Wood - The Final Frontier (part two)

Everyone knows someone with a cool job. Well, we used to kid one of those folks that they had the "second" best job there was (more on the best job in a later post)....and that job was to help develop superior Loblolly Pine trees. They would take tips off of big trees found in the woods (often by shooting them off), graft them onto a base tree stock, then cross pollinate that type with other "super" trees found in the wild. They would keep doing this until they had a few "superior" trees which could be used in replanting trees that had been harvested for the timber industry.

We used to say, in addition to working outside most of the time, that everyone would always get two chances. If the first cross didn't work out well, you wouldn't know it until about 15 years - then the second chance would take 15 years - and then it would be time to retire.

This argument held up until they developed a way to speed the process up with green houses. They could grow the second, third, and so forth generation trees in green house conditions which reduced the time to 7 years. I guess this is now a job just like all the others.

Junk Shot! Top Kill! Those Are Amateur Moves

That's right! And further more, I doubt BP has consulted the world's best experts - that is - unless they've talked to a few pulp mill operators. Those guys can plug up anything. They should be using wood chips, pulp, rejects, lime - you name it - a pulp mill operator can plug it - and plug it tight enough it'll never come unplugged. If you want to add an extra layer on - just throw in a couple of consulting engineers who design pulping systems. That will be the death kill to the gulf oil leak.

Motivation. Is This Video True?

The Fun Of Having Mill Duty - Part One

This  Saturday morning meeting in January, was running long.  State was playing Duke on TV at noon in Raleigh .  This was in the 60’s when there were eight teams and there were real rivalries (and not many games on TV).  One of the long talkers was giving his "not wanted opinion on papermaking".  The manager this morning, was practicing his most unusual habit … maybe the rarest habit on earth.  He was occasionally exchanging his saliva from one side of his mouth to the other with his tongue, and with his mouth slightly open.  I was watching him intently when a power house foreman came in the room and announced that there had been a spill and it was bad.  The Manager wanted me and a couple of others to accompany him to investigate. It turned out that a whole railcar of material had been lost to the sewer.  There goes my basketball game.

The folks, that unloaded railcars, in those days, were usually relatively new hires since it was a very dirty job.  In this case, there was a faulty connection between the car and the unloading line and the whole car’s contents had spilled.  The material was # 6 fuel oil, which, when heated, is very much like what is spilling in the gulf now. 

The oil was flowing into a storm sewer which eventually went into our 1.2 billion gallon holding basin  which in turn dumped to the river.  The oil was moving pretty fast down a ditch  and the basin already had a big area of oil floating on the top.   Since we couldn’t stop it, someone suggested burning it.  I wasn’t so sure since I could image a huge plume of black smoke that would bring every little fire department in the state - but I couldn’t think of any thing better to do.  We began throwing matches (most everyone smoked in those days) in the ditch with no effect.  We balled up lighted paper with the same result. Then we built a fire and threw burning wood…no better.  Someone suggested pouring gasoline in it and that became the plan.  An employee returned with a 5-gallon can and poured the contents in the basin.  We were all well aware of the dangers of gasoline so we stood well back.  A volunteer threw a lighted stick in and there was immediately a loud explosion that sounded like VROOOM.  We all ducked- too late of course- and then heat hit us in the face. No one was hurt.  The fire burned brightly and furiously without too much smoke.  We were elated; our problem was solved.  In about 60 seconds, the fire burned out, never to be started again.  We looked at each other blankly; the Manager said we should all go home, so we did.  There was no one to notify in those days.  I saw 3/4ths of the State game, which they won.

In 3 or 4 days, there was no evidence of an oil spill except a little oil on the sides of the ditch.  There was none to be seen in the basin.  We looked for it in the continuous sample of the outlet for years but none ever showed up.  Procedures were changed and as far as I know, there were never any more spills of # 6 fuel oil.

I wonder if we'd make the Homeland Security list today?

JMF

Wood - The Final Frontier (part one)

Issues with wood (chips, logs) have been an on-going battle between mill folks (the people who use the wood) and woodlands folks (the people who bring the wood in)....and with wood being the biggest raw material cost (with fiber being the finished product) you'd think that the paper industry would have a pretty good handle on this.  If you did think it - you'd be wrong.

