{"id":10923,"date":"2025-10-06T11:03:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T09:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/?p=10923"},"modified":"2025-10-06T11:03:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T09:03:15","slug":"automated-zeta-potential-measurement-for-constant-process-and-quality-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/automated-zeta-potential-measurement-for-constant-process-and-quality-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Automated Zeta potential measurement for constant process and quality control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by: Sandra Vogt, emtec Electronic GmbH<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting with paper production in the wet-end area, monitoring the charge environment is extremely important. Unclear charge conditions in the suspension can lead to disruptions in the production process, higher resource consumption and losses in product quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuous monitoring is particularly important when different chemicals are used to ensure a well-functioning production process (so-called process chemicals) and to meet certain quality requirements for the base paper and the finished product (so-called additives). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, fixing agents, retention aids, flocculants, defoamers and biocides are added to the process to control and optimize its runnability and to improve wastewater treatment, but these chemicals do not remain in the final product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typical additives such as sizing agents, dry and wet strength agents, fillers and pigments, dyestuffs or optical brighteners should adhere to the fibers to remain in the product and improve and optimize its properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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emtec FPO Fiber Potential Analyzer Online.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Information about the charge conditions helps to optimize the dosage of chemicals throughout the complete wet-end process and gives technicians and engineers in the mill a good overview of the status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A closer look at the fibers to which additives are supposed to adhere leads to insights related to a certain charge value on the fiber surface, also known as zeta potential, simply expressed as empty spaces on the fiber surface – the capacity of the fiber to absorb the additives. In an optimal case, all added additives adhere to the fibers. In a non-optimal case, the additives are lost with the white water as they do not react with the fiber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to an optimal additive dosage is knowing the surface charge of the fibers. A traditional solution is the zeta potential analysis with a laboratory device such as the FPA Fiber Potential Analyzer, distributed by emtec Electronic<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As automation and digitalization play an increasingly important role in the paper industry, automatic measurements that provide reliable and accurate real-time data of the process are becoming essential to meet sustainable, ecological and resource-efficient requirements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such online measurements in the pulp and paper industry have several advantages: there is no need to take samples from the machine and measure them in the laboratory, the results are constantly available in real time, allowing immediate intervention if the process is not running well or if quality issues occur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This real-time data can be transferred not only to the process control system but also to a data cloud for remote access from anywhere in the world, enabling networked handling of issues by experts who do not necessarily have to be on site. In addition, it is possible to obtain an overview of past results that are continuously measured and stored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such online measuring device for zeta potential analysis is the emtec FPO Fiber Potential Analyzer Online. In addition to determining the charge of long and short fiber pulp and assessing the charge situation at the headbox, the FPO helps to determine the optimum quantity of chemical additives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Especially when the type of tissue paper produced and thus the type of fibers or chemical additives changes during production, the use of the emtec FPO can lead to an enormous reduction in costs, as resources, chemicals and time are saved and the amount of broke and its reprocessing is reduced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once installed directly on the paper machine, it performs sampling, measurement and cleaning independently and requires very low maintenance effort. It can be installed at various points in the paper machine using two hoses as connection points for sampling to take the suspension alternately before and after a dosing point for additives, for example (figure 1).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Figure 1. Application possibilities for FPO in the production process.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The FPO carries out a maximum of six measurements per hour, though four measurements per hour are standard, depending on the process settings. The measurement data includes zeta potential [mV], conductivity [mS\/cm], temperature [\u00b0C] and pH value [pH], and is continuously transmitted to the process control system or to a secure data cloud for worldwide remote access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A real-life case study of a German tissue paper production mill that uses the emtec FPO to optimize the dosing of wet strength agents (WSA) demonstrates the benefits and efficiency of its use. The tissue paper mill produces three end products: toilet paper, low-quality kitchen towels (Type 1) and high-quality kitchen towels (Type 2) using a dual headbox, one for short and one for long fibers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing the production from toilet paper to kitchen towels requires not only a change in the type of pulp (e.g. fiber type), but also in the type of chemicals added to the process. Changing chemicals or adjusting the amount of certain chemicals added to the pulp leads to changes in the charge environment and particularly affects the surface charge of the fibers, the zeta potential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lack of information on the zeta potential often leads to issues with either the runnability of the process, the quality of the final product or wastewater treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 2. Zeta potential analysis of two pulp grades after adding WSA before dual headbox.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is what happened at the German tissue mill: the product quality was poor because there was a lack of continuous monitoring due to staff shortage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, there were problems with the paper machine and wastewater treatment due to overdosing. In order to constantly check the zeta potential of the two different pulp grades, the mill decided to install the emtec FPO Fiber Potential Analyzer Online directly after its two mixing chests and before the dual headbox. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One mixing chest contains the suspension with short fibers and WSA, while in the second mixing chest long fibers are mixed with WSA (figure 2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of continuous process monitoring by the emtec FPO over six months, it was possible to stabilize the runnability of the process with frequently changing production, improve wastewater treatment and reduce WSA consumption by 25% (figure 3). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 3. WSA consumption (percent per ton) without and with constant FPO monitoring over six months.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The online device cannot replace laboratory trials and measurements, but the regular information provided by the emtec FPO together with the experience of the mill personnel leads to much faster optimization of the process, which can help save resources, time and energy. In addition, the workplace becomes safer and personnel gain empowerment by saving working time while having all the necessary data available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It enables real-time risk monitoring and management as well as remote working through automatic data transfer. Remote access to the data provided can be a great advantage for chemical suppliers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, chemical producers can benefit from the possibility to gain insights into the past results of the customer process through the continuous, automated measurements. It enables an immediate response to customer complaints and makes troubleshooting much easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by: Sandra Vogt, emtec Electronic GmbH Starting with paper production in the wet-end area, monitoring the charge environment is extremely important. Unclear charge conditions in the suspension can lead to disruptions in the production process, higher resource consumption and losses in product quality. Continuous monitoring is particularly important when different chemicals are used to ensure … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-10923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ottobre-2025","tag-in-paper-mill"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10923"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10943,"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10923\/revisions\/10943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cartaecartiere.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}