ABB has been appointed by Klabin, Brazil's largest producer and exporter of packaging paper and sustainable solutions for paper packaging, to deliver the management and power distribution system (PDS) for their Puma II Project, which will support their production target of 920,000 tons per year. ABB will also supply the drives and motors for the project through Valmet.

ABB will be responsible for ensuring the quality of the energy distributed to two new paper machines acquired by Klabin for the Ortigueira mill, in Paraná, to achieve their aim of increased production. ABB will apply its automation expertise through the Energy Management System (EMS), an arm of the ABB Ability™ solutions that uses the ABB Ability™ System 800xA distributed control system, the heart and brain of automation from which different applications are deployed according to the client's needs.

Operating directly in the power generation plant, the EMS enables efficient use of electrical power and constancy and organizes substantial data under one umbrella, before making it available to preventive maintenance teams. This will allow the mill to generate excess electricity for sale back into the grid on a spot basis, taking advantage of the moment of the best tariff.

Klabin's Ortigueira mill where ABB has worked on the Puma II line. Photograph by Rafael Chuí

ABB's solution also features technology such as the Is-limiter, the world's fastest power switching device, which drives reduced costs and optimized resources and is suitable for short-circuit operations in both new systems and expansions of existing systems. The panels have Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) technology, which are SF6 insulated, sturdy and with low maintenance, which ensures the isolation and protection of transmission and distribution equipment for high and medium voltage electrical power.

The collaboration with Puma II is an expansion of the previous ABB system provided in the Puma I Project in 2014. Klabin is able to take advantage of the same planning, and part of the existing Puma I infrastructure, by completing a systematic interweaving in power management.

The first phase of the Puma II Project was completed with the start-up of Paper Machine 27 (PM27), which will produce the world's first kraftliner paper made 100 percent from eucalyptus fiber, providing the market with 450 thousand tons a year. Eukaliner® is an innovative product made from renewable sources that optimizes resources across the production chain. It delivers superior performance even at lower grammage, offering resistant and sustainable packaging paper with excellent printing quality.

The second phase of the Puma II Project involves the construction of Paper Machine 28 (PM28), a modern and sophisticated paperboard machine that will increase production to meet the growing market demand for packaging papers. Scheduled for delivery in 2023, PM28 will have an annual production capacity of 460 thousand tons and will consolidate Klabin's position as a global producer of paperboard for liquid foods (milks and juices) and processed products, continuing the company's continuous growth and expansion plans.

"The continuation of Puma I to Puma II reflects our long-standing and successful partnership with ABB and is an important step in reaching our production target of 920,000 tons of Kraft paper and paperboard per year," said Gabriel Alves Lemes, Electrical, Instrumentation & Automation Manager for Klabin. "The automation of ABB's electricity management will deliver both cost and space savings and reduce the mean time between power supply interruptions which means that, with regular preventive maintenance, corrections from failures are rare."

"To meet Klabin's production target, through the addition of two new paper machines in operation, there is a need for increased power distribution. ABB's system will ensure the control of energy not only for these new machines, but also for all the process islands," said Robison De Martini, Sales Manager for Pulp & Paper, ABB. "With Brazil ranking second in the top global pulp ‎‎producers, Klabin's pulp and paper production chain is important to the country's economy. We are proud to be helping them contribute even further by increasing their production."

ABB and Klabin have been working together since the early 1980s, across many disciplines and projects, such as medium and high voltage, process electrification, motors, quality control and automation systems, in several of Klabin's sites in the pulp or paper processes.