Europe’s largest drum pulper for DS Smith’s Porcari mill

DS Smith has ordered a complete stock preparation line and a reject treatment system for its Porcari mill in Italy from Andritz.

The line, which will produce stock for packaging papers from 100 percent recycled paper, will also include what is said to be Europe’s largest FibreFlow drum pulper.

The equipment provided by Andritz will be used with a new paper machine, due to start up mid-2025, which will provide a range of paper grades for the fmcg and e-commerce sectors serviced by DS Smith.

Stefano Andreotti, project manager at DS Smith, says: “The new equipment from Andritz, as well as helping us to recover more water, will help us capture, clean and use fibres that would normally get rejected in the paper making process, so they can be once again used in our recycling loops.”

The new stock preparation line will have a design capacity of 1,650 bdmt per day and process various types of raw material, such as old corrugated containers, mixed papers and board as well as new shavings of corrugated board. The system includes a number of technological highlights:

● A FibreFlow drum pulper with a pulping zone diameter of 4.5m and a total drum length of 50m – the largest of this type in Europe – for gentle pulping of the raw material mix and efficient removal of coarse contaminants

● Nine PrimeScreen X screens with state-of-the-art rotor design providing high screening efficiency at low energy consumption and superior stock quality

● Two PrimeFilter D filters to handle higher feed consistencies and higher-freeness pulp, even in the most demanding applications.

The reject treatment system, capable of handling 135 bdmt per day, will comprise a ADuro C shredder as well as ReCo reject compactors to process the rejects from pulping and coarse screening in the most efficient way, says Andritz

The order also contains basic and detail engineering, installation and supervision, commissioning, and operator training.