Lu An Pulp and Paper Mill, Lu An City, Anhui Province

Lu An paper mill is located in the city of Lu An which is approximately 70 km to the west of Hefei. The mill is a state owned enterprise which was established in 1958. It presently has a workforce of 2218 workers including 200 persons having a technical background. The mill possesses 10 paper machines but at the moment (March 2001) the mill operates only three or four of them. These paper machines are operated using purchased straw pulp and wood pulp as raw materials. Fresh water used in the process comes from Pi He river. In the past, the mill used to operate three straw pulping lines but in December 1997 the mill had to stop producing pulp due to the enforcement of more stringent environmental regulations. Its annual production capacity is of 55 000 tons but in year 2000, it produced only 17 000 tons. The finished product consists of printing paper, cups stock, and cardboard. The mill sells its products to customers based all over China and it also exports to Cuba, Japan, and Middle East.

The mill is not equipped with a conventional wastewater treatment plant. White water generated by each paper machine is directed to a common settling system having a total capacity of 250 m³ per hour. The underflow in the settling tanks is mainly composed of suspended fibres which are directed toward a screening system. The overflow is discharged to the Huai He river. The treated effluent is monitored for COD, SS, and pH by the local Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) since the mill does not possess its own environmental monitoring laboratory. Short term effluent monitoring results indicate the that the mill is well below the national standards.

So far, sixteen CP solutions have been implemented at the mill. Out of these sixteen CP solutions, three are no cost solutions, twelve are low cost, and one is a medium cost solution

CP Solution Number	Implemented CP solution	Category of Solution
1	Awareness training session on CP given to the mill employees	No cost
2	Establishment of operational procedures	No cost
3	Establishment of a preventive maintenance program	No cost
4	Improve raw material procurement and storage	Low cost
5	Technical training sessions given to the employees	Low cost
6	Installation of a suitable motor on a cardboard machine vacuum pump	Low cost
7	Installation of a third headbox on the cardboard machine for the addition of low grade pulp in the mid-ply cardboard	Low cost
8	Adjustment of the reject nozzle on the centrifugal cleaners	Low cost
9	Replacement of the grate in the boiler	Low cost
10	Reduction of washing water	Low cost
11	Fibre recovery from the flotation basins	Low cost
12	Condensate recovery from the paper machines	Low cost
13	Installation of an additional white water pump	Low cost
14	Ashes from boilers are sold to brick manufacturers	Low cost
15	Installation of a wet scrubber on the coal boiler	Low cost
16	Installation of a new coal feeder on the boiler	Medium cost

The CP solutions above were implemented very quickly, between December 2000 and March 2001. The results generated by the implementation of the CP solutions, even if many of them are very simple and easy to implement, are financially and environmentally attractive. The assessment team also found the safety aspect was interesting to observe in this mill. Motors couplings are covered by well adjusted covers, hoses are rolled up if not in use; even the surroundings of the coal boiler are clean. In most cases when safety issues are taken care of, it indicates that a special attention is also paid to other management aspects such as environment.