Petroleum coke (petcoke) has been burned at kraft pulp mills to partially substitute for natural gas and fuel oil used in lime kilns. Due to the high vanadium and sulfur contents in petcoke, there had been concerns over the impact of burning petcoke on kiln and chemical recovery operations. Laboratory studies were performed to examine the fate of vanadium and sulfur in lime kilns and chemical recovery cycle. The results suggest that most of the vanadium in petcoke quickly forms calcium vanadates with lime in the kiln, mostly 3CaO•V2O5. In the causticizers, calcium vanadates react with Na2CO3 in green liquor to form sodium vanadate (NaVO3). Due to its high solubility, NaVO3 dissolves in the liquor circulating around the chemical recovery system. V becomes enriched in the liquor, leading to vanadium build-up in the system. The S in petcoke would stay in the reburned lime, lower the lime availability, increase SO2 emissions from the kiln stack, alter the S balance, increase the liquor sulphidity, and potentially contribute to ring formation in the kiln.

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The paper and pulp industry saw an increase in the number of mergers in 1980s and 1990s. There had been consolidation of a number of smaller companies into larger corporations, which have greater management, financial, and marketing power. This merging trend has resulted in a fewer number of firms and an increasing concentration in the industry. Although the number of firms has decreased, the total industry capacity has been increasing. The combination of these interesting factors has motivated the topic of this masters thesis. The primary purpose of this research is to explore the factors that positively influence a firms decision to vertically integrate into producing its own pulp.

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