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Solubility ISU

Paper manufacturing
People use paper products on a daily basis, but most of us don't truly know what the paper is made of or how it's made and how it gets to us. Truth is pulp and paper mills can have a great impact on both peoples health and also the environment. The purpose of this assignment is to research the production process impacts. The manufacturing paper company I will use is Ramori Canada which produce many paper products such as kids writing paper, thermal printing paper, blank writing paper, commercial printing paper and Chinese writing paper. Specifically I will focus on blank writing paper's manufacturing process. Uses of blank writing paper: Printing Drawing Writing Diagrams In the manufacturing process of blank writing paper there are two instances where chemicals are used. The first is something called the Kraft process. In this process the wood is chopped into small parts and then thrown into a heated vat that has sodium sulfide and sodium hydroxide which are dangerous chemicals. These chemicals help remove lignin, a substance that hold cellulose together. The reason lignin is not needed is because it has a brown colour and the industries want paper to have a white colour. Through the Kraft process lignin is removed but not all of it, therefore to get rid of the remaining lignin we enter the second time when chemicals are used which is bleaching. In the process of bleaching paper the chemicals used are chlorine gas and chlorine dioxide. These chemicals help bleach the paper but this method causes serious environmental concerns. The by-products produced from the process of bleaching with chlorine is something called dioxins. Dioxins are produced when chlorine gas reacts with lignin it creates highly toxic groups of chlorinated molecular compounds. Also paper mills have a lot of air pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide, chlorine dioxide, and sulphur dioxide. This has a major effect on the environment and communities. If there was an accident and chlorine or chlorine dioxide were released it could pose a great danger. Chlorine gas, which is even used as a chemical weapon, is very toxic and corrosive. If even a small bit of it is inhaled it can be quiet fatal and completely destroy your breathing mechanisms such as lungs, throat, nasal passage and etc. As for communities any paper mill that still use chlorine or chlorine dioxide are putting the people living nearby in danger and millions of people can die or suffer serious problems. In fact not just chlorine but also hydrogen sulfide and sulphur dioxide are highly toxic gasses.

A way of safely recycling all of the chemicals produced from paper mills isn't possible yet but paper mills have found some ways of reducing the amount of chemicals released such as using the closed loop system and scrubbers. The closed loop system makes it so that the chemicals do not reach outside but paper mills produce more air pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide, chlorine dioxide, and sulphur dioxide and thats where scrubbers come in. A scrubber pretty much traps these toxic gasses and turns them in safer substances. For example sulphur dioxide reacts with calcium carbonate to form calcium sulfite which goes to the bottom of the scrubber and can be removed and be used again as gypsum which can be used to make dry wall. Question 9 pg 227
Principle 1: Use renewable resources as starting materials The starting material of printing paper, is tree pulp. Tree pulp is a renewable source because trees will keep growing, I know this because here in canada we have a law stating that every tree you cut down, you have to plant a new one. Principle 2 : Use chemicals that have less of an environmental impact While manufacturing paper, the manufacturers use chemicals that are bad for environment, but most of the chemicals that are used to produce paper are not bad for the environment. Some examples of the not-to-harsh chemicals used in the manufacturing of paper are Silicate Magnesia this is a natural fibrous form of Talc. Talc gives the paper the glossy, soapy feel. Principle 3: Use catalysts to increase reaction efficiency There are some catalysts used in the production of paper. The main catalysts of paper are : carbon based products, zinc chloride, and ferric nitrate. Principle 4: Use less energy To use less energy they extract large amounts of paper pulp at the same time instead of doing it in small amounts. This saves energy because, if they did it multiple times insteadthey would have to turn the machines over and over again. Turning these big machines take the most energy in the whole production of paper. By doing large amounts at the same time, they have to start the machines less. By starting the machines less they save energy. Principle 5: Waste not

For paper manufacturers, this is not a problem. It is not a problem because the materials used in the production of making paper do not go bad or rot. So you could keep the left over materials until the next time you are making paper. There is a method to eliminate the risk of the manufacturing process. Instead of using chlorine or chlorine dioxide we can use hydrogen peroxide to bleach which wouldn't create dioxins or any other harmful products. The only problem is that it takes a lot more time and the reaction requires higher temperatures, but scientist have developed something called the TAML activator which speeds up this process and therefore hydrogen peroxide can be used and is a safer and environmental friendly chemical.

References 1. Haberer, S., & DiGiuseppe, M. (2011). Nelson chemistry 11: university preparation. Toronto:Nelson Education. 2. Pulp Fiction: Chemical Hazard Reduction at Pulp and Paper Mills - OSPIRG. (n.d.). Home - OSPIRG. Retrieved January 6, 2012, from http://www.ospirg.org/home/reports/report-archives/healthycommunities/healthy-communities/pulp-fiction-chemical-hazard-reduction-at-pulp-and-paper-mills 3. Ramori Canada. (n.d.). Ramori Canada. Retrieved January 6, 2012, from http://www.ramori.com/

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