Pulp & Paper Canada July/August 2011

July/August 2011

www.pulpandpapercanada.com

The pull of

CHINA and five other industry trends you need to know

• Labour forecast • Technology: SPCI show report • PacWest review AN OFFICIAL PARTNER OF THE PULP AND PAPER TECHNICAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA. p 01 cover.indd 1

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We are dedicated to customer success Our customers are at the center of everything we do. Built on our offering and expertise in water quality and quantity management (WQQM) and fiber chemistry, we add value for our customers’ processes. Our solutions not only improve your paper quality, but also help you to make better use of scarce resources like water, energy and fibers.

From pulp to paper, we are dedicated to your success.

Kemira 570 boulevard St-Jean Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada H9R 3J9 +514-457-0000 www.kemira.com

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www.pulpandpapercanada.com

JULY/AUGUST 2011 Vol. 112, No. 4 PRINT EDITION ISSN 0316-4004

A Business Information Group Publication ON-LINE EDITION ISSN 1923-3515

FEATURES

10 12 14 16 18 20 30

THE CHINA CONNECTION

14

SPCI SHOW REPORT

18

LIGNOBOOST IN ACTION

20

PacWest Sizzles with Vitality PacWest had a powerful line-up of business speakers, high quality technical papers and a positive vibe.

Workers Wanted In the best-case scenario, the Canadian forest products sector could need 120,000 new employees over the next decade, according to a new study.

The China Connection and Other Global Trends The pull of China and the uncertainty surrounding bio-products are changing the rules in the global pulp and paper market.

Brazil: Concerns and Challenges A chat with a few Brazilian executives reveals that they share some concerns with the Canadian industry, but seven-year rotation and genetically modified trees are not among them.

Get Smart This year at SPCI, it’s all about being smart. Be smart about collecting process data, be smart about sharing that data, and be smart about the chemicals you use.

Boost Your “Green” Credentials Metso’s Lignoboost process provides kraft mills with a simple, efficient method to isolate lignin and use it as a biofuel or sell it for bioproducts.

Technical Innovation’s Role in Delivering Competitive Advantage We may have no control over economies of scale or our climate, says Canfor Pulp CEO Joe Nemeth, but we should have the foresight and courage to exploit the competitive advantages we do have.

IN EVERY ISSUE

TECHNICAL PAPERS

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Saving Electrical Energy by Alkaline Peroxide Pretreatment of TMP Prior to Low Consistency Refining Highly alkaline peroxide treatments resulted in gains in pulp properties that would allow reduced energy input in second-stage refining.

By X. F. Chang, C. Bridges, D. Vu, D. Kuan, L. Kuang, J.A. Olson, A. Luukonen (all of UBC), and R.P. Beatson (BCIT)

pulpandpapercanada.com

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4 6 28 29

Editorial News Technology News Classified Ads

MISSION STATEMENT:

To promote the pulp and paper industry in Canada by publishing news of the people and their innovations in research, technology, management and financing, as well as forecasts of future trends.

Authorized to publish papers of the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada, which are identified by the symbol Serving the industry since 1903.

July/August 2011 PULP & PAPER CANADA

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EDITORIAL

We’re not just about cutting down trees

T

he press release reads: “International Paper Named to IDG Computerworld’s 2011 List of Best Places to Work in Information Technology”.

Interesting in its incongruity. Who would’ve thought that a manufacturing company would be a good place for an IT specialist to work? Well, anybody who works in manufacturing would have. We know that manufacturing companies are multi-dimensional, challenging, and rewarding places to work.

What’s more, if you get into the pulp or paper manufacturing field, you can have your IT career, or your sales career, or your HR career, while not wasting hours of your personal time stuck in traffic.

The release goes on to say that International Paper was recognized as an organization that challenges its IT staff, and offers great benefits and compensation.

The “great benefits and compensation” portion may not be true of other pulp and paper companies. The recent labour survey compiled by the Forest Products Sector Council, which you can read about on page 12, is somewhat ambiguous on that point. Some respondents say that compensation is one reason they stay in their forest products job, while others cite better pay and benefits in other industries as the reason for leaving pulp and paper.

