Our Commitment

Environmental Stewardship

Renewable Raw Materials

Green Chemistry

Greener Alternatives for Customers

Water management programs

Environmental Performance

A Greener Mindset

Water Management Programs
 

Pulp and paper manufacturing is a water-intensive process.  Hercules offers a broad portfolio of products to help its global customers reduce water use and wastewater discharges. Our products help customers treat and manage their effluent and influent streams and control odors that are emitted as a result of the papermaking process. 

• When a Canadian mill needed to clean a hot water accumulator tank during a plant shutdown, Hercules reduced the vessel entry time from 3 days to <6 hours, saving valuable maintenance time. Using our odor control technology, the mill kept its workers safe from exposure to hydrogen sulfide and returned to production quickly.

Hercules' products help customers meet the requirements of their regulatory permits to the point that they may even discharge water to local streams and rivers that is cleaner than when it entered the mill. Treatments include polymers to help remove solids and reduce color; nutrients to aid in microbiological health; specialty products to reduce odor; and bioaugmentation—introducing microbes for bioremediation—to help reduce biological oxygen demand (BOD) in effluent. We also help customers improve retention on paper machines (preventing filler and fiber from entering the effluent) with high-efficiency dry strength resins, and we use environmentally friendly biocides to control legionella bacteria and improve the environmental footprint of the paper mill.  

Key areas in water management include removing contaminants in effluent and improving the efficiency of papermaking systems. In North America, where many mills have expanded and upgraded their capacities, Hercules markets bioaugmentation solutions to help ensure waste treatment systems can handle the increased volume of waste flow and contaminants. In addition, Hercules works with mills to reduce suspended solids carryover by applying specific chemistries to aid in the settling, separation, and dewatering of these solids. The results are a cleaner effluent.

• With BioPlus bioaumentation technology, Hercules helped a mill in the northeastern U.S. to control its winter BOD levels in the effluent treated in its wastewater facility and, eventually, in the municipal waste treatment plant. The solution involved a blend of bacterial strains selected for their ability to grow quickly in colder temperatures. During a trial in the first quarter of 2007, BOD levels were reduced by 60%.

Odor from paper mills can be a contentious issue with surrounding neighborhoods. Hercules has a comprehensive product line designed to meet the various needs of the pulp and paper industry. One way these products work is to chemically modify hydrogen sulfide at its source, including in recovery boilers. The chemistries of these products don’t cover up the smells, they stop odors from being formed in the first place or modify the compounds to neutralize them.

• ProSweet helped a paperboard mill in southern Europe solve its warm-weather problem of excessive odor in its wastewater lagoon. The odors had triggered many complaints from residential neighbors and the local authority. The mill was able to eliminate the odor and the complaints, while avoiding financial penalties for noncompliance. ProSweet also was the solution for an eastern Canadian mill with an on-site landfill in close proximity to the surrounding community. By applying ProSweet using a vapor feed system, odors were neutralized without the freezing issues associated with wet chemistry application.

In China, Korea, and Asia in general, paper mills are focusing on water reuse as a way to minimize the volume of water needed within their processes. Hercules audits its customers’ systems and finds ways to minimize water usage, including treating and recycling wastewater back into processing systems. Millions of gallons of water have been saved as a result of Hercules products and applications technology. We have helped mills make paper in zero-effluent discharge applications where water is particularly scarce. There are also stricter regulations in China on water consumption and odor control, made more imperative by the approaching Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Recently, PTV worked with a northern China mill on an odor control project.

All trademarks of Hercules Incorporated or its affiliates appear in italics. The exception is Responsible Care and essential₂, which are registered trademarks of the American Chemistry Council.