Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Prospective
insight for
the global
paper industry
EDITOrial
A
s the world is learning to live with COVID-19, and possibly
other kinds of pandemics, the “new normal” that is sup-
posed to emerge from this crisis is still a concept to be
shaped. Since the start of the current crisis, consumers have been
forced to change their daily routine and spending habits, while pro-
ducers have been struggling to adapt their human resources, sup-
ply chain, production lines and distribution processes to this new
pattern. The big question for everyone is “how long will it last?”.
It is one thing to adjust temporarily to a new environment, quite
another to reinvent a way of life or a business model.
Logistics
made simple.
Pesmel’s automated Material Flow How® concept offers the pulp & paper industry reliable,
accurate and intelligent logistics solutions for material handling, packaging and storage.
The solutions integrate production processes with delivery, making sure all products
leave the mill in perfect condition and on time. Logistics made simple.
30
EDITORIAL 3
MARKET OUTLOOK
Graphic-paper producers: Boosting resilience amid the COVID-19 crisis 6
The market for specialty papers in North and South America 12
MARKET TRENDS
National Brands vs. Private Labels: A market dynamics
analysis for hygiene tissue in the United States 16
ill re ased pa a in de el p ilst t e rld still
suffers from plastic paranoia? 22
MILL STORIES
Domtar’s Dryden Mill conducts safe maintenance
outage during pandemic 42
TECH TALK
5 questions to Jari Vähäpesola,
President Paper Business Line at Valmet 44
12
TECHNICAL INSIGHT
Field services go remote! by Valmet 46
Hard data, soft sensors and process expertise by ABB 48
Optimizing the paper manufacturing process
with virtual sensors by Voith 52
Water-cooled multi-motor drive for a complete
paper machine by Siemens 55
A digital revolution in logistics by Pesmel 58
Adding 30% capacity with little investment by AFT 62
Mist & contaminants be gone at SAICA Champblain by Kadant/M-clean 66
Handling tumultuous times in the tissue and towel market by Solenis 68
Mar et p lp line n ersi n t p lp line by Bellmer 71
66
CALENDAR OF EVENTS 74
Graphic-paper producers:
Boosting resilience amid the
COVID-19 crisis
Article by Abhinav Goel, Felix Grünewald, Oskar Lingqvist, and Gregory Vainberg
G
lobal graphic-paper markets have been declining si-
A recent survey released
gnificantly over the past decade. eveloped countries
by the consulting firm have experienced the strongest decline, at approxima-
McKinsey shows that four tely to percent per year hibit . eveloping countries
proven actions can help graphic paper consumption surpassed demand from deve-
graphic-paper producers loped countries in . o ever, consumption there, too, had
rebound despite the started to ane in , albeit at the slo er pace of appro i-
market declines that have mately to percent a year.
been accelerated by the
he decline in demand for graphic paper has been especially
COVID-19 pandemic.
noticeable in developed countries, here there has been a
clear correlation bet een reducing paper consumption and
economic advancement,
driven by digiti ation.
he similar effects e
are no seeing in deve-
loping countries can be
e plained in part by the
relatively larger share
of digitally savvy youn-
ger people in such mar-
ets. eneration born
comprises
true digital natives and
already ma es up
percent of Bra il s popu-
lation today, for instance.
Exhibit 1: Graphic-paper demand has been declining globally for a decade—and even longer in
developed economies.
he crisis has been a mi ed bag for paper and pac aging players. n one hand, some com-
panies have benefited from an increase in grocery shopping and pantry loading of essentials, such
as toilet paper. n the other hand, graphic paper producers have suffered significant volume drops
hese declines are driven by the fact that the pandemic has introduced ne factors but also acce-
1
Tracy Francis and Fernanda Hoefel, “‘True Gen’: Generation Z and its implications for companies,” November 12, 2018, McKinsey.com.
here is, nevertheless, some light at the end of the tunnel for
graphic paper producers in the potential recovery of discretio-
nary spend after loc do n. hat could increase businesses il-
lingness to spend, and see individuals turning bac to printouts in
business conte ts, as ell as paper based media consumption.
o big challenges remain for the industry, ho ever. he first is
that the crisis is accelerating structural changes that
are stic y for e ample, readers ho have s itched to digital
maga ines seldom return to print copies . econd, trends such
as or ing from home and providing digital first education that
ere once forecasted to happen over a timeline of five to ten
years have been condensed into a period of months and they
ill li ely be sustained.
2
Andrea Alexander, Aaron De Smet, and Mihir Mysore, “Reimagining the postpandemic workforce,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 7, 2020, McKinsey.com.
e can already see the effects of loc do n on graphic paper demand by loo ing at mar et indi-
cators. demand for graphic paper grades plummeted to percent, year on year, from April
to une prices for ood free paper in urope fell to percent in uly compared
ith ecember .
o eather the current storm, e anticipate that graphic paper companies ill need to consider
four actions. trategically revie ing their asset portfolios and mar et e posure, relentlessly focusing
on cost and cash, driving commercial e cellence, and e ploring diversification opportunities is an
approach that could allo players to improve their resilience hibit .
Exhibit 2: Graphic-paper players can act upon strategic, cost, and commercial levers while exploring diversification.
1. Strategic review
nder the current circumstances, graphic paper companies ill need to revie their strategies from
three angles. onsideration of footprint consolidation in case of multiple assets , end customer
segment participation, and level of value chain participation is a good first step in determining the
best strategy moving for ard.
ootprint consolidation is a relevant strategic choice for players ith multiple assets in the same
graphic paper grade. Ad usting capacity in light of falling demand may help the competitiveness of
the remaining assets and secure financial stability.
egment participation revie for e ample, of involvement in pac aging, paperboard, container-
3
Jake Bryant, Felipe Child, Emma Dorn, and Stephen Hall, “New global data reveal education technology’s impact on learning,”
June 12, 2020, McKinsey.com.
Interested?
Find more information on our website.
voith.com/blueline-occ
Market outlook
board, envelopes, and so on ill be critical to maintain sufficient volume stability during head inds.
n past years, numerous mills around the orld have been converted from graphic paper production
to other grades, such as food pac aging, coated free sheet, and containerboard and that trend is
set to stay. ome of the conversions ill re uire significant capital investment, and they may re uire
footprint rationali ation for funding.
Exhibit 3: Successful strategies differ according to the size of the graphic-paper company.
Source: McKinsey analysis
he ma ority of graphic paper companies have eathered the storm considerably ell so far by
reducing budgets, decreasing capital e penditures, and implementing ero based approaches to
indirect spend and organi ation si e. urthermore, establishing strict spend control to ers and
launching competitive sourcing for large cost items such as furnish, chemicals, pac aging, and so
on are ey. sing analytical tools to drive process controls and asset performance has been proven
to elevate operational performance and reduce costs further.
e have seen multiple instances in hich digital and analytical tools have improved process para-
meters yield, material consumption, and output ithin raft mills digester and bleach assets hile
also reducing overall do ntime and improving yield across all production lines. hat approach could
deliver an added benefit of to percent throughput uplift across a mill and reduce conversion
costs by to percent ithin three to five months.
o ensure strict controls on margin lea age hile maintaining appropriate loading of paper assets,
companies need to shore up their governance on commercial decisions. n the short term, that
means focusing on optimi ing product and customer mi to ma imi e profitability and enforcing pri-
cing discipline to ma imi e average price.
■■■
4
Earnings before interest and taxes.2020, McKinsey.com.
W
The specialty papers hile offering attractive revenue, the specialty papers
market in the Americas market in the Americas will face a series of new chal-
will face a series of lenges and opportunities over the ne t five years.
new challenges and hese are profiled and e amined in a brand ne study from
opportunities over the Smithers – The Future of Specialty Papers in North and South
America to 2025.
ne t five years.
In this exclusive content for PaperFIRST, Smithers examines
ho this mar et ill change over the ne t five years.
hile paper mar ets such as ne sprint, maga ines, and office
papers have been in decline for many years due to electronic alternatives, most specialty papers
serve a function that an electronic product cannot replace. ey factors driving change in the orth
and outh American specialty papers mar et re ect society s increasing interest in developing op-
tions that are lo er cost, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly.
As larger, faster paper machines making commodity grades are shut down due to declining markets,
some are transferring to producing high-volume specialty paper grades, such as release liner and
e ible pac aging. As an incentive to their customers, they are using innovative technologies to offer
lighter, stronger paper, or higher uality finishes.
echnology allo ing better connectivity and using ndustry . tools for more precise process control
is particularly valuable for faster machines. pecialty paper customers often have very specific re ui-
rements for such properties as basis eight, caliper, smoothness, gloss or et strength, and grade
changes bet een customers, hich can lead to a lot of transition paper that does not meet specifi-
cations, can be minimised ith automation, resulting in more efficient production.
eaching customers through advertising and relying on customer loyalty to sell products is becoming
more difficult in a orld here customers have more information at their fingertips. ac aging that
stands out, especially in food stores, is one ay to attract shoppers attention to ne products and
to convince them that a product offers added value over alternatives. his can create demand for
lu ury pac aging grades, hich typically use higher basis eights, have higher brightness, and more
coatings.
he emergence of e boo readers ate into sales of printed boo s, but e boo sales seem to have sta-
bili ed at about of all boo s. he use of specialty papers for covers and binding of boo s is decli-
ning at a slightly lo er rate than in previous years. e business opportunities in the food industry,
including take-out, ready-to-eat meals from the deli section of grocery stores, and delivery services
such as ber ats, all provide convenience to last minute shoppers and have created opportunities in
the specialty paper mar et, especially for e ible raps, bags, and light eight disposable pac aging,
such as paper cups.
Concern for the environment has driven a demand for more sus-
tainable materials. he ideal materials are not only bio based, but
are also reusable, recyclable and compostable. aper scores ell
in all these categories, although it is not uite as suitable as plastic
for re use pac aging formats, but in all other categories it is a bet-
ter environmental choice. here is thus an opportunity to s itch
some materials from plastic to specialty papers. ncluded in this
trend is a desire to move, here feasible, from multilayer pac a-
ging made of paper, plastic and aluminium, to paper based pac a-
ging ith ater based barrier coatings.
ater based barrier coatings for specialty paper products are being developed
to replace less recyclable alternatives, such as poly laminated papers or e tru-
ded polyethylene layers. Bio based a products, hich are bio sourced com-
postable products, can replace paraffin a for ater resistant products.
unctional coatings can also be applied to paper
The supply chain for specialty papers
to impart such properties as antimicrobial acti-
vity. ndustry . has brought together computing
power, wireless networks, internet, cloud storage
and other ne tools. ombined ith state of the
art papermaking equipment, papermakers can now
precisely control paper quality and make faster
grade changes, allowing more uniform, higher qua-
lity products at a lo er cost.
hile these ne technologies are being imple-
mented in , there are still some unmet goals
that could become closer to being met by .
aper is finding more ays to replace plastic, for
e ample in a ne ood based hermocell material
developed by in inland. he plastics industry is Source: Smithers
developing bio based and compostable polymers, North and South American specialty paper
hich may contend ith paper based solutions if sales by country, 2015–25 (‘000 tonnes)
www.steanalytics.com
info@steanalytics.com
Hiilikatu 3, 00180 Helsinki, Finland
Market TRENDS
P
Private labels have rivate labels have managed to gain market share from
managed to gain market national brands in different consumer-packaged goods,
growing at a CAGR of 2.5% since 2015 versus the 1%
share from national
growth reported for national brands.[1] Particularly hygiene tis-
brands in different
sue products in the consumer segment, such as bath tissue
consumer-packaged and paper towels, represent one of the articles with the highest
goods, growing at a CAGR impact on the sustained growth of private labels (Fig. 1), with
of 2.5% since 2015 versus approximately 27%[2] of the current tissue market share in the
the 1% growth reported for U.S., 55% in Europe and 35%[3] worldwide.
national brands.
