Thermocompressor design for efficient energy recovery of paper production plant dryers

The operational performance of a paper production plant can be significantl y improved by appropriate process interventions. This paper deals with ener gy aspects of the most important section of such a plant, the paper drying section. A significant intervention that would lower the operational cost o f the drying process is proposed. It refers to the recompression of low pre ssure steam leaving the dryers by means of a thermocompressor that would ut ilize high pressure steam coming from the plant burners. The mathematical m odel of the thermocompressor is evaluated and its design procedure is formu lated as a mathematical programming problem involving appropriate objective function and constraints.