Abstract: A method for recovering ammonia from spent ammonia-base sulfite pulping liquor includes steam stripping spent ammonia and condensing the resulting vapor to produce a dilute ammonia or ammonium hydroxide solution. This dilute solution is passed through a cation exchange column to produce an ammonium sulfite-ammonium bisulfite solution which is delivered to a sulfur dioxide absorption tower to thereby produce a concentrated ammonia-base sulfite cooking liquor. The residual liquor from the stripping step and the non-condensable gases are burned as fuel and the waste gases from this burning, which contain a small percentage of sulfur dioxide, are delivered to the absorption tower and subsequently discharged to the atmosphere free of sulfur dioxide and ammonia.