Previous work conducted by the Tissue Pack Innovation Lab at NC State University (www.go.ncsu.
edu/tissue) showed that the price consumers pay for bath tissue and paper towels is highly cor-
The data collected by our team demonstrates the ability of private labels to offer a great trade-off
between product performance and shelf price and helps partially explain why private labels have
been successful in gaining market share within the consumer tissue segment as depicted in Fig. 3.
The product offering of private labels within this segment aligns very well with the priorities and
behaviors of generational groups such as Millennials, which have considerably increased their pur-
chasing power with approximately $600 billion spent each year in the U.S. and projections to spend
$1.4 trillion in 2020 (30% of total retail sales).[7] Millennials primarily seek value, quality, and expe-
riences in their products,[8] which can be offered by private label paper towels. Studies have shown
that 60% of Millennials prefer to purchase private labels over national brands,[9] while it has been
reported that Millennials’ shopping carts contain 32% private labels compared to the 25% found in
the average shopping cart.[10] Millennials are also known for causing changes in sales-volume-mix for
given product categories. For instance, they are replacing napkins with paper towels, as the latter is
considered more functional and multipurpose.
Despite the efforts of national brands to target Millennials with novel products such as the giant
tissue roll by Charmin®,[12] this generational group represents one of the major driving factors for
the expansion of private labels, and thus discount grocery stores (e.g., Aldi and Lidl). The number
of discount grocery stores in the U.S. has increased by almost 45% between 2013 and 2018, and it
is forecasted to keep a sustained growth in the years ahead.[13,14] Aldi represents an example of the
future of discount retailers in the U.S. With 2,500 stores estimated by the end of 2022, the discount
supermarket chain is projected to become America’s third largest supermarket chain behind Wal-
mart and Kroger.[15] There is no doubt that this accelerated increase in the number of private label-fo-
cused retailer stores will come along with an increase in the offering of private label tissue products.
Therefore, it is highly expected for this situation to contribute to further gains in market share by
private labels.
«Evidence from the field shows National brands are performance-driven products, where high shelf
prices are required in order to compensate for their high R&D ex-
that national brands strive to offer
penses and manufacturing costs. It is essential to recognize that
performance, whereas private
performance is not the only variable affecting the shelf prices for
labels focus more on offering value national brands but attributes such as brand name, promotion, dis-
to consumers» tribution channel, and sales volume play a critical role in determi-
ning the final price paid by consumers.
On the other hand, we found that private labels are value-driven products, where the quality consu-
mers get for their money will depend on whether the tissue product is distributed by a retailer or a
wholesale club. Retailers have different sales strategies depending on how large their corporation is
and their business model.
In the case of multinational retailers such as Walmart, which offer most of the U.S. product portfo-
lio, their products (store private label) need to outperform national brands directly on the shelf. In a
practical sense, this means that consumers have the chance to stand in front of the shelf, stare at
compared both options for paper towels taking into consideration shelf price, basis weight and per-
formance (indicated by water absorbency).
Figure 4 provides a comparative overview for paper towels from private labels and their respective
advertised leading national brand. We observed a similar situation for almost all products analyzed,
where private labels offered articles having considerably lower prices, with differences that can
reach up to 40%, and a poorer performance that contradicts with the claims on the package. Howe-
ver, in most cases, the difference in price is disproportional to the difference in performance with the
former being higher, which leads users to trade-off consumer experience for savings. In addition, it
is orth mentioning that private labels e hibited a lo er use of fibers, represented by a lo er basis
eight, hich supports the strategy of sacrificing performance to offer a price competitive product.
We also analyzed the different tissue drying technologies used for manufacture of private labels
and national brands (Fig. 5). National brands exhibit a more extensive use of advanced technologies,
hich are associated ith higher manufacturing costs, such as drying energy and better uality fiber
utilization. In addition, some of the products analyzed are manufactured using patented technolo-
gies, which not only render higher quality but also the opportunity of differentiation in the Ultra seg-
ment resulting in higher shelf prices. Thus, in order to compete against national brands, private labels
bet on the use of fe er fibers and less e pensive processes to offer products that, even though
present a lower performance, are economically attractive to consumers.
References
[1]: Nielsen Global (2019). The Rise of Premium Private Label and Its Impact on Discount Retailers. Accessed March 16, 2020. https://
www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2019/the-rise-of-premium-private-label-and-its-impact-on-discount-retailers/
[2]: Uduslivaia, S. (2019.) Tissue World Magazine. Accessed January 20, 2020. https://www.tissueworldmagazine.com/country- report/nor-
theast-usa/consumer-tissue-in-the-us-from-structural-challenges-to-insurgent-dtc-brands-latest-in-the-industry-dynamic/.
[3]: Valmet (2020). Accessed January 20, 2020. https://www.valmet.com/media/articles/tissue/private-labels-challenges/#9161f39f.
[4]: de Assis, T., Reisinger, L., Dasmohapatra S., Pawlak J., Jameel H., Pal L., Kavalew D., and Gonzalez R. (2018). «Performance and sustainability
vs. the shelf price of tissue paper kitchen towels.» BioResources, 13(3), 6868-6892.
[5]: Wang, Y., Zambrano F., Venditti R., Dasmohapatra S., de Assis, T., Reisinger L., Pawlak, J., and Gonzalez R.. (2019). «Effect of Pulp Properties,
Drying Technology, and Sustainability on Bath Tissue Performance and Shelf Price.» BioResources 14(4), 9410-9428.
[6]: Cutolo, M. (2018). This Is the Best-Selling Item at Costco. Accessed March 5, 2020. https://www.rd.com/culture/costco-best-selling-item/
[7]: Donnelly, C., and Scaff R. (2013). Who Are the Millennials Shoppers? And What Do They Really Want? Accessed March 7, 2020. https://
www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-outlook-who-are-millennial-shoppers-what-do-they-really-want-retail#block-about-the-research
[8]: Rosenstrauch, E. (2019). Understanding Millennials’ Purchase Habits Regarding Private Label. Accessed March 7, 2020. https://progres-
sivegrocer.com/understanding-millennials-purchase-habits-regarding-private-label
[9]: Fromm, J., Lindell, C., and Decker L. (2011). American Millennials: Deciphering the Enigma Generation. Accessed March 7, 2020. http://www.
millennialmarketing.com/research/
[10]: Cadent Consulting Group. (2018). The Branding of Private Label. Accessed March 7, 2020. http://cadentcg.com/wp-content/uploads/The-
Branding-of-Private-Label.pdf
[11]: Schossberg, M. (2016). Millennials Are Killing the Napkin Industry. Accessed March 18, 2020. https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-
hate-napkins-2016-3
[12]: Peterson, H. (2019). Charming Created a Toilet-Paper Roll for Millennials that Lasts Up to 3 Months. Accessed March 5, 2020. https://www.
businessinsider.com/charmin-toilet-paper-roll-for-millennials-lasts-months-2019-6
[13]: Aldi South Group. (2015). International Corporate Responsibility Report 2015. Accessed March 2, 2020. https://cr.aldisouthgroup.com/
sites default files A roup nternational orporate esponsibility eport .pdf
[14]: Aldi South Group. (2017). International Corporate Responsibility Report 2017. Accessed March 2, 2020. https://cr.aldisouthgroup.com/
sites default files do nloads A roup eport .pdf
[15]: Corporate Aldi U.S. (2017). Aldi Ramps Up U.S. Expansion with Goal of 2,500 Stores by End of 2022. Accessed March 4, 2020. https://
corporate.aldi.us fileadmin fm dam ne s and a ards ress elease A ro th Announcement.pdf
T
The packaging industry he packaging industry permanently changed around three
years ago. The Blue Planet 2 programme shown world-
permanently changed
wide presented by the excellent David Attenborough
around three years ago.
painted an ugly picture. He described how our oceans are being
Blue Planet 2 has been filled ith literally millions of tonnes of plastic aste. he haun-
widely acknowledged as ting scenes of sea life trying to e tricate themselves from aste
starting a domino effect, plastic left an indelible mar on our memories and created a
starting a series of events grounds ell of action from everyone involved in pac aging.
that has changed how
we all feel about plastic Blue Planet 2 has been widely acknowledged as starting a domi-
no effect, starting a series of events that has changed ho e
packaging.
all feel about plastic pac aging. f course, the environment has
al ays been of consideration for the ma ority of brand o ners
and retailers. o ever, rather than being a nice to have , sustai-
nability is no an essential top priority for anyone that ants to sell a successful product. he Blue
lanet effect sa supermar et plastic bans, plastic free aisle trials, plastic ta plans, the outla ing
of many single use plastic items as ell as the founding of lastic acts around the orld. his has
seen many of the leading brand o ners, retailers and suppliers around the orld pledge to ma e their
pac aging recyclable, reusable or compostable by .
lastic pac aging is no under increased pressure and scrutiny. he rene ed focus on the environ-
ment and devastation of our oceans, is really all about plastic. any organisations have put strategies
in place to reduce or remove plastic from their supply chains. ther materials such as aluminium and
glass as ell as, of course, fibre based pac aging are no often the preferred alternative. his means
that e are trac ing many ne initiatives in he ac ub s nnovation one database of pac aging
innovations that are fibre based and a direct replacement for plastic.
lastic foam containers for eeping food and drin cool for outdoor
occasions are increasingly being replaced with other materials.
eading pac aging, paper and recycling leaders mith is part
of this change ith an announcement that it has produced a
recyclable disposable cooler. The solution incorporates the packa-
ging group s proprietary moisture resistant and food contact safe
reencoat corrugated material. reencoat is made of rene able
paper fibre and is biodegradable. he initiative is fully recyclable
as ell as lea proof. mith s reencoat coolers offer fully bes-
po e and customi able printing. he paper based and recyclable
option is suitable in those environments here food and beverage
contents need to stay cold. mith s durable reencoat cooler is
a good foam replacement.
increase production.
10 questions to
Michele Bianchi, CEO of RDM
Group - Reno De Medici
Founded in 1977, Paprinsa operates in the recycled White Lined Chipboard (WLC) business. The
company has both its headquarters and mill in Mollerussa, just 130 km from Barcelona and less than
one hour from the plant of RDM Barcelona Cartonboard. It manufactures 120,000 tons of recycled
chipboard, with a potential capacity of 140,000 tons. Over the past six years, Paprinsa has made signi-
ficant investments for more than million in its plant. roduction includes a ide range of grades
and grammages (from 180 to 550g).
Today, Paprinsa is the No. 2 chipboard producer in Spain, and the eighth WLC producer in Europe. The
paper mill has a trim width of 4.8 meters, which will make it the widest plant in RDM Group, as it is one of
the largest paper mills of this sector in Europe. By further exploiting this size, RDM Group can count on
a potential increase in the factory’s production capacity from the current 140,000 tons a year to over
200,000 tons a year, in line with the other top plants today part of the Group.
