service. Many suppliers can also provide full text on line. Cost: generally $75 to $125 per hour, and $5 per printout of the full text of an article.

The Paper Stock Report, The Weekly News of the Paper Recycling Markets. Vol. 2, Numbers 50, 51 and 52 (for Feb. 24 to March 9). Each issue has eight pages, attractively printed on acidic recycled paper. Subscriptions are $99 a year from McEntee Media Corporation, 13727 Holland Rd., Cleveland, OH 44142-3920 (Fax 216/362-4623).

A table that runs in each issue gives prices being offered in eight areas of the U.S. for ten kinds of post-consumer and several kinds of pre-consumer waste, in dollars per ton. As of March 9, the highest price for post-consumer waste was $90-150 per ton in the Northwest for groundwood-free computer paper, and the lowest was minus $40 to minus $60, in the Northeast/Boston area, for old newspaper. (Does this mean that you have to pay them to haul it away?) The February issue carries a story on an organization called Green Seal, which has proposed a standard for recycled writing and printing paper, based on the environmental impact of the paper through its life cycle.

"The Haze Around Environmental Audits," by Stephen Strauss. Technology Review, April 1992, 19-20. Reviews reactions (pro and con, mostly impassioned) to Martin Hocking's article in Science for Feb. 199f, comparing the environmental impact of paper vs. foam cups. (See July and November issues of APA for previous coverage of this article.)

"Alkaline Filler Addition and Retention," by Jerome C. Pflieger. Tappi Journal, April 1992, p. 258-259. Filler levels up to 30% are now possible in alkaline papermaking for some grades, if the filler and other additives are added at the right points to either avoid or promote interaction between them. This article gives background and suggests addition points for four retention systems, pointing out a total of six addition points on a diagram. They come either at, or between, the following points: blend chest, machine chest, consistency control, fan pump, cleaners, pressure screen and headbox.

"Heavy Metal Paranoia Revisited," by Hugh Smith and William Rusterholz. American Ink Maker 69 #7, July 1991, p. 10 (3 pp). Available from the GATF library for $6 by mail or fax, prepaid. Write Library, Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, 4615 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3796 (Fax 412/621-3049). Order number: 910881-3.

The authors explain why it is not yet feasible to produce pigments and, therefore, printing inks, that are genuinely free of heavy metals.