Looking beyond the strictly financial definition of compensation, some people would consider the opportunity to live and work in a rural community one of the perks, and consider it part of the overall compensation.

The Alberta Forest Products Association’s Work Wild video does a good job of encouraging young people to choose jobs in forest products so they can work and live in the great outdoors (www.workwild.ca). But we also need to show them the breadth of opportunities available in the forest products industry, and reassure young people that forest products is a high-tech industry, and a growing one.

A related tidbit from the FPSC report is that 30% to 40% of the companies surveyed said they expect to bring new products and processes, such as bioenergy, new engineered wood products, biorefining and wood chemicals, online within the next five years.

The backbone of the forest products industry will remain lumber, pulp and paper. But around that backbone, the structure is changing, and change brings opportunity. To convince new recruits, we might have to take that message to city schools and oil-patch towns.

Study the FPSC report (the full report is available online at www.fpsc-cspf.ca), think about its implications, and then think about how you are going to be an ambasCindy Macdonald Editor sador for our industry.

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PULP & PAPER CANADA July/August 2011

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EDITORIAL Editor CINDY MACDONALD 416-510-6755 cindy@pulpandpapercanada.com Sustaining member, Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada; Member, Canadian Business Press and Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Contributing Editors HEATHER LYNCH ADVISORY BOARD Richard Foucault Greg Hay Dr. Richard Kerekes Barbara van Lierop Dr. David McDonald Dennis McNinch Dr. Yonghao Ni Bryant Prosser Dr. Paul Stuart Ross Williams

Indexed by: Canadian Business Periodicals Index; Abstract Bulletin, The Institute of Paper Science and Technology; Materials Science Citation Index

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Canfor Pulp invests $10 million in pulp quality monitoring and research

Canfor Pulp has announced major investments related to innovation in pulp production: installation of advanced pulp quality monitoring systems at three B.C. mills, an in-house lab, and support for research activities at two British Columbia universities.

Joe Nemeth, president and CEO of Canfor Pulp LP, announced $10-million in investments at a ceremony opening the new Canfor Pulp Innovation Centre in Burnaby, B.C. CPLP is the largest producer of market kraft pulp in British Columbia, and the third largest in the world.

Nemeth stated that innovation “is the cornerstone of globally successful companies. This major investment of more than $10 million is aimed at

securing our future as a global leader in pulp.”

Canfor Pulp has partnered with government and equipment suppliers to implement advanced sensing technology in all three of the company’s Prince George mills. Canfor Pulp’s investment of $8 million in these technologies will include the Metso Quality Vision System, the Eurocon PulpEye and two sensors developed by FPInnovations.

The FPInnovations sensors consist of a patented fibre wall thickness measurement sensor and a specialized wood chip sensor.

This comprehensive initiative in sensing technology is supported by matching funding of $2.4 million from Natural Resources Canada and $2.1 million

from the BC Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands. It will provide CPLP with unique capabilities for monitoring the quality of its fibres on-line and thereby provide information to adjust operations and maximize pulp value recovery.

Metso will supply its advanced process and quality vision system, Metso PQV, to the mills. Through faster, more accurate, and more efficient detection of defects in the produced pulp, it is expected the mills will improve quality control.

Metso PQV uses advanced highresolution, high-speed digital imaging technology, and integrates web quality inspection and web break analysis capabilities.

The Metso systems were delivered in March 2011 and will be fully operational in the fall.

The Canfor Pulp Innovation Centre will have an annual operating budget of $2 million, a 6,400 sq. ft. laboratory, and a staff of nine. Key equipment items in the centre are a pilot refiner for simulating paper mill treatment of pulps, and extensive, advanced technical instruments for testing pulp and paper.

Complementing CPLP’s in-house research, Nemeth also announced the company’s commitment to a new research grant program: a collaboration between CPLP and the University of British Columbia and the University of Northern British Columbia. The program will provide a total of $225,000 over the next three years to university faculty for novel research projects in areas relevant to CPLP’s mandate.