Ondupacart S.A. is a small corrugator manufacturer.
Fergerdell S.L. is the real estate company that owns the 30,000 sqm area on which the two manufac-
turing companies stand.
Cogeneraciò del Pla S.A. is the former cogeneration plant recently sold to Paprinsa. The company cur-
rently provides both plants with maintenance services.
. Do ou thin R D in fi re ase
pro ucts is sufficient to ma e our
industry a true alternative to fossil
economy?
CANADA
FPAC (Forest Products
Association of Canada)
Mr Derek Nighbor
President & CEO
USA
AF&PA (American
Forest and Paper
Association)
Mrs Heidi Brock
President & CEO
BRAZIL
IBA (Brazilian Tree
Industry Association)
Mr Paulo Hartung
Executive President
EUROPE INDIA
CEPI (Confederation
IPMA (Indian Paper
of European Paper
Manufacturers
Industries)
Association)
Mr Jori Ringman
Mr Rohit Pandit
Director General
Secretary General
SOUTH AFRICA
PAMSA (Paper
Manufacturers
Association of South
Africa)
Mrs Jane Molony
Executive Director
. Can ou share with us some figures for an o er the past eca e in our
countr or region
IBA
According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy of dues, charcoal, sugar cane derivatives, biodiesel,
Brazil, in 2019: wind, solar, rice husks, biogas, charcoal gas, etc.
The country’s electrical matrix has 83% origi-
The Internal Energy Supply accounted for 46.1% nated from renewable sources. Participation is
of renewable sources in the energy matrix, led by hydroelectric (63.8%), followed by wind
against a world average of 14.2%. Renewable (9.3%), biomass and biogas (8.9%) and centra-
sources are considered: hydraulics, wood resi- lized solar (1.4%). In total, the country has over
170 thousand MW of inspected power in 2019. sufficient in energy, the industry generated a
In this scenario, the sector of cultivated trees surplus of 20.8 million GJ for commercializa-
stands out, since it is one of the few Brazilian tion to the public network.
sectors that generates almost all the electricity Companies in the sector use almost exclusively
consumed in its production processes. In 2019, by-products of their processes for the genera-
there was a 4.6% increase in electricity genera- tion of thermal and electrical energy. Black liquor
tion. 78.8 million gigajoules (GJ) were produced, from cellulose production and forest biomass re-
representing 69% of what the sector consumed. present 69% and 20%, respectively, of all energy
With modern factories, in addition to being self- produced.
IPMA
Pulp & paper industry in India is very fragmented recovered paper. And as such for the industry as
and most paper mills are quite small in size com- a whole energy data is not readily available. The
pared to global standards. Different types of specific energy consumption varies significantly
raw material are also used like wood, agro resi- depending on the raw material used, amongst
due bagasse, heat stra and recycled fibre other factors.
PAMSA
We have a heavy reliance on fossil fuels for elec- tricity needs are met by national utility Eskom
tricity generation and li uid fuels beneficiation. n ith coal fired po er as the predominant tech-
2017, 5690Tj of primary energy was supplied, of nology and electricity consumption contributing
which 72.6% was from coal and 15.4% from oil. some 87% to the country’s GHG emissions.
The remaining energy supply was met by natu- According to our latest GHG Inventory, total emis-
ral gas (3.1%), nuclear (2.7%), biofuels and waste sions increased by 22.8% from 2000 to 2017 with
(5.8%), wind and solar (0.7%) and hydro (0.1%). energy’s contribution rising from 77% to 79.1%.
Our electricity consumption during 2017 was re- 559 260 Gg CO2e (excluding removals from fo-
portedly 201 929 GWh. More than 90% of elec- restry and land activity) was calculated for 2017.
AF&PA
The U.S. government does not have CO2 emis- leader in the circular economy. Paper and wood
sions reduction requirements. However, our products manufacturers know that continuous
members have taken on an emissions reduction innovation and applying new ways of thinking are
goal as part of AF&PA’s sustainability initiative. the path to a more sustainable future. As we look
ur final report on Better Practices, Better Pla- forward, we demonstrate how our industry conti-
net 2020 is due out next year, along with the nues to contribute to the United Nations Sustai-
release of our 2030 sustainability goals. Our new nable Development Goals and the broader cir-
goals will build on the progress we have made in cular economy, interacting with other industries,
the last decade, ensuring the industry remains a entities and individuals at all levels of society.
CEPI
The decarbonisation agenda is the cornerstone Moreover, the European Commission also pro-
of the EU Green Deal, which is the political pro- posed to set a new emission reduction target of
gramme of the von der Leyen Commission. An 55% by 2030, as part of the climate neutrality law.
important part of the Green Deal plan is to
reach a climate neutral economy in 2050 by From our industry perspective, the new targets
reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero present opportunities (substituting carbon in-
by 2050 and making it a legally binding commit- tensive products) and challenges (reducing our
ment. Consequently, earlier this year, the Euro- residual emissions) at the same time. These are
pean Commission proposed a climate neutrality unevenly distributed across national and regio-
law, currently under negotiations. nal realities.
IBA
The Brazilian National Congress concluded, in established that it will be necessary to restore
2016, the process of ratifying the Paris Agree- and reforest 12 million hectares of forests by
ment, creating official commitments, the so cal- 2030, for multiple uses.
led NDCs (Nationally Determined Contribution):
The sector has 9 million hectares of trees grown
■ Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 37% for industrial purposes. At the same time, it has
by 2025 (compared to 2005); areas destined for the conservation of natural
■ By 2030 this decrease should be 43%, also in forest of 5.9 million hectares, between Legal
relation to 2005. Reserve (RL), APP Permanent Preservation Area
(APP), High Conservation Value Area (AAVC) and
The cultivated tree sector has a fundamental Private Heritage Reserve Natural (RPPN). Toge-
role in this regard. First of all because it is also ther, they have 4.2 billion CO2 eq. stocked.
IPMA
India has set goals to reduce the emission nal carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2
intensity of the economy by 33-35% by 2030 equivalent through additional forest and tree
from the 2005 level, to increase the share of cover. The Government of India’s National Ac-
non-fossil fuels to 40% of the total electricity tion Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) has out-
generation capacity, and to create an additio- lined priorities for mitigation and adaptation to
combat climate change through various Natio- strengthen the mar et for energy efficiency by
nal Missions. creating a conducive regulatory and policy re-
he ation ission for nhanced nergy ffi- gime by fostering innovative policies and effec-
ciency (NMEEE), a part of NAPCC, aims to tive market instruments.
ur first o mission evelopment trategy The promulgation of Carbon Tax gives effect to
has recently been published which plots a low- the “producer pays principle” and Carbon Bud-
carbon growth trajectory to 2050, towards our gets set a maximum volume of emissions from
ultimate ambition of net zero emissions. Howe- certain activities within a set timeframe. Howe-
ver, a carefully implemented transition is requi- ver, a range of strategic interventions and struc-
red to mitigate risk to economic growth and sus- tural changes will be required to strengthen the
tainable development. country’s response to climate change through a
Government’s Integrated Resource Plan guides Just Transition.
. Do ou thin that pro ucers can e se f moti ate to re uce their emissions
or shou it e enforce aw
AF&PA
The paper and wood products industry remains work. AF&PA members meet about two-thirds
self-motivated to advance on GHG reduction of their overall energy demand through carbon-
goals. ncreasing energy efficiency is also a fun- neutral biomass. We see this as an example of
damental energy management objective, and our results-driven work helping to move the
renewable energy sources are at the heart of this needle forward on sustainability.
trality/, we would urgently need cost-competitive an effective sector integration, adequately reco-
climate-neutral fuels for industry (be it biogas, gnising energy system benefits from distributed
hydrogen, synthetic gas or others) using existing industrial generation – such as Combined Heat
infrastructures, large-scale roll-out of cost-com- and Power (CHP) facilities where our sector is an
petitive climate neutral electricity generation and industrial leader in Europe.
FPAC
Famous Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky sector has reduced its GHG emissions by nearly
once said, “I skate to where the puck is going.” 70%. FPAC believes a mix of smart regulation
(What’s a Canadian submission without a quick and a commitment to innovation will continue to
hockey reference!) support our transition to a lower carbon economy.
The same can be said about how producers in One thing we need from our government to get
Canada are addressing our energy transition. there is a clear and inclusive strategy, versus
Whether it’s been environmental improvements shifting policy frameworks. Canada is the second
to oil sands operations or investment in the forest largest country by land mass in the world, but
bioeconomy, Canadian industry has been prepa- 38th by population, and we have a colder climate
ring for the demand shift we are now seeing from than most countries – these natural factors bring
consumers. about some unique challenges as we consider
Since the 1990s, the Canadian pulp and paper energy policy, access, and affordability.
IBA
It is important to point out that the pandemic rements, among other attitudes, it is possible
has brought a new scenario to the world. It acce- to say that companies that do not adhere to a
lerated processes that were already underway, model that respect nature, the human being
such as environmental awareness, especially and do not have a governance that re ects
among young people, who currently require diversity, with these rooted values, you will not
products of correct origin; a new model of doing have longevity in business.
business, which leaves the predatory culture in Fortunately, companies in the cultivated tree
the past and promotes a low carbon economy, sector have been working for decades based on
in fact; and a new relationship between human pillars such as respect for nature, generation
beings and nature. of shared value with neighboring communities
and diversity in their leadership. All of this means
In the face of movements in the world that aim that these values are not temporary, but cultural
to stimulate a post-crisis recovery in a more for each company.
sustainable way, such as the European Green The forest-based sector is moving steadily to-
Deal, decarbonization goals, traceability requi- wards a reality based on ESG, in fact.
IPMA
Ideally, it should be a mix of both. Some enfor- duce their emissions. PAT (Perform Achieve and
cement by law is essential, while at the same Trade) Scheme, under NMEEE, is a market-based
time, producers need to be incentivised to re- mechanism to enhance cost effectiveness of
improvements in energy efficiency in energy in- (RPO) Scheme, under NAPCC, every consumer
tensive large industries through certification of of electricity has to source a given percentage
energy savings that can be traded. Large paper of electricity from renewable energy sources
mills have been given mandated targets for re- (solar and non-solar). PAT seeks to reduce ener-
duction in specific energy consumption in gy consumption and enhance energy efficiency
a given PAT cycle of three years. in select industries. REC is an initiative to maxi-
mise generation of green power from renewable
Similarly, under Renewable Purchase Obligation energy sources.
PAMSA
Our private sector implemented numerous mon vision and approach to the interventions.
energy efficiency and emissions mitigation The Climate Change Bill was welcomed by in-
measures before regulatory frameworks came dustry and is currently being discussed by rele-
into effect. With the increasing pace towards de- vant stakeholders. This will also strengthen the
carbonization, a range of policies and legislation public-private partnership and facilitate a better
are under development. However, it’s essential understanding of opportunities and constraints
that the suite of mitigation instruments is alig- to emission reduction. Policy certainty is key to
ned to ensure that all stakeholders have a com- economic investment and development.
