The potential for energy savings when reducing the water consumption in a Kraft Pulp Mill

A pinch analysis was performed and it was found that when removing pinch violations the hot water consumption is not an important factor any more. Removing all the pinch violations and using the remaining excess heat for evaporation yields a significantly larger energy savings for the mill (4.0 GJ/t). From an economic optimum perspective it is probably most profitable to do a combination of reducing water consumption, removing pinch violations, and use the remaining excess heat for evaporation.