Norampac and partners build containerboard mill in New York

The estimated cost to build the Greenpac mill is US$430 million. Greenpac will manufacture a light weight linerboard, made with 100% recycled fibres, on a single machine with an annual production capacity of 540,000 short tons. At a width of 8.33 m (328 in.), this machine will be one of the largest of its kind in North America.

“The Greenpac mill will include numerous technological advances, making it a unique project of its kind in North

America,” explained Marc-André Dépin, president and CEO of Norampac. “In particular, the linerboard that will be produced on the new machine will be able to achieve optimal strength while maintaining a low basis weight.”

Dépin also said the building and the machinery will be designed for optimal energy efficiency and many operations will be automated.

The paper machine will be manufactured by Metso, Voith will provide

Canfor Pulp’s Joe Nemeth (left) and Paul Watson cut the ribbon to open the new Canfor Innovation Centre in Burnaby, B.C., on June 24.

Cascades Inc. has announced that its Norampac division, along with three other partners, will build and operate a containerboard mill adjacent to an existing Norampac facility in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Cascades will invest in Greenpac Mill LLC, a corporation created with the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Jamestown Container and one other industry partner to build and operate the mill.

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INDUSTRY NEWS the stock preparation equipment and anaerobic effluent treatment plant, and Siemens will provide the power and control technology.

Norampac will assume responsibility for managing day-to-day operations of Greenpac. Construction of the mill began in July. Start-up is scheduled for the summer of 2013.

FPInnovations says recausticizing control will save $1 million per year

FPInnovations and TEXO Consulting and Controls have signed a license agreement for the sale of FPInnovations’ Recausticizing Control Technology (RCT). RCT is an advanced software which efficiently manages the recausticizing process in kraft pulp mills resulting in reduced energy costs. Potential energy savings are approximately $1 million per year for a typical mill.

“Kraft pulp mills continue to search for additional ways to reduce their chemical cost and energy consumption, and produce more electrical power. The RCT is a simple solution to reduce both energy consumption and operating costs.

Its simplicity is revolutionary compared to current recausticizing control systems on the market,” stated Mario Leclerc, TEXO’s vice-president of deployment.

The RCT software works in conjunction with FT-NIR sensor technology developed by FPInnovations and sold by FITNIR Analyzers Inc. The technology has already been successfully implemented in five Canadian mills.

FPInnovations is a not-for-profit research and technology transfer organization.

ABB to buy Lorentzen & Wettre to strengthen pulp and paper business

ABB will buy Lorentzen & Wettre from ASSA ABLOY AB for approximately US$119 million to strengthen its business in the pulp and paper area. The company will be incorporated into ABB’s process automation division.

Lorentzen & Wettre’s product line includes automated fibre and pulp analysis devices, consistency transmitters, moisture sensors, laboratory paper testing instruments, automated paper testing systems, and industry specific services.

The transaction is subject to custompulpandpapercanada.com

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People…

Linda Coates has been named corporate vice-president, communications and public affairs, for Tembec.

The United Nations Association in Canada honoured Avrim Lazar, the President and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), for his leadership both in Canada and at the United Nations, at a gala dinner in Vancouver in May. ary regulatory approvals. ABB expects the acquisition to be completed during the second half of the year.

Slave Lake Pulp turns to biomethane for electricity and process heat

A renewable energy project at West Fraser’s Slave Lake Pulp mill has been approved for funding from Alberta’s Climate Change and Emissions Management (CCEMC) Corporation.

The Slave Lake Pulp Bio-Methanation Project involves the integration of an energy-efficient anaerobic digestion system into the existing effluent treatment system.

The system will treat effluent and generate a methane-rich biogas while significantly

reducing the energy and chemical consumption, and sludge generation. The biogas will be used to generate electricity and heat for use in the pulping process.

The total project value is estimated at $25 million. CCEMC is contributing $5 million.

APP Canada has aggressive plans for growth of its sales operation

The Canadian sales organization of Asia Pulp and Paper has aggressive plans to grow its size and market share in Canada.