. hat in of initiati es are preferre our mem ers when imp ementing
ow car on so utions
AF&PA
Setting and striving for new goals will help keep a chance to do more with less. Our members do
us motivated to achieve low-carbon solutions this by reusing resources, like water, multiple
in the future. We have long been responsible times over, or utilizing manufacturing residuals
stewards of our planet, and demand for pulp, and byproducts to produce biomass energy.
paper and wood products ensures that there is Setting an ambitious but achievable goal and
value in the forest and keeps forests as forests. working toward it each day is helping us improve
I also believe we can do more. Every new day is tomorrow’s environment today.
CEPI
First and foremost, pulp and paper industry com- outside of the industry’s core competences. Fi-
panies look at reducing their fossil fuel emissions nally, they look for breakthrough technologies
by investing in energ efficienc . Secondly, they in further reducing other emissions to water
look into primary energy savings by deploying and air towards the Zero Emission objective and
innovative renewable energy generation on- tap into industrial symbiosis to extract valuable
site. Thirdly, they are working in partnership with resources in those emissions; advance further in
stakeholders in the “energy value-chain” and in circularity of water management starting from
cross-sectorial platforms, to look for “outside being pioneers in water stewardship and already
of the box” solutions, tapping into expertise having high rates of water recycling.
FPAC
anada s forest sector sees significant opportu- emissions by increasing the use of forest bio-
nity in the growing forest bioeconomy. In 2018, mass in our fuel supply. In Canada, transportation
Canada’s federal and provincial forest ministers systems account for 34% of our energy usage
came together to launch the Forest Bioeconomy and are an important focal point for reductions.
Framework – a blueprint for the future of Cana- We also see the opportunity to build more with
da’s forest resources and bioproducts. wood in the built environment to move away
from more carbon-intensive materials like ce-
In addition to this framework, Canada’s forest ment and concrete and are seeing moves across
sector views the development of a Clean Fuel federal, provincial, and municipal governments
Standard to be an opportunity to lower GHG to advance this agenda.
IBA
It is a constant objective of this sector to do more and the International Organization for Standardi-
with less. The cultivation of trees for industrial zation (ISO). Altogether, 7.4 million hectares are
purposes is usually carried out in areas previous- currently certified.
ly degraded by human action and the sector has
been working on increasing its productivity on The manufacturing process also invests in caring
the land it already owns, which is already one of for the environment. In terms of energy, about
the largest in the world: an average of 35.3 m3 of the factories are self sufficient, based
ha for eucalyptus and 31.3 m3 ha for inus. n on clean energy, coming from forest biomass
fact, 100% of Brazilian pulp and paper come from and residues from the manufacturing process.
trees grown for industrial purposes. The com- The industry is also working to reduce water
panies are in states such as Rio Grande do Sul, use. Since 1970, the use of water resources has
Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Espírito Santo, fallen by 70% the use of the resource and the
Minas Gerais, Bahia and Mato Grosso do Sul. sector continues to search for more solutions
that further reduce water use.
It is worth mentioning that the area of cultivated The result of this all translates into a recyclable,
forests represents just over 1% of the national reusable and, in most cases, biodegradable ma-
territory, with 9 million hectares. terial.
Looking ahead, technology and science are
Allied to this, 5.9 million hectares are destined making the Brazilian forest-based industry take
for conservation areas of natural forest. All of years ahead of its time. There are several new
this means an area larger than Belgium, Den- uses from the cultivated tree.
mark or Switzerland, for example.
Together, these conservation and production ome e amples are microfibrillated cellulose,
areas stock about 4.48 billion CO2 eq., one of a cellulose broken down into smaller particles,
the main greenhouse gases. This sum is greater will give rise to textile threads using up to 90%
than the entire emission of the Brazilian industry less water and less chemicals than polyester.
in one year. Nanocrystalline cellulose will replace materials
lobally recogni ed certifications attest to the of fossil origin in cell phone screens, for example.
correct handling of these areas for more than Lignin, until then called a by-product, will gain ad-
two decades. The recognitions come from the ded value and may compose conventional ther-
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Program for moplastics, used in internal parts of automobiles,
the ndorsement of orest ertification which will provide greater recyclability.
IPMA
Paper industry is an energy intensive sector and ting renewable energy from biomass to the tune
paper mills in India have been working towards of 20-60% of their total electricity consumption.
better energy efficiency, employing a range of India’s paper industry has strong agroforestry
innovations and technologies. The largest 30-35 roots and through its efforts, about 125,000 hec-
paper mills are covered under the PAT Scheme. All tares are being brought under agro farm forestry
paper mills are covered under the RPO Scheme. on an annual basis, with around 1.2 million hec-
The entire residual biomass after extraction of tares on a cumulative basis across the country.
pulp fibre from ood, is used by paper mills to ge- About 58% of the total production of paper in
nerate steam and power. Paper mills are genera- India is manufactured from recovered paper.
CEPI
The European pulp and paper industry has identified as at most ris of carbon lea age.
always promoted free trade and fair com- So in a context in which the EU has already the
petition as well as sustainability as a key most stringent carbon reduction target in the
principle. And the pulp and paper industry world and is planning to further tightening it for
is and has always been among the sectors 2030 and beyond, it is indeed fair to expect that -
if foreign competitors don’t adopt the same level The EU Commission has been very vague about
of decarbonisation ambition - some measures details but is expected to put forward a proposal
have to be adopted to accompany the European in 2021 for a carbon border adjustment mecha-
industry along its decarbonisation journey and nism. But it is not a silver bullet and currently
the substantial investments it entails. we do not see it fit for our sector. It should not
be the only measure as it won’t probably address
To avoid undue competition from countries with all the challenges an industry sector like the pulp
less stringent carbon reduction policies, we and paper industry might have, with the com-
would need a basket of solutions that, inter alia, plexity of its supply chain, the need to secure the
would include: strengthening of current provi- competitiveness of its exports, the compliance
sions against the risk of carbon leakage, decar- with WTO competition rules, etc. Complemen-
bonisation programmes supporting low-carbon tary measures in a number of policy areas have to
investments in industry, strengthening of Euro- be identified to level the playing field and secure
pean industrial value-chains, policies promoting that EU manufacturing products and imported
low-carbon and sustainable products products are treated the same way.
FPAC
Canada is a free trading nation and the answer to certain commitments, we would expect tra-
to this question would really be incumbent upon ding partners to be held to the same account to
current trade agreements with the trading par- ensure a level playing field.
tners in question. That said, fairness and equity
is very important. The issue and risk of ‘carbon leakage’ is very real
Our position would simply be if Canadian require- and at the forefront of the minds of many in Ca-
ments and standards hold Canadian companies nadian industry on this topic of GHG reductions.
IBA
I believe that the search for a green economy and The movement I see gaining speed, fueled by
conservation of the environment is something the pandemic scenario, is a more demanding
of interest to everyone. Therefore, logically, eve- consumer, especially among young people. If
ryone should start from correct operations and some few decades ago the utopia was social,
businesses from the socio-environmental point today it is environmental. And the consumer
of view. However, it is a fact that there are those, dictates the rules. As a consequence, aware-
a minority, who go in the opposite direction and ness and green investment in the business sec-
loo for an immediate profit, not measuring its tor grows.
long-term consequences. A very clear example is traceability, which al-
lows us to know the origin of the product and nally advocating that the sale of carbon credits
whether the chain it has passed meets environ- be adopted and regulated nationally.
mental quality standards. The companies them-
selves are making this demand, as consumers Therefore, I believe that there are mechanisms
ask for it. that encourage the market to adopt a sustai-
nable model. This way, any type of protectio-
On the issue of carbon, I believe that we must nism is also avoided. In this globalized world
address a solution based on Article 6 of the in which we live, I think that the best thing for
Paris Agreement, which provides for the crea- everyone’s future is to encourage dialogue,
tion of regulations at the international level. collaboration, exchange of experiences, conti-
Thus, countries and companies would be able to nuous and progressive use of technology and
negotiate emissions between themselves. It is healthy competitiveness. In this way, we will
also essential that there is a fair transition from have more social actors with a sustainable foot-
the current system (Clean Development Mecha- print, not because of the fear of being charged,
nism) to the new one in Article 6. We cannot lose but because of the stimulus to gain market and
the efforts already made. In Brazil, we are inter- contribute to the planet.
PAMSA
Discussions are ongoing about the possibility plex and dynamic and any additional conditions
of carbon border tax by the EU and we reco- imposed on trading partners may result in the
gnize the potential impact that this will have migration of carbon-intensive supply chains
on our economy and international trading. to countries that do not have decarbonization
Through the development and implementation policies. This will disadvantage manufacturers
of a clear pathway towards a lower carbon eco- that are required to comply with stricter envi-
nomy, South Africa is committed to reaching ronmental legislation and may result in impor-
net ero emissions. e ill re uire green finan- ted products that are cheaper to manufacture.
cing and international support to phase in the A carbon tax border tax to level the playing
interventions. field would be one instrument to mitigate job
losses in South Africa as it transitions to a green
The international trading environment is com- economy.
A
scheduled maintenance outage is a critical part of any
Maintenance operations
mill’s operation. The downtime gives employees an oppor-
are a challenge for
tunity to complete necessary maintenance that isn’t pos-
mill managers and sible during normal operations, and it ensures the mill continues
their teams during the to run safely and efficiently. t s also important to the community.
pandemic. While some Vendors and contractors who travel to the site to assist with the
have delayed their outage support the local economy by staying in hotels, eating in
outage, others have restaurants and shopping at local businesses.
decided to maintain Earlier this year, everything was proceeding according to plan
for the Dryden Mill’s spring maintenance outage. The small com-
their original schedule
munity of about 8,000 people located in Northwestern Ontario,
to preserve the
anada, as also preparing for an in u of about vendors
industrial assets as well and contractors.
as the local economy. hen the pandemic started, and ryden ill ana-
The experience of ger Marie Cyr and her team had some tough decisions to make.
Domtar’s Dryden pulp hould they proceed ith the maintenance outage f so, could
mill in Northwestern they ensure the health and safety of employees and contractors?
Ontario, Canada, is Could they maintain proper social distancing? Could the facility
manage outside visitors in accordance with public health regu-
quite inspiring in that
lations ould the in u of outside or ers affect the health of
respect.
people living in Dryden?
With support from Domtar’s corporate leadership, the team decided to proceed with the mainte-
nance outage, but it designed a reduced work scope that focused only on tasks deemed essential
for the mill s safe and efficient operation. ore or ould be performed by mill employees, reducing
the need for outside service providers by 80 A key factor in doing this successfully was the
percent. n addition, the ma ority of the out- strong partnership established with a local ho-
side providers who were required would come tel where the contractors stayed. Contractors
from within Northwestern Ontario, eliminating were screened prior to arrival. The hotel staff
the need for travel from outside the region. The graciously provided all meals as well as accom-
change in scope also meant the outage would modations that were adequately spaced and
ta e days instead of days. thoroughly cleaned. Contractors had daily health
The team knew the plan couldn’t proceed wit- monitoring and temperature checks before lea-
hout support and guidance from local health ving the hotel. To ensure they met proper isola-
and safety authorities and Dryden community tion and social distancing requirements throu-
leaders. “As we developed our plans, we worked ghout their stay, contractors remained on hotel
closely with community partners to build unders- property when not at the mill, and they were
tanding and get their guidance,” says Marilyn accounted for with each arrival and departure.
