Industries, Pulp & Paper
Credibility
In a pulp and paper mill, the steam turbine is the heartbeat of the operation. When it stops unexpectedly, everything stops. We engineer turbine control systems specifically designed to prevent that from happening, and to restart safely and quickly when it does.
Pulp and paper mills are among the most energy-intensive, and most self-sufficient, industrial facilities in the world. Through the Kraft process recovery boiler and biomass co-generation, modern mills generate a significant fraction of their own power from the steam turbines at the core of their energy systems. An extraction or condensing turbine that trips unexpectedly doesn’t just lose its own output: it can destabilize the entire mill power balance, forcing load shedding across paper machine drives, refiners, and process equipment at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars per hour of unplanned downtime. We have been engineering steam turbine control systems for over 50 years, and we understand turbine governing, extraction pressure control, and protective systems at the level of the algorithm, not as configuration parameters in a generic platform. Programmed to IEC 61131-3 on commercial platforms, our systems give customers long-term flexibility and ownership, full access to configuration, calibration, and application logic to operate, maintain, and expand.
Applications
Extraction and condensing turbine governing for mill power generation, speed and load control, extraction pressure control, and comprehensive protective systems. We manage the multi-variable challenge of simultaneous speed and extraction pressure regulation in back-pressure and extraction-condensing turbines, with protective trip systems that respond to overspeed, low oil pressure, high vibration, and thrust bearing wear within the response time margins required by the turbine OEM.
Chip level management, digester temperature and pressure sequencing, and conveyor coordination for continuous and batch Kraft pulping. Our digester control systems manage the H-factor cooking calculation and liquor ratio control that determine pulp yield and kappa number, the critical quality parameters for the Kraft chemical pulp process.
Turbine condenser vacuum management, cooling tower fan and pump sequencing, and condenser water temperature optimization. We design condenser control systems that maintain target turbine back-pressure across the full range of seasonal cooling tower performance, maximizing turbine efficiency and protecting condensers from vacuum upsets.
Steam turbine drive control for recovery boiler fans, pumps, and auxiliary equipment, the turbine-driven equipment at the heart of the Kraft mill energy cycle. These drives operate in some of the most demanding conditions in any industrial facility: high-temperature steam, continuous duty, and the consequence that a turbine trip on a critical drive can force a full recovery boiler shutdown.
Chemical dosing, retention time management, and filtrate pump control for ECF and TCF bleaching sequences. We engineer bleach plant control systems that maintain target chemical charges and pH profiles across variable production rates, with the interlocks that protect against chemical over-dosing events that could damage pulp fiber quality or create safety hazards.
Mill-wide compressed air generation control, dryer and distribution pressure management, and compressor sequencing for trim control. We develop multi-compressor strategies that optimize lead/lag sequencing and variable speed control for mill compressed air demand profiles, reducing energy cost while maintaining delivery pressure stability.
Coordinated speed control for multi-section paper machine drives, wet end, press section, dryer section, and calender. Our drive coordination systems manage section speed ratios and draw control with the precision that modern high-speed paper machines require, with tension management that prevents sheet breaks and the associated production loss and re-threading time.
Black liquor evaporator body control, steam economy optimization, and liquor solids density management for multiple-effect evaporator trains. Evaporator control directly affects recovery boiler stability and mill energy balance, our systems manage the competing objectives of maximum steam economy and consistent liquor solids going to the recovery boiler.
Coordinated speed control for multi-section paper machine drives, wet end, press section, dryer section, and calender. Our drive coordination systems manage section speed ratios and draw control with the precision that modern high-speed paper machines require, with tension management that prevents sheet breaks and the associated production loss and re-threading time.
Motor load control, plate gap management, and specific energy input optimization for disc refiners in thermomechanical (TMP) and chemical mechanical (CMP) pulp operations. We develop refiner control strategies that maintain target freeness and fiber quality through precise load and gap control, the key variables that determine paper strength and formation quality.
Load shedding and demand management across a self-generating mill facility, coordinating steam turbine output, purchased power draw, and major load priorities to avoid peak demand charges and manage through grid disturbances without mill-wide production disruption.
Motor load control, plate gap management, and specific energy input optimization for disc refiners in thermomechanical (TMP) and chemical mechanical (CMP) pulp operations. We develop refiner control strategies that maintain target freeness and fiber quality through precise load and gap control, the key variables that determine paper strength and formation quality.
Where We Work
Engineering Depth
Retrofit sequencing planned around your maintenance windows, pre-tested logic, staged cutovers, and preserved field wiring to bring turbines and boilers back online with confidence and minimal downtime.
Trusted Worldwide
Independent control for every turbine class.
Anti-surge, loadshare, performance, and capacity control.
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Single-source
A MESSAGE FROM JOHN KAZOUR, CEO
To our customers and partners,
For more than 50 years, our team has helped customers keep critical operations running. We built our reputation as Petrotech by taking responsibility for control systems on important rotating machinery.
As more industries came to us with similar challenges across power generation, compression, and hydro applications, our engineering team kept finding ways to solve them. Eventually, the business outgrew the Petrotech name.
We are entering our next chapter as Innova Technologies. The new name reflects the full scope of our work as a rotating machinery control systems specialist. We engineer controls around the machine, deliver complete projects from design through commissioning, and provide support that stays with the problem until it is solved.
Our name is changing, but the people, engineering experience, and commitment behind the work continue. Our responsibility to active projects and installed systems carries forward under the Innova Technologies name. Your current contacts remain the right place to start, and we will communicate directly if an administrative record requires an update.
We appreciate the trust you have placed in us over the decades, and we look forward to continuing that work as Innova Technologies.
CEO, Innova Technologies