APP Canada is currently the fourth largest paper merchant in this market, but plans to be number one in three years, says Terry Hunley, interim president of APP Americas.

Hunley says APP recently made a commitment to double its presence in Canada. The company is adding 15-20 people to its sales force, and expanding geographically. By the end of this year Hunley plans to have a “full and complete” footprint across Canada.

APP Canada’s product line is broad, stretching from paperboard, printing and writing grades, specialty products, tissue, and wraps, to converted products. Most of the product line comes from APP’s own mills, some of which in turn source fibre from Canadian mills owned by Paper

Safest Mill in Canada Leaders as of May 31, 2001 For January to May 2011

YTD total recordable incidents

YTD total hours worked

YTD mill frequency

Domtar Inc., Windsor, QC

3

626406

0.96

NewPage Port Hawkesbury, Port Hawkesbury, NS

8

504500

3.17

AbitibiBowater Inc., Thunder Bay, ON

1

382380

0.52

AbitibiBowater Inc., Alma, QC

1

346139

0.58

Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd., Saint John, NB

1

344830

0.58

Weyerhaeuser Canada, Grande Prairie, AB

0

231315

0.00

Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corp., New Glasgow, NS

0

227399

0.00

JD Irving Ltd., Lake Utopia Paper Ltd., 0 St. George, NB

120996

0.00

Category A – more than 100,000 manhours per month

Category B — less than 100,000 manhours per month

Category C – less than 50,000 manhours per month

July/August 2011 PULP & PAPER CANADA

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INDUSTRY NEWS

BIOECONOMY

News and trends in the emerging fields of biorefining, biochemicals, biofuels and green energy CelluForce to be producing nanocrystalline cellulose by 2012

The nanocellulose joint venture of Domtar and FPInnovations will be named CelluForce, the partners announced in early June. Construction of the NCC production facility is underway at Domtar’s Windsor, Que., pulp and paper mill, and will be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. The companies expect to be producing NCC in January 2012.

The joint venture, launched last year, will be led by Jean Moreau, a former vice-president finance with Domtar. CelluForce already has about 30 employees, and a headquarters in Montreal.

Moreau notes that the new venture differs from traditional pulp and paper products because the end product will be marketed as a chemical. “The input is pulp, the output is NCC, which is a specialty chemical ingredient.”

Pilot lignin plant begins production in Thunder Bay

A lignin demonstration plant that ties directly into the black liquor stream of AbitibiBowater’s Thunder Bay kraft pulp mill is now producing its first batches of operational lignin for Canadian researchExcellence, which like APP, is a subsidiary of the Indonesian Sinar Mas Group.

In addition to expanding its sales force, APP will be introducing a new, premium coated paper product to the Canadian market in late summer.

Green chemical industry to soar to $98.5 billion by 2020

According to a new report from Pike Research, green chemistry represents a market opportunity that will grow from $2.8 billion in 2011 to $98.5 billion by 2020. One of the three major segments of the green chemical market examined in the report is the use of renewable feedstocks to produce chemicals and materials with smaller environmental footprints than those produced by current processes.

The report notes that there has been a great deal of activity in the development 8

PULP & PAPER CANADA July/August 2011

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 8

ers. The project is a partnership between FPInnovations, the Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio Economy (CRIBE), Natural Resources Canada, and AbitibiBowater.

These partners will develop a worldclass black liquor and lignin evaluation centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario. At the core is the lignin demonstration plant.

When fully operational, this unique demonstration plant will produce up to 100 kg of lignin per day, which will be shipped to a network of R&D labs across Canada that are developing novel uses for wood products.

Also on site is a lignin characterization lab, which currently employs three people, and will be increased up to six people as capacity grows. Lakehead University and its Biorefining Research Initiative will be closely linked to the ongoing research and will be training students and postdoctoral fellows at the facility.

