[ $Papridry^{TM}$ ], A New Technique for Drying of Paper and Board

Drying is the least developed of all unit operations of paper and board manufacture. While groundbreaking developments were Introduced during the several past decades in forming, pressing and calendering, no radical changes occurred in drying. The cylinder-drying technology is now more than 200 years old and, while it was subject to many incremental improvements, many of its inherent problems persist. We believe that conventional drying is now approaching the end of its life and the industry is ready for a major breakthrough in drying. Indeed several innovative technologies already exist at various stages of development or commercialization. In general, the novel drying technologies are striving to increase the drying rate, improve the product quality and boost the energy efficiency of drying. A novel, drying method, $Papridry^{TM}$, which combines conductive and convective heat transfer to obtain very high drying rates, is at an advanced stage of development at Paprican. The results obtained when drying printing paper ana board on a self-standing pilot $Papridry^{TM}$ machine and on the pilot paper machine equipped with a tandem of two $Papridry^{TM}$ units demonstrate both, the high drying rate and improved product quality achieved by using this drying method. A mathematical model of this operation has been developed and the software compiled with this model was used to calculate the effect of installing a $Papridry^{TM}$ unit into an existing dryer section. The model also allows to calculate the z-direction distribution of moisture and temperature at various points of the dryer section.