MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1968 - Alabama Years

Bleach Plant

At work, a group of 3 people (one from the plant, one from research, and me from the New Jersey office) were charged with bring the bleach plant up-to-date in preparation for the computerizing the control of the bleach plant. My job was to ensure that all of the process controls were working properly. By process control I mean the temperature, pressure, and flow measuring devices with their associated controllers.

A little explanation of a paper mill bleach plant is in order here. The bleach plant does NOT produce Clorax-like bleach. The purpose of this operation is to bleach the remaining brown colored stuff off the cellulose fibers being pumped from the wood chip digester. The output from the bleach plant was then pumped to the actual paper making machines. The paper mill had two bleach plants, interestingly enough called the A-plant and the B-plant. The B-plant was the newest being about 10 years old with the most throughput, about 500 tons a day, and with the most sophisticated control systems. The B-plant was the one that was to be computerized.