Findlay, Dryden Mill’s health and safety manager. The maintenance outage happened between
“We wanted to cooperate and assure them that ay and une , and everything ent accor-
we could safely execute our plan.” ding to plan. he process as e tremely effi-
cient and successful, but most of all, it was safe.
Dryden Mill leaders worked with members of the
Northwestern Health Unit, the Dryden Regional Lindsay Gannon is a superintendent for Vens-
Health Centre, the City of Dryden and the Onta- hore Mechanical Ltd., one of the contractors
rio Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Deve- helping with the maintenance outage. She than-
lopment to create a detailed health and safety ked the mill team for their planning efforts. “Eve-
plan that could follo related guide- rything, from our accommodations, site access,
lines and allow the maintenance outage to occur. issuing permits and maintaining social distan-
Naturally, health and safety are always priorities cing in common areas, was well thought out. It
for the mill, but they’re even more critical during really made our job much easier.”
a pandemic — especially in Dryden, a small, re-
mote community with limited medical facilities,
located roughly ilometers miles from DRYDEN MILL SETS INDUSTRY
the nearest large city. EXAMPLE
Dryden Mayor Greg Wilson commended the
mill’s efforts to anticipate and quickly respond to The Dryden maintenance outage’s success in
local uestions about the in u of contractors by the midst of the pandemic has garne-
providing facts and figures, as ell as open ac- red national attention in Canada at a time when
cess to many third-party and internal processes. many other pulp and paper operations are consi-
dering cancelling, or have already cancelled,
“Thank you for putting so much time and effort similar maintenance outages. The mill shared its
into communicating your shutdown plans with story through Canadian industry trade associa-
us over the past few months,” he said. “Your tions, and it’s now considered a best manage-
commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our ment practice for other mills to consider.
town over the years has only served to enhance
an already strong relationship.” “2020 has brought along many new challenges
n addition to the rigorous measures already in and uncertainties to overcome,” says Domtar
place to address ris s, the mill adop- Pulp Vice President Steve Makris. “The chal-
ted enhanced protocols for facility use, cleanli- lenge presented to the Dryden team to address
ness, traffic o and personal protective e uip- safe and critical operations during a pandemic
ment . he largest consideration during the was not an easy one. But I’m proud of the pro-
maintenance outage was coordinating and ca- cess they followed to achieve a positive out-
ring for visiting contractors to ensure everyone’s come. It truly embodies Domtar’s core principles
protection during the maintenance outage. of being agile, caring and innovative.”
2. Would you say that papermakers in general are eager to try new technologies
and processes, or rather conservative?
I would say that we have papermakers in both groups. The biggest group is conservative who always
wants to have only proofed technology with plenty of references. There are also papermakers who
want to be one step or two ahead of competition and hence, willing to try something new which nobody
else has.
3. Producing paper products with the lowest carbon footprint is now a major
tren . hat in of so utions wou ou a ise first to a c ient tr ing to impro e
his environmental impact?
Number one might be lightweighting and minimizing energy consumption. The same strength pro-
perties with 10% lower gms will reduce CO2 emission almost 10%. Valmet has many components to
improve strength properties and reduce energy consumption li e refiners, multilayer headbo , sleeve
H
network of eight Performance Centers, which
owever, Remote Field Services make Val- are available 24 hours a day, serving every
met’s technology and process experts industry and geographical region. The Perfor-
around the world available, regardless of mance Centers can support onsite services by
the location or time zone. utilizing the global expert network.
“Sometimes travel to the site isn’t considered “Our Performance Centers provide access to the
sustainable – from a time and money perspec- required expertise – whether the challenges are
tive. It can also be impossible, as we’ve now seen machine-, process- or automation-related. We
during COVID-19, yet the service need is there. offer process analysis and optimization services,
Our advanced remote connections and tools as well as remote monitoring. The services provi-
mean we can offer maintenance services like ded by Performance Centers are available either
troubleshooting and inspections, conduct pre- on demand or as part of a service agreement,”
audits before scheduled site visits, or simply pro- Öhrblad says.
For pulp and paper with minimal false positives. Taking an approach
manufacturers, a robust data to data acquisition and cleansing that also leve-
strategy backed with sector rages industry expertise ensures that our mo-
dels and advanced data-driven applications are
e pertise ma imi es the benefits
accurate and therefore useful.
of Industry 4.0 technologies, such
as the latest machine learning- In this article, we discuss creating a data stra-
based soft sensors. Donald tegy that systematically combines Industry 4.0
Stanley, ChangYuan Liu and John technologies and data analysis with sector-spe-
Schroeder of ABB, explain. cific competencies, particularly as it relates to
the newest advances in soft sensors. Building
these applications based on machine learning
has been talked about for years, but only now do
I
we have the data techniques that enable these
ndustry 4.0 technologies are transforming the to be deployed as reliable, sustainable tools—
pulp and paper industry, empowering manu- especially when continuous monitoring of data-
facturers to achieve previously unseen levels empowered systems is used to mitigate the risk
of efficiency and output. his change is being of performance degradation.
fueled by data, which lies at the center of strate-
gies to provide reproduceable, robust and sus- Following a strategy that equalizes the impor-
tainable results. tance of domain know-how with data acquisi-
tion and validation ensures the best results are
However, data is almost irrelevant unless it can achieved. This also reduces production costs
be gathered and validated in a meaningful way: by minimizing raw material usage, increasing
thus, data collection and conditioning – an un- throughputs by improving equipment reliability,
glamorous, time-consuming task – is vital if we or raising quality by stabilizing processes and
are to extract valuable insights from our data automation performance.
So, what is a soft sensor? A soft sensor uses To make the most of soft sensors, they need to
various process variables to infer or estimate be integrated with controls systems by levera-
a process variable or product quality measure- ging application programming interfaces (APIs),
ment that cannot be measured in real-time or by which provide connectivity, device manage-
a physical sensor. They are an addition to labo- ment, software management, and data handling
ratory measurements, which provide valuable for various data-driven solutions. APIs are the
insight into the final properties of a reel at end backbone of online digital solutions, allowing
of production, but not during production, when data to o seamlessly through control sys-
actions can still be taken to affect the end result. tems, edge devices, cloud platforms, and online
In the world of papermaking, soft sensors can data-driven analytics solutions. This means the
be applied to many different properties inclu- output of such analytics solutions – of which
ding: sheet quality, sheet strength, sheet weight, soft sensors are one – can be made available to
kappa value in pulping processes, and wet-end control systems for monitoring and/or control
ash calculations. applications, completing step 4.
Building soft sensor models re uires a signifi- For example, soft sensors that provide measu-
cant investment in time and effort before they rements of sheet quality can stand in for tra-
can be used online in the manufacturing pro- ditional sheet measurements during start-up,
cess. Historical process and product quality sheet breaks, or while scanners are temporarily
data – the foundational inputs for soft sensor of ine for service. ith this additional insight,
development – are usually stored in different papermakers are given complete visibility of the
databases. process status and have full access to process
controls to achieve smoother transitions, faster
To create soft sensors, various exporting tools sheet break recovery, and better overall process
and techniques (examined in steps 1 and 2) are conditions.
needed to extract and synchronize this data.
Step 3 is the physical creation of the model An example would be the online prediction of
using the insightful information extracted from sheet strength – a measurement that is only
the data. When done correctly – and within the available in the laboratory. This type of soft sen-
context of a proper data strategy – soft sensors sor application – such as ABB’s Strength Virtual
bring the value of real-time measurements to Measurement—allows operators to maintain
variables that were previously only measured strength properties much closer to their lower
periodically. limits with measurements that are considerably
An online strength calculation provides more frequent The final element of a successful digital stra-
measurement to keep strength properties closer to their lower
limits, helping to reduce raw material usage and maintain quality
tegy looks beyond final installation and com-
more consistently. missioning to ensure its long-term use to its
users. The lifecycle of digitalization solutions
more frequent than those tested in the laborato- is all too often one of initial benefit, followed
ry at the end of the reel. Mills gain valuable insight by slow degradation, until they are turned off.
that can help reduce raw material consumption, To break this cycle, a system of collaborative
increase machine speed, and complete grade monitoring and continuous improvement must
changes faster. The key to creating this valuable be put in place.
insight is constructing a predictive model for the
soft sensor application that leverages process
knowledge and expertise. CONCLUSION
Online models used to predict paper proper- he benefits of ndustry . solutions are poten-
ties can only be as accurate as their architect’s tially enormous but depend on the implementa-
knowledge of the individual process. In the tion of a solid data strategy as outlined above.
case of selecting input variables to consider In particular, soft sensors can play an important
for modelling against the strength of the paper, role in allowing infrequent or even unknown
you need a deep understanding of the process variables to be predicted and used to optimize
conditions that contribute to and affect the performance. As their benefits become more
final product s strength. hese include more widely known in the industry, their use is likely to
generali ed inputs, such as eight, refining, and expand to the point where paper mills have mul-
fiber orientation, as ell as inputs that are spe- tiple paper properties that are calculated using
cifically detailed to the individual process, such soft sensors.
as the initial furnish blends and other pulp cha-
racteristics. As with all digital solutions, however, soft sen-
sors are just tools. To achieve the most value
from a digital solution requires not just the
STEPS 5 AND 6: MAKING INDUSTRY 4.0 technology but an implementation partner with
GAINS STICK a deep-level understanding of the process,
such as that found in the decades of experience
Spending all this time and effort on data collec- ABB’s had serving pulp and paper mills. Buil-
tion and validation, model building, soft sensor ding an industry-expertise-backed data stra-
development and online connectivity is worth tegy that follows a proven process will provide
nothing, however, unless improvement gains lasting value and, more importantly, the trust
can be sustained. And this brings the final t o a business needs to act on the insights digital
elements of a proper data strategy into play. technologies unlock.
