Veolia to supply Lee & Man with chemical removal process at pulp making site in Chongqing, China


Veolia Water Technologies will provide a chloride and potassium removal system featuring HPD® processes designed to improve pulping operations that support the production of packaging containerboard and tissue paper.  

Lee and Man, one of the world’s leading paper producers, has been manufacturing linerboards and corrugated packaging products since 1994. More recently, however, the Chinese company has also become a top tissue paper producer.

Its success in the hygiene products sector is attributed to its unique sourcing mix. Facial and bath tissue grades manufactured by Lee & Man have a cost advantage thanks to the integration of a 180,000 tons per year unbleached bamboo pulp line that blends kraft pulp and eco-friendly bamboo fibers at its Chongqing mill in southwestern China.

To capitalize on this comparative advantage and maintain the productivity of its bamboo pulping operations, Lee & Man awarded Veolia a contract to supply its patented HPD® Enhanced Chloride Removal Process (ECRP™).

Using a two-stage crystallization process, Veolia’s ECRP™ is designed to treat 72 tons per day of precipitator ash to recover 93% of the sodium and remove 89% of the chlorides and 96% of potassium in the ash. This allows Lee & Man to maximize sodium chemical savings while maintaining high chloride and potassium removal that prevents the undesired accumulations in the precipitator ash, which if left uncontrolled, can create corrosion and significant capacity losses due to boiler fouling.

“Veolia is pleased to help Lee & Man further optimize their production site in Chongqing. As we have proven to other recyclers and kraft pulp producers, Veolia makes it possible to reach a substantial reduction in persistent non-process elements while achieving significant chemical savings that reduce operating costs” says Jim Brown, Executive Vice President, Veolia Water Technologies Americas.

Through HPD® evaporation and crystallization technologies, Veolia provides the safest, most-efficient industrial solutions to pulp and paper mills around the world to further reduce their environmental impacts and create economic value derived from the responsible production of renewable resources.