Question: Carl Daniel Ekman (March 17, 1845 – November 3, 1904) was a Swedish chemical engineer who invented the form of the sulfite process of wood pulp manufacturing which was first established on a firm commercial basis, helping to replace rags as the main raw material of paper with wood pulp, he opened the Ekman Pulp and Paper Company mill in Northfleet, Kent near the mouth of the Thames River in 1886, Kent is a county in South East England and is how many of the home counties?
Context: The sulfite process produces wood pulp which is almost pure cellulose fibers by using various salts of sulfurous acid to extract the lignin from wood chips in large pressure vessels called digesters.  The salts used in the pulping process are either sulfites (SO), or bisulfites (HSO), depending on the pH.  The counter ion can be sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) or ammonium (NH). Dissolving pulp, also called dissolving cellulose, is bleached wood pulp or cotton linters that has a high cellulose content (> 90%).  It has special properties including a high level of brightness and uniform molecular-weight distribution.  This pulp is manufactured for uses that require a high chemical purity, and particularly low hemicellulose content, since the chemically similar hemicellulose can interfere with subsequent processes.  Dissolving pulp is so named because it is not made into paper, but dissolved either in a solvent or by derivatization into a homogeneous solution, which makes it completely chemically accessible and removes any remaining fibrous structure.  Once dissolved, it can be spun into textile fibers (viscose or Lyocell), or chemically reacted to produce derivatized celluloses, such cellulose triacetate, a plastic-like material formed into fibers or films, or cellulose ethers such as methyl cellulose, used as a thickener. A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients.  Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, all paper in a paper mill was made by hand, one sheet at a time, by specialized laborers. Matthias Koops (active 1789–1805) was a British paper-maker who invented the first practical processes for manufacturing paper from wood pulp, straw, or recycled waste paper, without the necessity of including expensive linen or cotton rags. Bleaching of wood pulp is the chemical processing carried out on various types of wood pulp to decrease the color of the pulp, so that it becomes whiter.  The main use of wood pulp is to make paper where whiteness (similar to but not exactly the same as "brightness") is an important characteristic.  The processes and chemistry described in this article are also applicable to the bleaching of non-wood pulps, such as those made from bamboo or kenaf. Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties.  It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west.  The county also shares borders with Essex along the estuary of the River Thames, and with the French department of Pas-de-Calais along the English Channel.  The county town is Maidstone. Soda pulping is a chemical process for making wood pulp with sodium hydroxide as the cooking chemical.  In the "Soda-AQ" process, anthraquinone (AQ) may be used as a pulping additive to decrease the carbohydrate degradation.  The soda process gives pulp with lower tear strength than other chemical pulping processes (sulfite process and kraft process), but has still limited use for easy pulped materials like straw and some hardwoods. The kraft process (also known as kraft pulping or sulfate process) is a process for conversion of wood into wood pulp, which consists of almost pure cellulose fibers, the main component of paper.  The kraft process entails treatment of wood chips with a hot mixture of water, sodium hydroxide, and sodium sulfide, known as white liquor, that breaks the bonds that link lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose.  The technology entails several steps, both mechanical and chemical.  It is the dominant method for producing paper.  In some situations, the process has been controversial because kraft plants can release smelly products and in some situations produce substantial liquid wastes. Shotmed Paper Industries (spi) is one of the first privately established bond paper mills in Egypt.  Shotmed Paper Industries is an industry of Shotmed Group.  Besides the Hadera Mill in Israel, it is the only paper mill in the Middle East that produces wood-free paper from wood pulp. Carl Daniel Ekman (March 17, 1845 – November 3, 1904) was a Swedish chemical engineer who invented the form of the sulfite process of wood pulp manufacturing which was first established on a firm commercial basis, helping to replace rags as the main raw material of paper with wood pulp.  The process was developed at Bergvik, Sweden from 1871–1874, In 1879, he emigrated to England, and opened the Ekman Pulp and Paper Company mill in Northfleet, Kent near the mouth of the Thames River in 1886.  He was also a consulting engineer and helped establish mills in Lachendorf, Celle, Germany, Dieppe, France, Rumford, Rhode Island, St. Petersburg, Russia, Korfu and Italy.  After contracting malaria in French Guiana and losing a lawsuit on pollution of a Northfleet limestone quarry, he died bankrupt in Gravesend, Kent.
Answer: one