Chapter 13: Black Liquor Recovery Boilers in the Pulp and Paper Industry

Black liquor recovery boilers are an integral part of the kraft pulping process used in paper mills. Besides recovering chemicals for reuse, they also produce process steam. High operating temperatures and exposure to process chemicals and combustion byproducts make recovery boilers susceptible to corrosion. This chapter describes some of the problems that the pulp and paper industry has solved as well as ongoing issues and concerns. It includes an in-depth review of 304L cladding failures involving coextruded composite tubes used as floor tunes in the lower furnace, as superheater tubes, and for other purposes such as smelt openings. It provides detailed images showing cracks on the outer surfaces of the tubes and explains where the tubes were used and how they were operated.