1. The importance of water in papermaking

The first step in papermaking is to suspend the cellulose fibers in water (figure 1 ). Water plays multiple roles in papermaking: hydraulically, it is first and foremost the medium in which fibrous elements and fillers can disperse into individual elements; secondly, it is the vehicle for raw materials throughout the papermaking circuits; and thirdly, it is a distributor of suspended matter when the diluted pulp arrives on the paper machine wire. The appearance, constitution and characteristics of the sheet depend on the flows, from arrival at the headbox to consolidation of the sheet.