Fractionation of process water in thermomechanical pulp mills.
In this work process water from a thermomechanical pulp mill was divided into five fractions by filtration and membrane filtration. Suspended matter was mainly isolated in the retentate from the drum filter, extractives in the microfiltration retentate, hemicelluloses in the ultrafiltration retentate and lignin in the nanofiltration retentate. The final water fraction was of fresh water quality. F