It was almost as if the two groups (mill and woodlands) worked for different companies. Early in my career, the mill started taking whole tree chips. Mill operations became erratic - and the mill suspected the chip supply. I was given the task of setting up a chip testing program - to test every chip truck that came in (about 150). We purchased a trailer, chip classifier, and an oven.

The first week of testing, we had the results we suspected - there was a problem with chips. The next week was spent with the woodland folks looking over our procedures and testing - to say we were not getting a representative sample. So the third week was spent perfecting our procedures.....and the 4th week produced the same results.......but nothing changed. The 5th week, nothing changed....the offending companies were still bringing in the same quality of wood and the same amount of wood.

We continued the testing program for 9 weeks and shut it down when nothing changed.....well....almost nothing.  During this intense scrutiny, the scale house operator noticed water leaking from one of the chip trucks. Further investigation showed that the truck had been modified so that one of the fuel tanks was actually a water tank with a plug in the bottom. The truck driver had a string which pulled the plug out right after weighing in....by the time he had unloaded, the water tank would be empty - thus the mill was buying water being drained to the ground.

When the rest of the trucks from this company were checked - they all had been modified.... some estimates were that over $1 million dollars had been scammed from the company.

The Chip Test and Other Adventures

In the 60's and 70's when paper mills were improving operations for environmental compliance, many waste flows were not measured. A quick way to get a "ball park" flow was to measure a drain area under liquid and then toss a wood chip (or stick, or paper - anything that would float) and measure the time it took the chip to go a measured distance. From this a phrase was often made, "accurate enough for paper mill work".

Early in my career, I (along with another process engineer) was given the task to measure the air flow leaving a turpentine condenser. There were no sampling ports and no shutdowns planned to add them (plus, no one wanted to work on them anyway). One of the Technical Managers found a trade journal report which said you could take a plastic trash bag, cut a hole in the side, tape it to the discharge, and get a "paper mill" quality measurement of the flow.

With this knowledge, we surveyed the job site, which was covered in emulsified sulfate turpentine, and realized there were times when the stack would blow emulsified turpentine on whatever (or whomever) was in the area. With this knowledge, we decided to proceed with all disposable clothing.

After carefully cutting the whole in the garbage bag, we taped it to the pipe and began taking measurements. All was going great until several digesters started venting non-condensible gases at the same time. The garbage bag started blowing up like a balloon - which caused the hole we had carefully cut to increase in size (making the paper mill quality measurement much less so).

Regardless, we continued to collect measurements. Suddenly, the stack went from pressure to a vacuum (apparently several digester vents stopped and the cooling water flow control was very slow) and sucked our bag right off the pipe and into the condenser.

We looked at each other, wondering what to do? Do we tell anyone? Would it make any difference if we did?

Since we were hot, and smelling like sulfate turpentine (which is not good) - we quickly decided we had enough information and completed our task - without a mention of the missing garbage bag.  And you know - that garbage bag never did show  up -  in the future - I was never surprised at what was found in the process.

"Smells Like Money" or "It'll Take The Paint Off Your House!"

Former Rock Hill Mayor John Hardin was a very entertaining person. He collected some of his more interesting stories into a book, It's Been GRAND! The Life and Times of John Anderson Hardin. It's a great read, even if you don't know the characters or the area. He has several stories about Bowater moving to the area. My favorite is below - read the book for the others.

The big Bowater newsprint plant announced they were coming to Rock Hill. It's one of our biggest plants now, on the Catawba River outside of Rock Hill. It makes newsprint, you know, for newspapers. Well, we were all excited about them coming to town. The Bowater Company flew a group of us from Rock Hill over to Tennessee where they took us to the plant in this big bus. All of a sudden this odor hits us. We said, "Guink! What is that?" Paper mills, you know, give off a rather disturbing odor and we thought that when we got back to Rock Hill, we would get run out of town. But it was such a big plant and such a big occasion, we thought that might offset the odor.


Well, we got back to Rock Hill and Connie Morton, my friend who had been on that Tennessee trip, had me at the radio station and we would make calls to people in Tennessee. We would call the head of the bank, the Chamber of Commerce, and I'd talk. I'd say, "Our people in Rock Hill want to know about this plant. I understand there may be some little odor connected with it." Each and every one said, "Well, there may be, but it smells like money." Well that was fine. Then we called the sheriff and had the same little talk. At the end of the conversation--we were on live radio--I said, "Sheriff, I understand there may be a little odor connected with it." He said, "Odor! It'll take the paint off your house!" And I said, "Thank you, Sheriff," and I hung up.