FPInnovations devotes four sites, 11 researchers to nanocrystalline cellulose

FPInnovations inaugurated in late May its new nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) research facilities, which consist of a of renewable feedstocks for a wide range of chemical processes, both as replacements for commonly used “merchant molecules” and as new compounds with interesting and commercially valuable properties. Most renewable feedstocks are produced through biological processes (primarily fermentation of plant sugars into the desired compounds or their intermediates) or thermal and chemical processes applied to cellulosic materials such as wood, agricultural waste, or nonfood plants like switchgrass.

According to the Pike Green Chemistry report, much of the bio-based segment is nascent. However, this segment “perhaps has the greatest long-term potential to revolutionize the chemical industry.”

Technologies are just a few steps beyond the laboratory and production facilities are a few years from reaching their modest full

state-of-the-art pilot plant, new highperformance equipment for the Québec City laboratory, and two new research laboratories located at Pointe-Claire, Que. The project will make it possible to retain 11 full-time scientists and technicians dedicated to NCC research.

The pilot plant has a production capacity of 3 kilograms per day, and contains equipment based on leading-edge technology that ensures a rapid transfer of research results into industrial-scale production.

“We are all working very hard to maintain our world-wide lead in NCC research and development. With its three kilograms per day, this small pilot plant will still be producing the largest quantity of NCC in the world,” declared Pierre Lapointe, president and CEO of FPInnovations.

The Pointe-Claire laboratories are dedicated primarily to NCC chemistry, as well as to NCC and nanocomposites characterization. The new laboratory equipment in Québec City is being used in the development of advanced wood materials in the appearance, structural, and composite wood products sector.

The pilot plant will also produce mateproduction levels. The bio-based segment of the market excluding biofuels is liable to grow slowly over the next few years.

An executive summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s website. Pike Research is a market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets.

Package deal: RockTenn buys Smurfit-Stone Container, including Canadian mills

RockTenn, a Georgia-based manufacturer of corrugated and consumer packaging, completed its acquisition of Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. in late May and immediately moved to close three U.S. corrugated container facilities.

“We plan to take many actions in the next year to maximize the efficiency of pulpandpapercanada.com

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INDUSTRY NEWS

rial for the development of new grades of NCC beyond the ten or so that have already been identified; the scaling up of NCC modification procedures; and collaboration with the Domtar-FPInnovations joint venture in order to pave the way for the commercialization of NCC. Nanocrystalline cellulose is a renewable, recyclable and abundant nanomaterial made of cellulose fibers from the wood pulp manufacturing process.

NCC pilot plant announced in Edmonton

A pilot plant for production of nanocrystalline cellulose from wood and straw is planned for Edmonton. The $5.5-million plant is funded through a collaboration of provincial and federal agencies

in partnership with industry, under the Western Economic Partnership Agreement (WEPA). The pilot plant will allow researchers to test and validate NCC from a variety of forest and agriculture materials.

Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. is one industrial partner in the venture.

“NCC represents an opportunity for our mill to produce a value-added material with significant market applications right here in Alberta, as well as around the world,” said Brent Rabik, director of strategic programs for Alpac.

Ontario research partners focus on chemicals from poplar

CRIBE is providing $3 million for an innovative partnership between Lakehead University’s Biorefining Research Initia-

Nanocrystalline cellulose production capacity

Capacity Status Location CelluForce 1000 kg/day Opening Windsor, (Domtar/FPInnovations) Jan. 2012 Que. Innventia 100 kg/day Operating Stockholm,

Sweden New venture 100 kg/week Announced Edmonton in Edmonton July 2011

our manufacturing processes as well as to reduce costs and eliminate redundancies throughout our operations,” stated Jim Rubright, chairman and CEO. In Canada, Smurfit-Stone owns a

10

Percent annual growth rate of the Chinese market for paper and carton board, according to Eka Chemicals, on the occasion of the start-up of its new production plant for colloidal silica in southern China.

25

Number of uncoated woodfree paper machines at high risk of closure in Europe, according to RISI.

44

Number of wind turbines at the just-opened Kruger Energy Chatham Wind Project located on the shores of Lake Erie. Kruger Energy is a business unit of Kruger Inc.