T
of fiber as much as possible ithout falling
he price of raw material is forcing paper belo the re uired uality level. o ever, opti-
manufacturers to reduce production mization with conventional measures and tools
costs and further improve the efficiency has its limits, and in many cases, papermakers
ig 2: nE ficiency.
trength helps stabili e
uality uctuations and
reduce costs.
are faced with the situation that they simply lable in real time, so fiber content and basis
cannot control important uality parameters ei ht can be reduced ithout any time delays.
such as strength in a closed loop. Digital solu- he filler content, also kno n as ash content,
tions li e n fficiency. trength by oith no can be increased to achieve the re uired
offer the possibility to constantly eep trac of stren th values.
ey uality parameters to minimi e the amount
of fibers. fter e installed On fficiency.Stren th, the
basis ei ht and the ratio of fiber to ash impro-
ved substantially, says Chlepko. s a result
O MO D S C R OM ERO S of this advanced process control system, e
OPTIMIZING FIBER CONTENT could stabili e our paper manufacturin pro-
cess and are no able to proactively control
e have been usin On fficiency.Stren th paper uality. his means e can achieve the
since 2018 to consistently meet uality re ui- re uired paper uality even ith a hi her ash
rements for stiffness and thickness and thus content and lo er basis ei ht, as confirmed
optimi e the paper produced on the M 18, by our laboratory measurements.
says Peter Chlepko, Manager of the PM 18 at
ondi u ombero . In the process e he picture belo sho s the process stabili a-
are also reducin our costs, because On ffi- tion achieved at in u ombero through
ciency.Stren th provides optimum control of the installation of the n fficiency. trength
basis ei ht and ash content. control system. Following an optimization
phase, the basis eight as reduced by around
hat is other ise only possible using manual 0.5%. At the same time, the ash content was
measurements in elaborate measuring pro- increased by . , the ratio of fiber to ash op-
cesses and ith considerable additional effort
is no being done at u ombero ith virtual
sensors that calculate the data on bending stif-
fness. his continuous condition monitorin
of key uality parameters enables automated
ad ustment of the paper eb’s fiber and ash
content, hereas manual laboratory measu-
rements can take up to 0 minutes to deliver
results after samplin , and the parameters can
only be ad usted by means of manual interven-
tions, says Dr. Julius Flitsch, Director Remote
perations enter at oith aper. hanks to ptimi ation o ash and basis weight ratio or the in
the virtual sensors, stren th values are avai- u ombero .
timi ed and the entire process stabili ed, ee- ticular by the high savings potential offered
ping the uality stiffness above the specified by n fficiency. trength. his as calculated
level. beforehand in the value add assessment. “Be-
fore installin the product, e conduct a value
he real time prediction of uality parameters add assessment’ for our customers, hich cal-
and the continuous optimization of the process culates the savin s potential of On fficiency.
not only prevents uality uctuations. n ffi- Stren th based on individual customer data,
ciency. trength also enables production costs says r. litsch of oith. e then uarantee the
to be reduced hile reliably maintaining uality. savin s potential to our customer. In addition,
e reduced our costs because of better pre- e al ays individually define the parameters
diction and faster ad ustment of ash content to and actuators to be controlled dependin on
chan ed process conditions, hile maintainin customer re uirements and paper machine.
all uality parameters, says Chlepko. As a re-
sult, the use of n fficiency. trength in the
allo ed , metric tons of virgin fibers to MO D S C R OM ERO A D
be saved in the first year, hile important ua- O A S CCESS S OR
lity parameters li e bending stiffness and thic-
kness remained within target values. ondi and oith have been riting their shared
success story since as far bac as . he
collaboration bet een the t o companies be-
EO E C E C .S RE gan ith an order for the ne . n ,
R C E S A E, S A E, oith rebuilt this production line to create an
OPTIMIZE ultra modern paper machine for office papers.
e have had a very ood e perience of or-
n fficiency. trength combines three mo- kin ith Voith. lon ith the construction
dules into one high-performance control sys- of the M 18, e also successfully completed
tem and heralds a new generation of advanced numerous other pro ects to ether and ere
process control systems. The system includes therefore able to continually improve our paper
virtual sensors, also known as soft sensors, the manufacturin process, says Chlepko. Our
model predictive control unit and the collaboration ith Voith as al ays at a very
cost optimizer. A special feature of the virtual hi h level and based on a spirit of partner-
sensors is their high accuracy, as the prediction ship. Durin the On fficiency.Stren th pro ect
accuracy is typically over . oreover, the phase, e en a ed in a close, in-depth dialo .
soft sensors are self adapting and able to eep s a result, e ere able to discuss potential
their prediction accuracy at a very high level. problems and implement solutions promptly.
The virtual sensors accurately predict im- e are very proud to be able to look back on
portant uality parameters. he real time an intensive collaboration ith Mondi based
knowledge of these values allows the MPC to on a spirit of partnership, says Andreas Zangl
control the paper manufacturing process in from the oith sales team for u ombero .
such a way as to consistently achieve the tar- he re ular personal e chan es in particular
geted values by means of continuous ad ust- are very important for both parties. ith the
ment. The cost optimizer then ensures that introduction of a ne eneration of advanced
this is done at the lo est possible cost. n order process control systems for the M 18, e
to find the customer specific cost optimum, have a ain stepped up these e chan es. On f-
actuators and control strategies can be indivi- ficiency.Stren th is an e ample of ho our cus-
dually selected and e ibly adapted. tomers are continuin to evolve and are able to
benefit from the savin s potential offered by
ondi u ombero as impressed in par- our apermakin .0 product ran e.
ENTIRE MULTI-MOTOR DRIVE per machine and the pump drives. System com-
REPLACED IN NINE DAYS patibility ensured the feed-in points, motors, and
I
most of the cabling could be reused, although se-
n April 2018 Siemens put a water-cooled mul- lected drives were replaced as a preventive mea-
ti-motor drive into operation for Progroup, sure or to improve performance. As a precaution,
one of the leading manufacturers of contai- nanocrystalline toroidal tape cores ere fitted to
nerboard and corrugated board in Europe. While the outputs of both the inverters and converters
their paper mill PM1 in Burg near Magdeburg to protect the motors against bearing currents.
(Germany) was down for ten days for the ins-
tallation, the opportunity was taken to migrate At PM2, its sister paper mill in Eisenhüttenstadt,
and combine what had been separate operating Progroup has had very good experience with the
areas into the PCS 7 SIPAPER process control proven Siemens SINAMICS S120 CM (Cabinet
system at the same time. Module) converter series, since the high levels
The drive system used in the multi-motor drive of dynamism and control accuracy of this series
at PM1 had been running reliably for more than make it possible to achieve the drive parameters
15 years. To both improve machine speed and needed for the paper machine. Progroup also
enable the mill to maintain its very high availa- decided to utilize this innovative drive solution
bility level into the future, Progroup replaced the for , and ta e full advantage of the benefits
multi-motor drive of the air-cooled Masterdrive of the water-cooled frequency converters at the
converter ith efficient, innovative ater coo- same time. The presence of a cooling plant for
led converters. This forward planning means the raw water connection on-site made it easier
PM1 is already prepared for future performance to set up the converter plant ith energy effi-
enhancements. cient water cooling. The entire water-cooling
system is configured ith redundancy n the
event of failure or when required for mainte-
MULTI-MOTOR DRIVE WITH 13 MW nance purposes, the redundant system automa-
INSTALLED DRIVE POWER tically takes over. The new, space-saving cabinet
arrangement and direct heat dissipation via the
With about 41 drive circuits, the new multi-motor water circuit substantially reduced heat losses
drive includes both the variable drives in the pa- in the switchgear room.
WHY WATER-COOLING?
system with the standardized SIPAPER system or o and assembly plans ere dra n up,
solution for the fiber industry. ith it, iemens and assembly tasks like cable runs and piping
Energy provides a comprehensive tool for imple- were also performed in advance. Many different
menting process automation, drive controllers, business areas had to be coordinated, from spe-
energy supply, IT solutions, and services. cial logistics firms to electrical assembly and
assembly of the water-cooling system. Shortly
The business areas of multi-motor drives, core before the mill was powered down, all system
cutter, and roll cutter were available separately components for the multi-motor drive unde-
in various older PCS 7 versions. As part of the rwent preliminary commissioning on-site, inclu-
upgrade project, these were all uniformly migra- ding functional testing, in a separate warehouse
ted into PCS 7 V9.0 SP1, combined into a single adjacent to the paper machine.
multi-project, and structured within a client-ser-
ver architecture. Via a temporary direct access to the switchgear
room for the paper machine, more than 70 m of
The new multi-motor drive was implemented control cabinets was moved in the space of two
using the SIPAPER Drives APL standard, the core days at the beginning of the downtime. Following
cutter with the SIPAPER DCS APL standard, and connection to the prepared cables, selected
the roll cutter using the SIPAPER Winder APL water-cooled converters were put into opera-
standard. The main focus was on ensuring there tion on a partially automated basis and in close
were no changes in function for the system coordination with third-party business areas,
operators. The use of water-cooled frequency using specially developed scripts and prepared
converters for the first time made it possible to databases.
refine and implement the A rive A
standard for the WinCC/panel control system in All these elements ensured the schedule was
the redundant water circuits and DC links. The adhered to and the paper machine was ready
Comfort Panels will be used in the future for on- to be powered up after just nine days. Using the
site operation in the switchgear room. PCS 7 SIPAPER standard, system commissio-
ning of the paper machine was completed in be-
To ensure a high level of safety for operators and low ten hours. The lower noise emissions, thanks
equipment at PM1, the new automation system to the water-cooling installed in the switchgear
also includes the fail-safe S7-410 controller. room, and desired system availability level in ex-
This means the conventional emergency stop cess of 99.8 percent were both achieved.
components are replaced with fail-safe I/Os.
Safety-relevant signals are communicated via
the same bus system as the process signals. The PROJECT MANAGEMENT,
standardized, fail-safe PROFIsafe communica- CONTRACTUAL STRUCTURE, AND
tion protocol prioritizes, protects, and monitors SERVICE
the fail-safe signals. This means safety-relevant
functions can be put in place with no additional Siemens Energy was responsible for the project
installation cost, while maintaining a high level of overall, including components and systems from
e ibility in terms of signal connections and sub- the Siemens portfolio.
sequent adaptations. By making use of regional automation and drive
specialists for the fiber industry, the paper mill
can rely in the future on short response times
NINE DAYS FROM START TO FINISH – and close attention from service employees fa-
HOW WAS THAT POSSIBLE? miliar with the system.
To upgrade the existing drive system, Siemens Progroup is very happy with the water-cooled
Energy was tasked to replace the entire switch- frequency converters, and will therefore also ap-
gear during a ten-day downtime. ply this solution not only for its entire multi-mo-
Being perfectly prepared in line with plant re- tor drive system but also for the larger process
quirements was the key to success. The entire drives at its planned paper mill PM3 in Sanders-
conversion was planned beforehand in detail, dorf-Brehna.
Pulp and paper mills all over as a result of their findings they have put hat
the world are completely they have learned firmly into practice. he com-
transforming their production pany has successfully designed and built fully
processes by automating automatic, tailor made systems for some of the
most modern and efficient pulp and paper mills
and digitizing. But what about
in the orld, including ets roup s ne os i,
logistics? Logistics experts at
tora nso s matra, and aica aper s l Burgo
esmel are finding that there de bro mill.
are huge savings to be made at
pulp and paper mills by using ei as adds, “In-mill logistics have a major in-
its intelligent Material Flow How® uence on the mills’ complete lo istics chain.
concepts. Our studies have revealed that aitin times
of trucks and trains at mills can add up to more
than 0 of the total transportation time. here
«W
is enormous potential to close these aps usin
e like to think of lo istics as the intelli ent di itali ed automated arehousin .
lo han in fruit’ at pulp and he fact is it’s only hen the rail ay a ons are
paper mills. It’s an area here on the tracks and the trucks on the road that pro-
a lot of efficiencies can easily be made. says ducts are movin to their destinations. he aim
ony ei as, of esmel. “We have a lot of of esmel systems is to shorten the lead and tur-
e perience in the field and have carried out ma- naround times and basically to close those aps.
or studies on material o s at pulp and paper
mills all over the orld. e have proved that ith
the ri ht plannin and usin tailor-made lo istic SHORT PAYBACK TIME
solutions utili in di iti ed automation, there is
a potential for hu e savin s and a very speedy esmel has found that due to the increased effi-
return on investment. ciencies across the hole logistics chain, ma or
esmel e perts have not ust studied logistics savings can be made ith reduced pay bac
The Solution
illustrate the lo istics possibilities that are avai- esmel designed an automated distribution
lable as ell as take into account the future in- center at the mill hich includes a , ton
creased demands of the customer. storage high bay arehouse ith t o stac er
cranes ith a total handling capacity of ,
ton per hour. he design also included automa-
CASE STUDIES ted railroad car loading controlled by the esmel
arehouse management system.
