ABSTRACT
The importance of environmental aspects in pulp and paper manufacturing processes has grown dramatically in recent years and has today a central role in marketing of paper products. The pulp and paper industry has already modified the processes to reduce the formation of chlorinated organic compounds and other wastes. Various technologies have been introduced to achieve effluent load levels lower than 0.2 kg of AOX (adsorbable organic halogen) per ton of pulp. This target has already been exceeded in several mills, for example in Scandinavia. The novel methods, allowing replacement of the traditionally used chlorine gas, include extended cooking, oxygen delignification and various oxidative bleaching chemicals. In search of new bleaching methods, enzymatic technologies have also been developed and are now used in the pulp mills.
