Application of the OCO Water System
in the Recovery of Paper Mill Wastes
john c. waddell, Development Chemist
The Ohio Boxboard Co.
Rittman,  Ohio
The OCO water system, as applied to a paper or paperboard mill,
is a carefully engineered water, fibre and heat conservation program
that enables the mill to eliminate the discharge of polluted waste
water to a stream. It was developed by the Ohio Boxboard Company
at Rittman, Ohio as a solution to the following problems:
1. Curtailment of production during extreme dry spells and
abandonment of any plans for expanded productions were seen
in the future unless new sources of fresh water were developed
at considerable expense to the company.
2. Losses of large quantities of fibre and heat down the sewer
were resulting in high operating costs.
3. Reduction of stream pollution to satisfy present and anticipated
stream pollution abatement laws seemed inevitable.
The first step in the installation of an OCO water system necessitates the making of a detailed survey of the internal water system
of a mill. Based on the survey, changes are made in the internal
water system to bring about substantial reductions in both volume and
suspended solids content of water discharged from that system. In
the second phase of the program, a method is established whereby
the water that is discharged can be separated from the suspended
solids it contains in a manner which makes possible the re-use of both
the suspended solids and the water.
Aside from cellulose fiber itself, water is the most important raw
material used in the manufacture of paper and paperboard. Actually,
the first step in the papermaking process consists of dispersing the
fiber into hundreds of times its own weight of water. The dilute stock
slurry thus formed is mechanically refined, loaded with additives which
will impart specific properties to the fibers, screened, and pumped to
the paper machine proper. In a cylinder paperboard machine, the
stock slurry enters one of several vats where the individual fibers are
picked out of the water by a cylindrical screen rotating in the vat.
From the surface of this cylinder the fibers are transferred to a
continuous wet web   of paper  formed  on  a moving  felt.   The  felt
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