Process for cooking and bleaching pulp

A process for cooking and bleaching pulp, whereby the spent liquors from the cooking and the bleaching are recovered and their chemicals are regenerated to be recycled as cooking and bleaching chemicals, comprising the steps of:

• A. cooking fibrous pulp material with a cooking liquor to form a cooked pulp and spent cooking liquor and spent cooking liquor,
• B. separating said cooked pulp from said spent cooking liquor,
• C. preparing chlorine dioxide and a secondary product containing sodium, sulfur and chlorine, by reacting a portion of NaClO.sub.3, a portion of H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 and a first stream of SO.sub.2 gas,
• D. bleaching said pulp with said chlorine dioxide and a NaOH source to form a bleached pulp, and an alkaline spent bleach liquor,
• E. separating said bleached pulp, from said alkaline spent bleach liquor, and neutralizing a first portion of said alkaline spent bleach liquor to form a neutralized spent bleach liquor,
• F. washing said cooked pulp with said neutralized spent bleach liquor, said washing step occurring prior to said step B to form spent washing liquors,
• G. separating said spent washing liquors from said cooked pulp,
• H. combining said secondary product with said spent washing liquors, burning the combined secondary product and liquors to form a melt and a stream of flue gases, containing solid material and separating said melt from said stream of flue gases,
• I. dissolving said melt to form a concentrated, high sulphide, high chloride green liquor, and separating said green liquor into a first portion and a second portion,
• J. causticizing said first portion of said green liquor to form said cooking liquor which is recycled to said step A for cooking fibrous pulp material,
• K. clarifying said second portion of green liquor to form a clarified green liquor,
• L. cooling said stream of flue gases and separating the cooled stream into a first cooled stream and a second cooled stream,
• M. treating the clarified green liquor with said first cooled stream of flue gases to form a precarbonated green liquor,
• N. treating said precarbonated green liquor with a NaHCO.sub.3 containing solution to form a hydrogen sulphide-containing solution, a first sodium solution and a second sodium solution,
• O. treating said first sodium solution with said second cooled stream of flue gases to form said NaHCO.sub.3 -containing solution, which is recycled to stpe N for treating said precarbonated green liquor,
• P. burning said hydrogen sulphide-containing solution to form a SO.sub.2 gas,
• Q. separating said SO.sub.2 into a first stream, which is passed to step C for preparing chlorine dioxide, and a second stream, which is converted to H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 and exhaust gases, and said H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 is passed to step C,
• R. causticizing said second sodium solution with a source of CaO to form CaCO.sub.3,
• S. burning a first portion of said CaCO.sub.3 to form CaO, which is recycled to step R as said CaO source,
• T. evaporation crystallizing said causticized second sodium solution to form Na.sub.2 CO.sub.2, solids Na.sub.2 SO.sub.4 solids and a liquor of crystallization containing Na.sub.2 SO.sub.4, and separating said Na.sub.2 CO.sub.3 solids and Na.sub.2 SO.sub.4 solids from said liquor of crystallization,
• U. evaporation crystallizing a first portion of said liquor of crystallization of containing Na.sub.2 CO.sub.3 to form NaCl crystals and a liquid containing NaOH,
• V. separating said liquid containing NaOH into a first portion and a second portion, said first portion of said liquid containing NaOH is recycled to step D as said NaOH source for bleaching said pulp, and said second portion of said liquid containing NaOH is recycled to step J,
• W. converting the NaCl crystals into NaClO.sub.3, which is passed to step C as said portion of NaClO.sub.3.