Part of the equipment
used to prepare
the Xd3899 biocide

The mill had looked at various options: coating the inside of the headboxes, improved screening, and additional feed points with the existing microbiological control program, before opting for Ashland’s Spectrum XD3899 technology.

The trials came about because, as Kilgour puts
it, “Jim kept pounding on my door.” “Jim” is James
Syncox, Ashland’s sales team leader. “We knew we
had to make a change and trials are an essential part
of continuous improvement for Temboard.”
Trialing began in November 2008 and went
through July 2009. The trial lasted nine months for
a number of reasons. The mill makes a lot of grades

and it wanted to get through the spring when run-off from the thaw can create water issues in the mill. Also, it wanted to go through grade change cycles and boilout cycles.

The XD3899 program resulted in a number of improvements. Previously, the mill had two large broke towers that it needed to operate and maintain. Now, with the machine running much better, it only needs one broke tower. The mill has also been able to reduce its wet end chemical use while running to the same white water targets.

the crews tooK notice

The cleanliness of the machine was perhaps the most noticeable difference to the crews. They said they had never seen the machine so clean. Previously, the mill performed a once-a-shift cleaning of the saveall. If this was not performed, the saveall would be very pink, a sign of microbiological growth. A lot of microbiological growth was occurring in the broke. That has also improved significantly.

Optimizing process performance with the
Ashland technology required adjustments. Technical
superintendent Anne Rivard explains that the trial
was started with predetermined feed points for the
new biocide. “With monitoring, we saw that we had
to feed at different points and at different doses.”
The dosing equipment (see sidebar) was provided
by Ashland but the Temboard crews did the piping
work and now maintain it.

“For the trial,” Rivard continues, “we monitored
downtime as it related to microbiological growth. We
reduced that by 49%.”
In all, the mill equated the gains to a 1% increase
in operating efficiency, which is significant. It’s no
surprise that Temboard converted to the Ashland
system on a permanent basis.

The mill has noticed a drop in sheet breaks,
perhaps one every 10 days, a reduced number
of holes in the sheet, fewer culls related to sheet
contamination and reduced washup time on
breaks. Kilgour says customers have also noticed the
changes. One had issues with runnability. Now, they
are very happy and ordering more.”
The mill now runs longer between boilouts. In
the past, when the boilout date was reached, the