317,500

Cubic metres of wood allocated to AbiBow Canada’s Fort Frances mill to increase pulp production and generate biomass-based power.

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 9

Wood Wood, straw

linerboard mill in La Tuque, Que., a corrugating mill in Matane, Que., and converting facilities across the country.

Smurfit-Stone emerged from bankruptcy protection about one year ago.

Fact & figures

pulpandpapercanada.com

Source Wood

Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro at the announcement of CRIBE’s funding for research into biochemicals from poplar.

tive (LU) and G2 BioChem in Chatham, Ont. G2 BioChem’s main focus will be on design and development of biorefinery processes, using its new $42M demonstration plant at its Center of Excellence in Chatham. Meanwhile, LU will focus on the development of value-added chemicals from the process. Using poplar, an underutilized species, G2 BioChem will develop ways to recover hemicellulose, lignin, and bark extracts. Lakehead will in turn look to developing new valueadded uses from these products, such as adhesives, biochemicals, and biopharmaceuticals.

With the addition of Smurfit- Stone’s facilities, RockTenn is now the second largest producer of containerboard and the second largest producer of coated recycled board in North America.

Dare to Compare!

Register before September 1st, 2011 FPInnovations 2011 worldwide ISO-accredited benchmarking for bleached kraft market pulps

qualityassurance@fpinnovations.ca www.fpinnovations.ca/benchmarking.htm 1-888-727-7422

9

5455 C FPInnovations_Benchmarking_Pulp & Paper 2011 Canada.indd 11/05/11 10:21 AM July/August PULP1 & PAPER CANADA

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CONFERENCE REPORT

PacWest sizzles with vitality The Western industry is upbeat, buoyed by the heady combination of high pulp prices and numerous capital investments.

T

he mood at the Western region’s annual gathering was cheerful this year. Pulp markets are strong, and most mills have multiple upgrades underway, aided by the Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program (PPGTP). The 200 or so attendees at PacWest were treated to a powerful line-up of business speakers, high quality technical papers, and a selection of short courses for operational personnel.

There was a lot of appreciation expressed for federal government’s Green Transformation Program.

Ted Seraphim, chief operating officer with West Fraser, said the PPGTP gave “a heck of a leg up” to the industry. “In our mills, managers are coming to our management with a lot of great new ideas.”

He went on to say conditions are favorable for investment right now. “We are enjoying the best market in 20 years.

This is a window for us to be proactive.

“The thing I worry about most is people,” said Seraphim, echoing the concerns of several other executives. “We don’t have enough young people coming up behind us.”

He contends that this is a good time for people to join the industry. “If you bring someone in now, ten years from now, they’re going to have a senior role, if they do things right. It’s the smart young people that will transform this industry, not us.”

Daryl Nichol, vice-president, pulp operations, for Alberta Pacific Forest Industries, directed everyone’s attention to a video designed to encourage young people to consider forestry careers. The Work Wild campaign and video can be viewed at www.workwild.ca.

The big question is: What’s next?

Pursuing new business opportunities was also on the radar for the pulp mill execu10

By Cindy Macdonald, editor tives speaking at PacWest. Apparently, the mandate to transform the industry’s product mix has come down from the highest levels.

“Our chairman, Hank Ketcham, challenged the board to develop a bioproducts business as a third pillar,” said Seraphim.

Joe Nemeth, CEO of Canfor Pulp, also said his board has given managers a mandate to find the products that will come after green energy. (Read Nemeth’s PacWest speech on page 30.)

Alpac’s Nichol explained that, so far, mills have been able to undertake the easy, obvious projects – the low hanging fruit, so to speak – with the assistance of government program such as the PPGTP and IFIT. “This is an emerging industry,” he says, “and for me, trying to determine what’s next is a real challenge.”

Nemeth also stated that he foresees further consolidation in the pulp sector.

“I think that has to happen. If we look at commodity industries, the industries that are successful have two to three strong players. There’s no question that it needs to happen.”

Dharmesh Goradia of Tembec presented the results of a demonstration project at the Skookumchuck mill which used FT-NIR-based advanced control of the causticizing process.

