Development of a wastewater monitoring program incorporated into process control for mitigation of chemical and fiber loss from the Bai Bang Paper Company (BAPACO), a bleached kraft pulp and paper mill in Vietnam

Abstract

Abstract A wastewater monitoring program, was incorporated into an industrial process control strategy to minimize process upsets and resulting abnormal discharges. In the present study, the program, which is considered as applicable to a wide range of industrial processes, was applied to the Bai Bang Paper Company (BAPACO), a Vietnamese integrated bleached kraft pulp and paper mill. Through environmental auditing the mill was found to discharge high pollution loads into the environment. A large portion of this discharge was material loss, fiber and spent cooking liquor, associated with accidental discharges and spills. These can be prevented to benefit both the mill economics and the environment. Rapidly assessed pollution parameters (RAPPs) were used to express the losses, settleable solids after 15 min settling (SetS15) for fiber, and conductivity (Cond) for cooking chemical losses. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used on effluent monitoring data to determine periods of ‘normal’ discharges. Average RAPPs during these ‘normal’ periods were used as targets for control.