System Closure, Free Enterprise and the Environment Available to Purchase

In the manufacture of bleached kraft pulp, evolving restrictions for effluent discharges and evolving technology are taking us towards lower and lower discharges of effluent and dissolved pollutants. Conflicting interest between economy and the environment often arise. For successful pulp manufacturing enterprises, we must look to processes which are low cost: low capital cost, low chemical cost, high capacity and high yield; and which produce high quality pulp: high strength, clean, bright, stable and uniform. Economic pressure is currently exceedingly great, as chronic overcapacity has led to low prices, low return on investment and the flight of capital from the free markets in which investors operate. Certainly we must work to achieve minimum impact of pulp mills, but developments in processes and process equipment for pulp manufacture must be economically as well as environmentally sustainable.