My First Work Experience – During a Pandemic

My first work experience in the pulp and paper industry revealed the good, the bad, and the “in between” of the pulp and paper industry, but most importantly, it opened my eyes to what “real” life is truly like. My name is Wallace Layman and I am a rising junior, dual majoring in Paper Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering.

I have been working in the pulp department at the WestRock Hopewell, VA, mill since the end of November 2020 and I have enjoyed it, a lot.  The work experience started out rocky; I came into the mill earlier than usual and right when COVID-19 raised its fury. This caused plant personnel to start working hybrid schedules and that included me. Around the time I returned to full, in-person work, a ransomware attack happened upon the company, and I was recruited to work in the shipping department to keep the plant from having to shut down due to a lack of computer systems to ship out paper rolls. I worked in the shipping department on the 12-hour graveyard shift — 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. — for 2 months, as well as a lot of overtime.

Blow Tanks, Lime Kiln, Accumulator – Awe Inspiring

I came back to the pulp department in the lead up to the annual outage.  I was able to crawl inside the blow tanks, clarifiers, recovery boiler, lime kiln, accumulator, and numerous other large pieces of equipment. It was awe inspiring. I was also able to experience the long hours and complications that come with a manufacturing facility outage as well as the rewarding aspect with its completion.

After the outage, I was able to start digging my teeth into some wonderfully interesting projects. One of the more influential projects began with coordinating with the maintenance and operations departments to install piping to reclaim water that was going to the sewer into the mud washing system. Coming out of the outage, reclaiming this water did not prove as easy a task as I initially thought. I worked with a senior process engineer to work out a water balance for the entire caustic and powerhouse areas to determine every point of input. It was then determined that three major issues were inhibiting me from including the water flow to the system. I coordinated work through the OMC and maintenance department to rearrange piping for a tank that was incorrectly piped. I coordinated with the maintenance department to unplug lines that were being incorrectly operated, causing excess water to flow into the system. I worked with the paper mill department process engineer to convince my department’s superintendent to install orifices to restrict seal water flow to our mud filter vacuum pump because of excess water overflowing into the system. The mud filter excess seal water issue is planned to be resolved in August 2021 and once it has the water will be able to be reclaimed saving the mill around 85,000,000 gallons of water and $140,000 a year in water effluent, steam, and caustic savings. A few other benefits will be a more efficient mud washing system and vacuum pump.

Hardships Create Growth

This was just one of the projects that I was able to help the mill complete, and I had a blast working on it. I feel that my experience has been well rounded, allowing me to see some of the hardships that must be endured when working in the paper industry as well as the joys and sense of accomplishment. I loved the paper industry work opportunity and learning experience that I received from the WestRock Hopewell Mill.

Guest blogger Wallace Layman