I knew nothing about pulp processing, had to go read.
Pulp digester...must be nasty in there. That must be what smells so lousy.
A kraft mill uses a lot of sulfides in the process. Thats the rotten egg smell around those mills.
Don’t go scuba diving near a pulp mill. The scent will stay with you for days.
I spent 35 years in the wood pulp industry. Mostly in export sales. But lots of time in pulp mills touring customers around.
A digester is essentially like a kitchen pressure cooker. Except it holds 25 tons of chipped wood and is full of sulphur based chemicals, among others. Drive near (like with in miles) of a moden pulp mill and you smell rotten eggs. Or as pulp and paper makers say "the smell of money"!
There were two places that always had me edgy. The digester room and the recovery boiler. (recovers waste chemicals to use them again). One guy described the boiler as "it's essentially a managed bomb"
I’ve heard paper processing is what makes Jacksonville, FL, air smell bad nearly all the time. (And I lived in Orange Park—miles from Jacksonville—even there, the smell could be cut with a knife). Heading north, you could escape it after crossing the Georgia line.
Yeah it’s part of the bleaching process. I’ve worked an couple pulp mills. The first couple of days will turn your stomach and then you get used to it.