With the FT-NIR-based advanced control, the Skookumchuck pulp mill was able to raise the causticizing efficiency by up to 4%. The improvement in causticizing operations reduced consumption of purchased lime and decreased energy consumption in the evaporators.

Following the demo, the mill decided to purchase a FT-NIR system. It is expected to be in operation by end of 2011.

Saul Mtakula’s award-winning paper explained how his team used inferential

Mills shared their experiences

The benefits of FT-NIR analysis were enumerated by several presenters during the technical sessions at PacWest.

Natural Resources Canada’s Glenn Hargrove, Catherine Cobden of FPAC and Daryl Nichol of Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries were all speakers in the panel discussion of “Capturing Value – Delivering on Innovation.”

Sharing their knowledge of the pulp and paper business were (left to right) Ted Seraphim of West Fraser, Mike Edwards of Domtar, and Joe Nemeth of Canfor Pulp.

The Feds. These are the people who handle the details of the PPGTP: (left to right) Amanda Dacyk, Glenn Hargrove, Jean-Francois Levasseur, Martin Fairbank.

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CONFERENCE REPORT

PacWest honors best papers

Percy (on right) Mtaluka

BEST PAPER, H.R. MacMillan Trophy: Saul Mtakula, Canfor Pulp LP-Intercon, Results of Inferential Control of the Intercon Causticizing Process.

Co-author: Bruce Allison, FPInnovations BEST SUPPLIER PAPER: Mike Wolfensperger, Metso, Causticizing and Lime Kiln Process Optimization control to improve control of causticizing efficiency at Canfor Pulp’s Intercontinental mill.

Mtakula’s paper discusses a new causticizing control system that combines CE measurement soft sensing and model-based inferencing of lime quality to achieve stoichiometric lime dosage control.

Lime addition to the slaker was determined by a stoichiometric calculation from the clarified green liquor composition and the inferred lime availability.

The lime availability estimate was determined by an estimator driven by the error between model-based predictions of the slaker temperature and 1st and 4th causticizer CE values versus the actual measurements.

Implementation of the controls has resulted in a 30% reduction in white liquor CE variability and an increase of the average CE from 79% to 80%.

The 1% increase in CE translates into a reduction of roughly 6 kg/t-pulp of sodium carbonate dead load in the white liquor. Since 5-6 kg of water is required to transport one kg of dead load through the process, the dead load reduction means steam savings in the evaporators. Furthermore, the decrease in dead load reduces the total black liquor solids charged to the recovery boiler. Since the mill is recovery pulpandpapercanada.com

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 11

BEST NOVICE PAPER: Jamie Percy, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, Methanol Purification at AlbertaPacific Forest Industries GEORGE SEDGWICK (AITF) MEMORIAL AWARD: Zhi-Hua Jiang, FPInnovations, Near-Neutral Final Chloride Dioxide Brightening: Theory and Practice. Co-author: Richard Berry, FPInnovations limited, this potentially translates into incremental pulp production. The team calculated that a 1% increase in CE represents roughly 1000 t/y in incremental production when the mill is recovery limited 60% of the time. Based on the success of this project, Mtaluka reports that the team has begun the process of justifying the purchase of a commercial FT-NIR analyzer, theorizing that better quality measurements, made at higher frequency and coupled with the controls that are already implemented, will enable the mill to reliably run an 82% CE. The installation of a shoe press can sometimes be perceived as prohibitively costly, but for West Fraser’s Hinton Pulp, the shoe press proved to be an effective way to maximize pulp production.

With the installation of a shoe press and other upgrades, the production on PM#2 reached 1084 admt/d.

This is believed to be the first shoe press upgrade to a North American pulp machine.

Paulo Kapronczai of Hinton Pulp explained that the shoe press is a mechanical hydraulic press used in the last stage of the press section to increase water extraction. The shoe press installed at Hinton consists of two rolls, the deflection-compensated SymZL roll and the SymBelt roll.

The upgrades produced a Flakt dyer inlet dryness of 48% OD, four percentage points higher than the pre-upgrade dryness.

