Tree pulp isn”t just for paper.
The tree fiber produced at Weyerhaeuser”s Columbus Cellulose Fibers plant can be found in some surprising places, Susie Andrews, senior environmental engineer, told a Columbus-Lowndes Development Link group touring the facility, Thursday afternoon. Wood fiber is used as a filler in aspirin and ice cream and comprises the white absorbent material in such products as baby diapers and feminine napkins.
And it all starts with Southern yellow pine trees. Most of Weyerhaeuer”s product begins as 20-foot tree-length logs; however the company does purchase some wood already chipped. A debarking drum and wood chipper are located just west of Weyerhaeuser”s primary facility. Its campus stretches across 900 acres, with towering equipment and constantly churning machinery.
More than 1,400 tons of wood chips a day go into a 205-foot-tall digester, where they are cooked in a sulfur solution. Andrews compared the process to cooking greens or broccoli, which also give off a sulfur scent, but on a much larger scale.
Weyerhaeuser utilizes $2.3 million in technology to destroy the odious gases, which otherwise would be unbearable. After the chips are cooked, they are similar to a dark oatmeal. The “black liquor” is pressed out of the chips, creating what is called brown stock. Then the pulp goes through a four-stage bleaching process before it is pressed into Weyerhaeuser”s final product — 35-ton reels of pressed pulp. The reels look like giant rolls of heavy-duty paper. One is turned out at the plant every 35 minutes.
These reels are cut to the specifications of customers, some of whom will use the product to make paper. Others use it to create the base and handle of toothbrushes.
CMF, which one of Weyerhaeuser”s largest customers and located near the Golden Triangle Regional Airport, uses the pulp to create “fluff” for baby diapers.
“The majority of it goes into fluff pulp for baby diapers,” Andrews said.
A company in North Mississippi uses the material produced at Weyerhaeuser to create chicken diapers, the absorbent material lining the bottom of packaging for fresh meat. Wood fiber also is used in tea bags, laminates for countertops and coffee filters.
The seemingly infinite uses of wood fiber helped Weyerhaeuser to making 2010 the second-most profitable year in the company”s history, said Charles Braxton, fiber line process owner.
“It”s a pretty dynamic process,” he said, looking over a massive sheet of pressed pulp headed toward a drier. Before the pulp goes through the press section, it is 90 percent water and 1 percent fiber, he said. The steam-and-heat drier heats up to 200 degrees.
Weyerhaeuser is known for its advancements. Before Weyerhaeuser sold its paper mill to Domtar, it was the first manufacturer to make magazine-grade paper from loblolly pine.
“They said it couldn”t be done,” Andrews said.
Still, the company always is looking for ways to improve its processes.
Tim Monk, pulp machine manager, returned about four weeks ago from a trip to Finland, learning about their technology. Next year, he said, the plant will implement $5 million in modernization.
“We”re trying to keep Columbus on the map. We”re very excited about the future,” Monk said.
“What really fascinated me was that there was part trees in aspirin and ice cream,” Gwen Granderson-Ford, sales manager for the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau, said after the tour.
She also noted the massive operation should be featured on the History Channel show “Modern Marvels.”
“It was so big. I didn”t expect that, and it is right here in our own hometown,” Granderson-Ford said.
Thursday”s tour was the first of industry tours planned by the Link. For information on future tours, call the Link at 328-8369.
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