Recycling of knots in a continuous process for cooking chemical pulp

A device for the continuous cooking of chemical pulp, comprising:

• a high pressure feeder;
• a chip chute positioned on top of said high pressure feeder, for feeding wood chips into said high pressure feeder;
• a pressurized continuous digester housing, downstream of said high pressure feeder, said digester housing comprising a vertical, elongate digester having a top and a bottom, into the top of which digester said chips are fed and from the bottom of which digester cooked pulp is fed out;
• a defibrating and washing apparatus for treating said cooked pulp;
• a screening apparatus for said defibrated and washed pulp, which results in an accepted flow of pulp and a rejected flow of pulp, wherein said rejected flow comprises principally of knots;
• means for feeding said accepted flow onwards for continued treatment;
• and
• means for returning said rejected flow to said chip chute without passing through a chip bin or a steaming vessel.