Breakthrough technologies unveiled at Paper Week
Breakthrough technologies for the pulp and paper industry unveiled at European Paper Week, according to Paper Age.
At this years European Paper Week gathering in Brussels, the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI), unveiled eight concepts for breakthrough technologies that provide solutions which can enable the future of the industry in Europe. Each solution offers opportunity to create value, reduce costs, improve margins, radically change sector operations and allow massive decarbonisation.
" The results are beyond expectations. While we have announced a winner, we are confident that all the shortlisted concepts have an important role to play, says Teresa Presas, CEPI.
In March 2011 the European Commission set a challenging target of -80% CO2 reductions by 2050. In November 2011 the paper industry launched its own 2050 Roadmap that analysed how to achieve this decarbonisation target while increasing value in the sector by 50%.
One year later, the industry followed up by launching the Two Team Project which brought together the teams who have developed the eight concepts announced.
In this year-long competition, two teams comprising of scientists, companies, suppliers and outsiders worked to identify viable concepts that would help the industry achieve its objectives.
And the winner is
Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard announced the winning team and winning concept from among the eight finalists. She praised the efforts of the sector: Global markets for resource and energy efficient solutions will grow. CEPI Roadmap 2050 and the ideas prepared in the Two Team Project show that the European pulp and paper industry is 'technology conscious' and ready for the future challenges. It's an example to be followed by other sectors.
The winning concept is known as deep eutectic solvents. It is a brand new technology which, at low temperatures, breaks biomass down into constituent parts which can then be used in the paper and pulp industries.
If utilised at scale this technology could radically change pulp and paper production around the world and replace some of the most energy intensive parts of the current process. Deep eutectic solvents have seen remarkable results at the laboratory scale. In the coming months and years, they will need to be further studied and developed.
Commenting on the outcome of the competition, Teresa Presas, CEPI Director General, said: The results are beyond expectations;
" While we have announced a winner, we are confident that all the shortlisted concepts have an important role to play. We believe the teams have found the key to the largest industrial breakthroughs in decades in our industry. Now policy must be developed to support the development of these technologies".
Box/ THE EIGHT BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES
Deep Eutectic Solvents (the winner). A ground-breaking discovery: Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) produced by plants, opens the way to produce pulp at low temperatures and at atmospheric pressure. Using DES, any type of biomass could be dissolved into lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose with minimal energy, emissions and residues. They could also be used to recover cellulose from waste and dissolve ink residues in recovered paper.
Flash condensing with Steam. Waterless paper production? Very nearly. Largely dry fibres would be blasted into a forming zone with agitated steam and condensed into a web using one-thousandth the volume of water used today.
Steam. Using more energy to use less? You read it right. Using the full power of pure steam for superheated steam drying would save energy as most heat could be recovered and recycled. Steam will then be used as fibre carrier for making and forming paper.
Supercritical CO2. Neither gas nor liquid but somewhere in between, Supercritical CO2 is widely used in many applications, to dry vegetable, fruits and flowers, extract essential oils or spices. Suppliers for large consumer items use it to dye textile. Coffee and tea have been decaffeinated with scCO2 since the early 80s. We could use it to dry pulp and paper without the need for heat and steam, and why not dye paper or remove contaminants too, while were at it?
100% electricity. Shifting pulp and paper production to energy-efficient technologies using electricity rather than fossil fuel power to generate heat will cut all CO2 emissions as the power sector shifts to renewable energy. The sector would also provide a buffer and storage capacity for the grid, storing energy as hydrogen or pulp.
DryPulp for cure-formed paper. Imagine a papermaking process that uses no water. This is it. Fibres are treated to protect them from shear, and then suspended in a viscous solution at up to 40% concentration. The solution is then pressed out and the thin sheet cured with a choice of additives to deliver the end-product required.
Functional Surface. The key to unlocking greater added value from fewer resources depends on a shift to producing more lightweight products, and selling surface area and functionality rather than weight. Advances in sheet formation and new cocktails of raw materials will lead the way to the lightweight future.
The Toolbox to replicate. What about the great ideas that never make it? Put together a combination of process, material and equipment innovations as a toolbox of stepping stones to 2050 and the pathway becomes clearer, boosting sector and investor confidence.
Source: CEPI
