Ahlstrom-Munksjö Aspa pulp mill to test a new technology for phosphorus purification
Aspa Bruk is working with a Swedish environmental technology company called Axolot Solution in a joint project during a three-month period. During this time extensive tests are performed aiming at reducing the phosphorus emissions from the mill. The project is based on Axolot’s electrochemical AxoPur® 2.0 process and the trial is planned to continue until the start of the summer.
The system to be installed for the trial will have a capacity of 30 m3 per hour, and it will treat a part of the relevant process water flow. The technology purifies process water and creates a floc. The plan is for the floc to be collected and mixed with our surplus lime. The lime is then used to condition soil in farming to raise pH levels. The phosphorus is returned to nature – the cycle is complete.
The driving force is electricity, and Aspa mill uses green electricity. The process leaves no loads of hard-to-handle sludge, no concentrate flow to take care of, but water that is often cleaner than after using other technologies. Provided that the trial is successful, the system may be expanded to take care of the entire relevant flow of process water at the mill.
“We are very much looking forward to this three-month trial. We believe in this solution and now it remains to be seen if the data from Axolot’s design can be verified, and up scaled for the whole mill”, says Plant Manager Michael Berggren.
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