Abstract
Reducing the effluent discharge from a paper mill is urgently needed due to tightening environmental regulations and economic reasons. For a paper mill to respond to system closure it is required to adopt the best practical retention system that enables the mill to improve fines retention and drainage. In this study, effects of various retention agents on fines retention, drainage and formation were examined using linerboard stock in the laboratory. Among the retention aids tested, high molecular weight cationic polyacrylamides showed good efficiency both in retention and drainage. On the other hand, high charge density, low molecular weight polymeric retention aids showed little improvement both in retention and drainage. The best retention system selected from the laboratory experiment was applied on a paper machine producing linerboard to evaluate its effect on papermaking system closure.