METSÄ GROUP Äänekoski, Finland
esmel delivered an automated distribution
The Challenge center for pulp bales hich includes a ,
o develop an efficient logistic chain for a ne ton storage high bay arehouse ith a handling
pulp mill producing . million tons of pulp. f capacity of , ton per hour.
the mill output, , tons travel by rail to
elsin i for e port and , tons travel by he installation is completed ith esmel s
truc s to local customers in inland. automated management system hich is
connected to the mill s A management infor-
pecifically the mill anted to reduce the round mation system that allo s instructions, repor-
trip time for transportation of , tons of ting and information sharing across the board
pulp by rail to the ort of elsin i by more than from mill to port, and real time trac ing of a-
half, from hours to hours. t also anted to gons using throughout the delivery ourney.
O
ver the past several years, they have invested
Located near the White
over EUR 100 million on both board machines,
Sea, about 1,000 kilometers improving quality and reducing environmental
northeast of St. Petersburg, impact. BM2’s rebuild for linerboard and corrugating me-
Arkhangelsk Pulp and dium started up in 2016, including a new wet end, impro-
Paper Mill (APPM) is one vements to the drying section, a new pope reel, slitter,
of the largest producers and wrapping and handling system. A new control system
of containerboard in the was also put in place. Earlier, in 2014, BM1 underwent a
country. They produce over comprehensive rebuild, including a new wire section
for raftliner production. rom refining and
500,000 TPY of fluting and
stock preparation were completely updated. Within the
Kraft linerboard and have framework of each of these projects, all guarantees for
a total mill capacity of end products were met. Environmental goals from 2013
over 900,000 TPY, including to 2021 include water consumption cut in half, pollutant
bleached market pulp. emissions down by 65%, discharge water reduced by
An important player in 75% and greenhouse gas emissions lowered by 18,000
the European market, tons of CO2 equivalent.
their containerboard is Alongside the significant containerboard investment, the
mill is always in search of ways to improve quality and
considered a benchmark
increase capacity with little money spent. Dmitry Khra-
for quality, having a “noble” pach, board production manager, challenged his team to
brown color, reaching wonder: what if the bottleneck in BM1 screening could be
over 60 countries. Their overcome to open the way for higher productivity.
domestic market share
has risen along with export
markets in Italy, Spain and FOCUS ON THICK STOCK SCREENING FOR THE
Turkey being strong as well. BOTTOM PLY
tion is a must. asy chan es from one rade to Says Khrapach, ho says screenin is bo-
another have to be smooth. roduct appearance rin Sometimes you in bi by bein creative.
must be consistent. et, sometimes e had Simple, bold moves inside our screens improved
akes and shives in the pulp causin problems o to allo us to ma imi e output and uality.
on M1. uality problems, too. e achieved a 0 ain in screenin capacity,
s a result of comprehensive measures perfor- and stable properties of the end product - that’s
med on the machine, e increased the produc- a bi in
tion rate above desi n capacity. o ever, this
caused limitations in thick stock screenin capa-
city. So, e needed to increase the screenin INTELLIGENCE INSIDE EXISTING
capacity, hich as accomplished ithout bi SCREENS
capital investments. or this purpose e chose
, kno in that they have the kno led e and Roman Smorgunov, sales manager at AFT, points
e perience in tacklin such tasks. out that the new rotors achieve lower reject thic-
AFT’s Roman Smorgunov, Jussi Karppinen and kening than the OEM rotor, meaning that rejects
Tarmo Karioja helped APPM with modelling are reduced despite similar re ect o s. A
BM1’s bottom-ply thick stock screening and still closely monitors for uctuating consistency,
mapping out o changes inside the screens. A but can do so calmly, even during peak produc-
imAudit mass and o balance analysis re- tion of the board machine.
vealed that major productivity and quality gains Khrapach says, Since makin the chan es, the
were possible. The screen room was limited by screens have run smoothly for over a year, so far.
inefficient rotors and insufficient open area in Operators and the maintenance team can focus
the cylinders. on other obs.
AFT recommended changing over to new high Khrapach continues, Our discussions ith
efficiency rotors and cylinders ith op- applications e perts are al ays productive be-
timi ed open area and profile in all three stages cause of the ay e brainstorm ideas. he best
to improve pulp throughput, hile not sacrificing results are reached throu h creative problem
the accept pulp quality. All three stages employ solvin and cooperation. e kno our mill ell
acro lo cylinders and high efficiency and has an in-depth understandin of pulp
rotors. and paper processes.
APPM went with the recommendations and also
made necessary engineering modifications to With a laugh Khrapach concludes, ecause
the BM1 thick stock screening system, including every production site is a livin or anism, there
pumps, pipes, valves. The project was completed are never-endin challen es. ut that’s a ood
in 2018 with all expectations met. thin as it keeps us alert at all times
1. Dmitry Khrapach, board production manager, (right) and Roman 4. Denis Sergeev and Elena Saiko, pulp mill control room operators
Smorgunov, AFT specialist. with their boss, Vadim Moseev.
2. BM2 operator observes quality as the sheet comes off of BM2. 5. Vadim Moseev, pulp production manager at Arkhangelsk Pulp
3. A wide range of hardwood and some softwood is used at APPM, and Paper Mill.
coming from expansive forests within a 350 kilometer range.
MAXIMIZING FIBER FOR MARKET PULP All objectives for this screen conversion project
were achieved, including:
Producing over 1,000 t/day of pulp, including ■ reduction of fiber deposits on the evaporation
ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free) since 2019, they equipment
cook, screen, wash and bleach birch and aspen ■ ncreased fiber recovery and returning the fiber
for their own machines and produce bleached to the pulp output
market pulp for customers. When they bleach, ■ Running the system in a hermetic environment,
they use hydrogen peroxide as a bleaching without any emissions
agent, replacing sodium hypochlorite. ■ Running a single screen to handle all of the
mill s blac li uor o
According to Vadim Moseev, head of APPM
pulp production, their ecologically pure product Continues Moseev, ecause has been a par-
allows for greener, safer pulp production and end tner for a lon time, our pulp mill has ained many
products. e considers this to be a competitive advanta es from their kno -ho , especially
advantage of Arkhangelsk APPM on both the around cylinders for screenin . heir kno led e
Russian and world market. Of note, however, he is valued by our team as an e tension of us.
believes that market pulp requirements demand Back to the point about problems, Moseev quips,
constant attention to even the smallest issues in hen unsolved problems and little issues are
the process. accumulated, it ets messy. I ill say it another
ay... there are no little issues in our business.
Recently, Moseev and his team decided to re- ll the issues that arise in the course of our busi-
duce fiber deposits on evaporation e uipment ness re uire a prompt response.
and increase fiber recovery.
Moseev remarks, Small problems can become
bi problems, so e address them early. e WHAT’S NEXT AT APPM?
decided to repurpose an old screen to handle
all black li uor o for our hard ood and ookin ahead, optimi ation could include
soft ood Kraft production, hich runs at 80- replacin screens for paper production. Says
110 C. he oal of the conversion as to reco- Khrapach, ith our productivity ains helpin
ver more fiber from the black li uor stream and pay for ne t steps, e are al ays lookin for ne
meet capacity ob ectives. e looked to to ays to meet market needs as they chan e.
make this happen. very production site is a livin or anism. here
are al ays never-endin challen es. hat’s hy
According to Tarmo Karioja, AFT project mana- e count on the people to discuss problems,
ger, who provided technical support for the pro- and help us solve them. Our recent advances
ject, ith our ussian team, e reconfi ured make it possible to fi ure out the ne t steps.
the inside of the screen and ho the unit as According to Risto Weckroth, general manager
controlled. he up rade included an Cb with AFT, M has become a star in packa in
rotor and lectrobeam drilled cylinder alon ith in ussia. hey are part of an increasin ly dyna-
preliminary layout, pipin and process en inee- mic and e citin marketplace. e plan to sup-
rin . In addition, ne control valves and opera- port their ro th ith innovation, especially ith
tin lo ic ere built around the old ooper pres- e istin e uipment that can reach a hi her level
sure screen and e istin DCS system. of performance.
aft-global.com
TECHNICAL INSIGHT
1 4
3
SAICA Champblain, France, has Adds Brouty, “Better work conditions and safety
are important gains for mill operators and wor-
achieved a forming section
kers. The value of eliminating mist at the wet end
breakthrough-mist elimination cannot be under estimated.”
and fewer showers at the wet end
made possible with the Kadant
M-clean™ system. Combined FORMING CLEANLINESS — HOW IT
with M-clean units to remove HAPPENS
contaminants from dryer fabrics,
SAICA now enjoys major water and The M-clean unit traverses the forming section,
using high-pressure water in combination with a
energy savings, as well as greater
robust evacuation and air knife system. By clea-
ease to increase productivity. ning on top and underneath, this opens the pores
of the forming fabric. Contaminants and water
are then separated in a cyclone.
A
Says Ludovic Veyre, applications engineer with
ccording to Pierre Henri Brouty, project Kadant Lamort, “SAICA’s forming section inno-
engineer and innovations team leader vation is a major technological breakthrough
with SAICA Champblain, “Removing for the papermaking process. The extraction of
forward showers from our Bel Baie Sup MAP contaminants for a 8,700 mm fabric width wit-
60 forming section allows us to sharply reduce
habitual mist. With this M-clean unit we use only
7 m3/day of water, compared to 500 m3/day for
“Pioneering efforts at the forming
this task. We start up in 3-4 hours less time.” section with M-clean is paying
off. Major reductions in water
Brouty notes that their pioneering effort at the consumption and improved safety
forming section is a natural progression from the happen because of elimination of
cleanliness already achieved with M-clean units showers mportant gains in efficienc
at the dryer sections of both paper machines,
and sustainability result.”
where runnability is up.
Pierre-Henri Brouty, SAICA Champblain
hout the traditional fog is noteworthy. Saving so productivity on a continuous basis. Because they
much fresh water compared with conventional are runnin so clean, they had the confidence to
systems on this position matters a lot to them.” try this approach at the forming section.
Adds Veyre, “SAICA Champblain was bold. This Forming fabrics are more sensitive than dryer
transformation was like changing to an electric fabrics, so this required numerous pre-testing
car. Add to this the strange fact that understan- trials in Sweden on our trial machine. This effort
ding the mist allowed operators to know the sys- allowed for a plug and play installation at SAICA
tem was working. Avoiding breaks without fog Champblain.”
was not immediately easy!”
CLEANER DRYER SECTION, THE
CONTAMINANTS REMOVED IN DRYING STARTING POINT
In fact, M-clean for the dryer section has become Over the past several years SAICA Champblain
a de facto standard at SAICA. The Saica Group has systematically improved dryer section per-
already uses 43 M-clean units across their mills formance through better control of stickies,
in Europe, contributing to productivity optimiza- gaining uniformity with sheet properties, while
tion, increased energy performance and impro- saving energy. Installation of M-clean units has
ved process efficiency. played an important role in high cleaning effi-
Keeping the paper machines clean is a constant ciency, resulting in better energy performance
issue at SAICA in Champblain, where 100% re- of their MAP 50 - MAP 60 machines.
cycled furnish is varied. Considering the 1,500
mpm or greater speed of their paper machines, WHAT’S NEXT AT SAICA CHAMPBLAIN?
represents an ongoing challenge.
