Paper mill 1:
Paper mill with a difference, the mill processes Papyrus reeds. Central Hunan is a plain with large rivers. Papyrus is available on the river banks and floodplains. In the warm and damp climate the reeds grow 10-16 feet and are harvested for making paper. There are scads of small paper mills throughout the plain in small towns and villages. They provide many people with jobs, especially in gathering the reeds.
This mill was at Xi Hu, a very small village and had a very capable English speaking office worker who gave me a tour of the plant.
The Papyrus is brought into the mill yard and stacked in large piles for drying. The reeds are then carted into the mill for processing.
A load headed to the mill for processing.
The first step is to process the reeds by crushing and chopping them into 1/2 inch pieces. The pieces are put into a large ball with chemicals to help break them down to individual fibers. In western plants the trees natural glue aided by chemicals is saved in the process. It's probably the same in this plant.
After several hours of tumbling in the ball the fibers are drawn off through this pipe to large tanks which are pressurized to further break down the fibers.
The pressure treated slurry is drawn off into a series of treatment tanks to further prepare the fibers.
The fibers are separated from each other by rolling on large drums in a chemical bath. The fibers can't be seen on the drum as it was lunchtime and the process halted. The slurry flattens over the spinning drum then gets drawn off to other similar separating bath tanks.
Close to the final baths is the color mixing tank where color is added. In the US fine clay is added to the mix to give the paper rigidity, smoothness and reduce translucency. The Boston Globe owns the bed of a Maine lake, Umbagog Lake. The lake bottom has a fine white clay. Clay is probably added here. It readily available all over the plain.
