There is a lot of equipment in modern kraft pulp mills, making them complicated and expensive. But a comprehensive understanding of the design and appropriate operations of the unit processes can provide a strong knowledge base to apply in mills.

This is about the simplest flowsheet you can draw for a kraft mill. The boxes represent the operating departments, each of which usually comprises many unit operations. A flowsheet showing all the unit operations would require more than a hundred boxes. In the kraft pulping course, considerable attention is paid to digesters -- what goes into them (especially the chips), what happens inside them, and what comes out (especially the pulp) -- in the context of overall mill operations. The course also covers oxygen delignification systems, bleach plants, and pulp drying machines.

               Chip Handling               Digesters               Brownstock Washers