Drying of paper: A review 2000–2018

Abstract

Drying of paper during 2000–2018 is reviewed. The review includes new drying processes, multi-cylinder dryers, tissue and impingement drying, TAD-drying, infrared drying and energy use for drying of paper. It includes general aspects of infrared dryers but not drying of coated papers. Paper quality aspects, paper shrinkage and paper isotherms are not included. Impingement drying has been the most successful new technology with several applications while others such as impulse drying has not been commercialized mainly due to problems with paper quality parameters. One promising development is the introduction of steel instead of cast iron cylinders with increased heat transfer reducing the number of cylinders. Future research should focus on modeling the internal transport phenomena and to couple these phenomena to paper shrinkage and quality parameters. The influence of the fabric for the drying process needs more attention, understanding the drying process for new components such as microfibrillar cellulose in the stock and reducing energy use and increasing the amount of renewable energies for drying of paper.