“Pioneering is our way of being. We like the
As Robin Moritz, sales director for Kadant Nordic challenges from innovation, especially when we
suggests, “M-clean installed at dryer sections has make sustainability and productivity gains. And
allowed the SAICA team to ramp up quality and it’s fun,” concludes Brouty.
A
to more unpredictability s consumers around the world actively stockpiled sup-
than any of us could plies and household staple items, tissue makers were
pushed to maximize production. In some countries, bath
have imagined. Stay-
tissue sales increased by more than 50% during the early months
at-home orders, social
of the pandemic. Though machine utilization rates spiked to
distancing guidelines nearly , there ere still difficulties meeting demand. or
and consumer panic Solenis, being part of a larger effort to help customers increase
buying have created output through higher production efficiency as an opportunity
major irregularities to transform our expertise and capabilities into tangible bene-
in tissue and towel fits for our customers and, ultimately, for consumers ho rely
market dynamics and on their products every day. Our teams partnered with tissue
makers across the globe to help optimize wet-end process and
consumption patterns.
coating stability to improve productivity and paper quality. These
These challenges
efforts have helped multiple customers achieve record machine
also present a great speeds to meet the unexpected surge in demand.
opportunity to help tissue Beyond great chemistry and applications, many of our custo-
and towel producers mers have also leveraged the Solenis OPTIX™ Applied Intelli-
adapt and respond to gence adaptive analytics platform to optimize their paperma-
these sudden changes. king processes and meet quality targets. We have documented
successes in reducing off-spec tissue production by helping
customers significantly improve et tensile target adherence
and reduce variability.
Richard Cho has held the position of global marketing director for Sole-
nis Tissue & Towel since 2016. In this role, he is responsible for develo-
ping the global strategy, driving the innovation pipeline and leading digital
communication for this vertical market. Prior to Solenis, Richard was the
director of global marketing for Industrial Specialties at Ashland. Earlier
in his career, Richard held brand management positions at Diageo and
Campbell Soup Company. He holds a Master of Science from the Univer-
sity of Massachusetts at Amherst.
This has forced some tissue makers to switch from higher quality
office aste to lo er uality alternatives, hich can result in lo er
strength and increased wet-end contamination. We have collabo-
rated with a number of these tissue manufacturers, helping them
Stay-at-home orders, social distancing guidelines and consumer panic
evaluate and modify their dry-strength and contaminant control buying have created major irregularities in tissue and towel market dyna-
solutions to overcome these challenges. mics and consumption patterns. These challenges present opportunities
for companies like Solenis to help customers adapt and respond.
Solenis has helped tissue makers optimize wet-end process and coating stability to improve
productivity and paper quality. These efforts have led to record machine speeds to meet the
unexpected surge in demand. In addition, many customers have leveraged the Solenis OPTIX™
Applied Intelligence adaptive analytics platform to optimize papermaking processes and meet
uality targets, with documented success in lowering o -spec tissue production by signifi-
cantly improving wet tensile target adherence and reducing variability.
Solenis is well-positioned to help tissue makers produce more — and higher qua-
lity paper to els. ur e tended net or of field professionals and application
experts collaborate directly with paper producers to customize solutions to their
unique needs. At the same time, our global manufacturing footprint allows us to
deliver a variety of et and dry strength products efficiently and cost effectively
to any mill, anywhere in the world. Our additives have enabled towel producers in
all regions to enhance product quality in the areas of wet strength (for improved
durability when used with disinfectants/cleaners), absorbency and scrubbability
(to ensure the towel can clean a wider surface area).
Post-COVID-19, the world will likely operate very differently. Suppliers must evolve
as much as the customers they serve, which is why Solenis is actively working to
enhance, e tend and redefine our capabilities to align ith the changing orld.
We have an exciting pipeline of new activities planned for the next 12 months and
look forward to helping producers navigate through these tumultuous times.
Stora Enso converted one of its with them,” states Stora Enso’s Biomaterials
bale-based market pulp lines Division.
into a so t ood u pulp line and
increased its u pulp capacity Stora Enso’s Skutskär Mill in eastern Sweden is
a modern pulp mill that primarily produces uff
at Skutskär Mill in Sweden. Bellmer
pulp for diapers, other hygiene products and
as selected as their technology
non ovens, but also pulp for li uid pac aging
partner. board and speciality papers. he mill s total an-
nual capacity is tonnes of B pulp,
soft ood uff pulp and bleached hard ood
T
birch pulp.
he 26 million euro investment enhanced
uts r ill s profitability and long term
competitiveness by increasing uff pro- FLUFF PULP
duction by tonnes annually. he mill s “NATURAFLUFF BY STORA ENSO”
total uff pulp capacity after the investment is
415 000 tonnes. According to the company, atura luff by tora
nso is the idest range of uff pulp grades on
“Both hygiene and non-woven products are the mar et, including a completely chlorine free
a fast-growing market. This investment has bleached uff pulp. After the investment, uts-
enabled us to support the growth of our custo- r ill no produces tons of uff pulp
mers and further develop this business together per year.
4. Operador desk.
5. Empty spool lifting.
■ An automatic core feeding table and pivoting
device to load ne cores bet een the drums.
Skutsk r Mill started manufacturin uff pulp ■ ast and accurate automatic slitter positioning
in 1969. We have long been the largest manu- for pairs of bottom and top slitters.
facturer of this pulp in Europe. In the last couple ■ eparation fingers after the slitting to force
of years, we have only strengthened our posi- the ebs to separate.
tion. Demand for uff pulp is ro in by per ■ eb feeding ith vacuum and driven belts.
cent a year globally,” says enri olm, irector ■ A parent roll transporting system, B -
of tora nso uts r ill. ransporter from reel to un inder. An auto-
matic empty reel spool return system was also
tora nso studied the transformation or for included.
four years ith various e uipment suppliers be-
fore deciding to carry out the pro ect ith Bell- he formation of the uff pulp must be ood
mer. he moderni ation as large and included and the quality must be just right, since the pulp
a ne dilution controlled headbo , ater remo- is used directly in the converter’s end products.
val improvements at the ire section, a ne reel hat is hy e needed to make si nificant im-
and a inder, including complete automation provements also to the production line’s wet
and controls. he reel delivery also included an end. We replaced the wire section and installed
automatic return system for bringing empty a new headbox,” says Henrik Holm.
spools bac to the reel spool storage. As this is
a s ing dryer machine that can produce both “A key part of the conversion was, however, the
sheets and rolls from pulp, the pro ect included a new winder, which Bellmer supplied seamlessly
y over section to pass the eb over the cutter in co-operation ith us. ellmer as e ible, as
lay boy to the ne reel at the dry end. when we had an idea, they were quick to deve-
lop it. Solutions emerged smoothly,” says Holm.
TurboWinder by Bellmer
CUSTOMER-FOCUSSED PRODUCT
Bellmer s scope of the turn ey delivery as very DEVELOPMENT
detailed. It included:
“Effective threading through the winder is cru-
■ Automatic set change ith tape applicators cial for a uff eb due to its thickness 0
to fasten shipping roll tails to the roll body. m2). We improved the web threading to wind-up
■ A traversing cutting device. section by installing driven belts instead of air
■ eb holders to maintain tension during set blows,” says Bellmer s sales manager Ahti ei-
change. ponen.
■ ffective and reliable eb separation after the
slitters, ith t o spreader rolls mounted in an “Fluff pulp, winded to the desired customer
ad ustable frame. reel dimensions at the automatic winder, is de-
PaperWeek Canada (Virtual) TappiCon 2021 Tissue World Europe - New dates
Online event Atlanta, USA Dusseldorf, Germany
8/2/21 - 12/2/21 25/4/21 - 28/4/21 21/9/21 - 23/9/21
paperweek.ca tappicon.org tissueworld.com/dusseldorf/
CONTRIBUTORS AND PARTNERS IBA, the Brazilian Tree Industry association, is Siemens through its fiber industry division, aims
ABB offers end-to-end solutions for pulping and reponsible for institutionally representing the at making pulp and paper production more
papermaking to support the entire value chain - planted tree production chain • environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and
from woodyard to shipment, from mill to enterprise • www.iba.org profitable • www.siemens.com
www.new.abb.com/pulp-paper IPMA, the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association, is Smithers is a recognized provider of strategic
AF&PA is the American Forest & Paper Association a national industry body representing the resurgent market research reports, uniting a global
serves to advance a sustainable U.S. pulp, and organized face of paper industry in India • network of industry experts and extensive
paper, packaging, tissue and wood products www.ipma.co.in industry knowledge • www.smithers.com
manufacturing industry • www.afandpa.org Kadant is a global supplier of high-value, critical Solenis is a chemical company helping its
AFT brings innovative technologies, equipment components and engineered systems used in customers improve their profitability by helping
and services to support our customers in stock process industries worldwide • www.kadant.com them solve their process and water treatment
preparation • www.aft-global.com M-clean is a modular cleaning system for fabrics, challenges • www.solenis.com
Bellmer is a German based company offering belts, and rolls in process industries proposed STE Analytics is a business intelligence
all sorts of complete paper machines and board by Kadant • www.kadant.com/en-us/products/ company focusing in mathematical business
machines for the production of mass papers, modular-shower-systems models and simulation • www.steanalytics.com
specialty papers, packaging grades or board • McKinsey is a global consulting firm helping ThePackHub is a packaging innovation
www.bellmer.com clients strengthen their strategies, operations, and consultancy specialising in the delivery of
CEPI is the European association representing the organizations. Its Paper, Forest Products & Packaging technical and innovative packaging solutions
paper industry. Through its 18 national associations, division offers extensive expertise in this sector • for brand owners, retailers and packaging
Cepi gathers 500 companies operating 895 mills www.mckinsey.com/industries/paper-forest- suppliers • www.thepackhub.com
across Europe • www.cepi.org products-and-packaging The Tissue Pack Innovation Lab (TPIL) is a
Demag Cranes is one of the world’s leading PAMSA is The Paper Manufacturers Association research partner and a source for industry
manufacturers of powerful and reliable industrial of South Africa (PAMSA), is acknowledged as the training, hosted by the North Carolina State
cranes, crane components and drives • national ‘voice of the pulp and paper industry’ • University • www.ncsu.edu
www.demagcranes.com www.thepaperstory.co.za https://research.cnr.ncsu.edu/sites/tissuelab/
Domtar manufactures, markets and distributes Pesmel has more than 40 years of experience in Valmet is a developer and supplier of
a wide variety of communication and specialty delivering solutions that improve material flows and technologies, automation and services for the
papers, market pulp and absorbent hygiene logistics at different types of manufacturing facilities pulp, paper and energy industries worldwide •
products • www.domtar.com • www.pesmel.com www.valmet.com
FPAC provides a voice for Canada’s wood, pulp and Runtech/Gardner Denver is a reliable partner Voith is a global player offering real
paper producers nationally and internationally in providing solutions to improve the runnability and product solutions that facilitate intelligent,
government, trade, and environmental affairs • efficiency of tissue, board, paper and pulp machines interconnected paper manufacturing •
www.fpac.ca • www.gardnerdenver.com www.voith.com
Solutions for
reliable processes
www.demagcranes.com