State-of-the-art and new technologies in flotation deinking

Today, in the paper industry, flotation deinking is the dominating process worldwide for the removal of printing inks from recovered paper. It represents the decisive process step as far as improvement of the optical characteristics of the fiber stock such as brightness and dirt specks is concerned. Furthermore, flotation deinking is gaining more and more in importance in the separation of other contaminants, for example, stickies or fillers and pigments. This article reports on `state-of-the-art' flotation deinking as well as on the newest development trends in this field. It is also apparent today, just as at the beginning of flotation deinking, that there are obvious parallels to mineral flotation technology.