PINOLA – soap and tall oil solutions for kraft pulp mills
PINOLA is Head Engineering’s family of solutions for maximising tall oil revenue and recovery boiler capacity in kraft pulp mills. The core is PINOLA TOPP, a continuous tall oil production process that converts tall oil soap to high-quality crude tall oil (CTO) with a yield of around 98% under specified conditions. PINOLA TOPP can be delivered on its own and integrated with the mill’s existing soap skimming and recovery systems, or combined with other PINOLA solutions for additional benefits.
In addition to PINOLA TOPP, the portfolio includes:
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PINOLA BLiSS – a black liquor soap separation process using centrifugal separators
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PINOLA Analyze – a laboratory instrument and software for fast measurements of soap and tall oil content
Where PINOLA fits in the recovery process
The figure shows how PINOLA is integrated into a modern kraft recovery cycle.
After cooking and evaporation, the heavy black liquor contains both dry solids and soap. If installed, PINOLA BLiSS is placed on the black liquor stream to remove soap with high-speed separation. The clarified black liquor, essentially free from soap, is sent to the recovery boiler, freeing capacity and enabling an increase in pulp production. At the same time, BLiSS produces a concentrated tall oil soap stream with up to roughly 60–64% CTO and typically around 10% more CTO compared with conventional tank separation.
This concentrated soap – or soap from an existing skimming system – is then processed in PINOLA TOPP. In the TOPP process, the soap is continuously acidulated and separated into high-quality CTO and acid water in a closed, fully automated system that reaches about 98% CTO yield under specified conditions.
Throughout this chain, PINOLA Analyze can be used as a practical lab tool to measure soap content in black liquor and tall oil content in soap. It provides near real-time data on how well BLiSS and TOPP are performing and helps operators optimise both tall oil production and recovery boiler operation.
To read more about each solution:
PINOLA TOPP – Tall Oil Production Plant
PINOLA BLiSS – Black Liquor Soap Separation
PINOLA Analyze – Lab centrifuge for fast soap and tall oil analysis