the pulp is separated from large shives, knots, dirt and other debris. The accept is the pulp. The material separated from the pulp is called reject. The screening section consists of different types of sieves (screens) and centrifugal cleaning. The sieves are normally set up in a multistage cascade operation because considerable amounts of good fibres can go to the reject stream when trying to achieve maximum purity in the accept flow. The fiber containing shives and knots are separated from the rest of the reject and reprocessed either in a refiner or is sent back to the digester. The content of knots is typically 0.5–3.0% of the digester output, while the shives content is about 0.1–1.0%. Washing The brownstock from the blowing goes to the washing stages where the used cooking liquors are separated from the cellulose fibers. Normally a pulp mill has 3-5 washing stages in series. Washing stages are also placed after oxygen delignification and between the bleaching stages as well. Pulp washers use countercurrent flow between the stages such that the pulp moves in the opposite direction to the flow of washing waters. Several processes are involved: thickening / dilution, displacement and diffusion. The dilution factor is the measure of the amount of water used in washing compared with the theoretical amount required to displace the liquor from the thickened pulp. Lower dilution factor reduces energy consumption, while higher dilution factor normally gives cleaner pulp. Thorough washing of the pulp reduces the chemical oxygen demand (COD). Several types of washing equipment are in use: Pressure diffusers Atmospheric diffusers Vacuum drum washers Drum displacers Wash presses Bleaching In a modern mill, brownstock (cellulose fibers containing approximately 5% residual lignin) produced by the pulping is first washed to remove some of the dissolved organic material and then further delignified by a variety of bleaching stages. In the case of a plant designed to produce pulp to make brown sack paper or linerboard for boxes and packaging, the pulp does not always need to be bleached to a high brightness. Bleaching decreases the mass of pulp produced by about 5%, decreases the strength of the fibers and adds to the cost of manufacture. Process chemicals Process chemicals are added to improve the production process: Impregnation aids. Surfactants may be used to improve impregnation of the wood chips with the cooking liquors. Anthraquinone is used as a digester additive. It