The Bowater plant (now AbitibiBowater) celebrated their 50th year in production in 2009 and no longer produce newsprint - a sign of the changing times.

Dressing a Rabit

“Ranger”- a nickname- had worked in a paper mill for almost 40 years. He officially worked in stock prep although he actually worked in the “computer room.”   This room was huge as it was about forty years ago when very large computers were just beginning in paper mills. There was plenty of idle time when things were going well so Ranger would tell of his various skills which pretty much ran the range of what a he-man would brag about.  He always had a big audience because of his story telling abilities although only one listener was all it took.  In fact, he got  votes in a couple of state elections as a write-in candidate; but didn’t win.

 

One night the discussion was about hunting; the other two subjects were almost entirely about women and sports, of course.  The discussion drifted into dressing and eating game.  As many people in the group were hunters, they ate the game they killed.  Ranger allowed that he could skin and dress a rabbit in less than a minute.  The folks laughed and afterwords decided to call his hand about his bragging.  On night shift, one of the guys brought a rabbit box and set it out behind the filter plant, at the far side of the mill, in some weeds.  Sure enough, the next night there was a rabbit in it

 

The gang gathered in the computer room and asked Ranger again about his story of the time to dress a rabbit, which he repeated. He looked shocked at seeing the rabbit but with bravado told everyone to “Come on.” They followed him to the test station where there was a sink.  One person had brought a stop watch and on “GO”, Ranger reached in his pocket; pulled out his knife; opened it on his leg; skinned and dressed the rabbit.  The time … 45 seconds!  He said, “Boys, when you can back it up, it ain’t braggin’.” 

 

No one challenged him on his deer stories.    

Tex "On The Job"

Mills in the south tend to get a lot of unusual characters. There was an Aggie engineer whose favorite expression was that he was going to get a can of "Texas Whip Ass" out and take care of the situation. He also claimed to be a Texan but everyone found out he was actually born in Oklahoma (another story).  Anyway, one summer we had more than our share of wasp nests. This Okie turned Texan took it upon himself to rid the mill of every nest he could find (must have been a childhood thing). Anyway, a talented operator (why is it always operators?) decided to capture the event with a drawing. Although they look like flies, they are actually wasps.

The Adventures of Turnip Man

A paper mill has a lot of talent that is not needed for making paper. In one mill that I worked, one of the paper testers could draw really good cartoons. His characterizations of people he worked with were dead-on. He worked with a 40+ year old bachelor whom he turned into "Turnip Man". A few times a week, a cartoon would materialize throughout the mill telling of the adventures of "Turnip Man". Turnip Man wore tights and cape (think of super man) with a picture of a big turnip right on his chest. The cartoonist always had flies swarming around his head.

Needless to say, "Turnip Man" was not amused, and to paper mill tradition, to battle continued to escalate.  One day, a group of employees decided to have the First Annual Turnip Man Festival. While the real Turnip Map was sleeping (having just finished third shift), they invaded his yard, strung turnips around it, started a fire and a big pot of turnips. About lunch time, the woke Turnip Man up so he could be photographed by the local newspaper with his fellow employees enjoying turnips in his front yard.

The adventures of Turnip Man would have gone on for a long time,  but the cartoonist got a job at a newspaper near Plains Georgia to draw political cartoons (when Carter was President).

Working in a Paper Mill is Like Being With Family - Almost.

When you work in a business that is 24/7, 365 days a year - you tend to spend more time with your co-workers than with your family. You share a lot of Thanksgiving dinners and big ball games with the folks you see nearly every day. Sometimes, those workers will take the opportunity to play games.

A good opportunity usually presented itself whenever a new employee started on the night shift (They don't call it graveyard for nothing). It was an opportunity to fully evaluate that employee's personality - and other things. They would  try to determine if there were any "phobias" - and then just wait.

They'd wait for the employee to be by himself - call and hang up, call and hang up. After several nights of this, they'd get in a conversation and mention a story about someone having a massive heart attack at that spot, and on every anniversary, the phone would ring but no one would be there.

Or they would put a little bit of grease on the ear piece - call and tell the employee the lubrication mechanic was greasing the phone line and wanted to be sure grease had made it to the other end. You'd be amazed at how many people would get taken in.