Moving from dewatering to waste water, Pierre Martel of FPInnovations presented some work on best practices for reducing effluent impact. Martel described a collaborative research group that expects to release a set of best practices by the end of 2012.

Martel said this project marked the first time the researchers were able make a link between effluent quality and biological effects.

If mills could maintain a level of 200 mg/L going to the lagoon, even during atypical operating conditions, then biological oxygen demand after treatment wouldbe low enough not to have an effect on fish. He believes this can be achieved by in-plant control and other measures.

Alpac branching out

Jamie Percy of Alberta Pacific Forest Industries explained the company’s biomethanol project. Up to 90% of the methanol produced in kraft pulping can be captured in foul condensate, she explained. In this project, methanol will be separated from other components of the stripper off-gas stream and purified to 99.85 wt%.

Construction on the project will be concluded late this fall. Total cost is expected to be $9 million. Percy says Alpac will be the first pulp mill to produce commercial grade methanol from the stripper off-gas stream. Expected production is 4200 tonnes/year.

The process needs a consistent flow, so Alpac has installed a new reflux condenser, and there will be a flow control before the purification stream.

The pH of the stripper off-gas is between 9 and 10, so sulphuric acid is used to depress the pH so the ions protonate and are distilled from the solution.

During the business sessions, Alpac’s Nichol spoke of the company’s biomethanol project and also its interest in nanocrystalline cellulose. Although pulp is Alpac’s core product, he said, “I don’t think increasing our pulp capacity any more will work for us.”

The future, he suggested, lies in other products.

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MANAGEMENT

Workers wanted As the forest products supply chain gears up, more staff are needed to fuel the growth and replace the aging workforce. One forecast calls for up to 120,000 new jobs in ten years.

By Cindy Macdonald, editor

I

n the best-case scenario, the Canadian forest products sector could need 120,000 new employees over the next decade, according to Renewing Canada’s Greenest Workforce: A Labour Market Intelligence Report from the Forest Products Sector Council (FPSC).

Incoming workers are needed to replace the aging workforce as the sector recovers from its most recent downturn, and even more will be needed as companies turn to new products and processes to achieve growth.

The new study says the worst of the contraction in the forest products sector is over, and net labour force demand for this industry in will increase over the next decade in every scenario examined by the FPSC. The pulp and paper sector, specifically, does not experience much demand for new employees, but its supply chain does. In addition, a transformation to new products and business models will place a premium on the transfer of skills and experience to new workers, and upgrading of basic skills across the sector.

In the “most likely” projection of moderate market demand for traditional and new products, FPSC says, total forest products employment will be between 170,000 and 193,000 workers by 2020.

However, total workforce demand could range as high as 235,000 workers and low as 150,000, depending on a number of key economic factors.

“It’s a double-edged sword, however,” says Keith Lancastle, executive director of the FPSC, an independent, notfor-profit organization funded by the Government of Canada.

“More than 30% — or 50,000 — of the current workers in this sector will retire or leave the in the next 10 years.

While this report points to the scope 12

of the opportunity — it also speaks to the serious challenges facing the industry. Where are we going to find these workers?

“Even in the most pessimistic, worstcase projection, one which assumes a very weak economic outlook until 2020, the sector will still require an additional 40,000 new workers to remain sustainable,” says Lancastle.

Four scenarios, one outcome: we need more people

Four labour force demand projections were developed, ranging from optimistic to a worst-case scenario. The study also includes data on expected retirements and attrition from the existing workforce.

For the forest products sector as a whole, employment was just over 150,000 in 2009. (The industry had a high of 260,000 workers in 2003.) In

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the most optimistic scenario, assuming housing starts rebound to 1.7 million per year by 2020, employment grows to more than 230,000 by 2020. In addition to a strong lumber market, that scenario anticipates growth in new forest products, such as engineered wood and biobased products. Allowing for retirement and attrition of more than 40,000 workers, this scenario requires 120,000 more workers in the next decade.

In the least optimistic scenario, with housing starts at 1.4 million per year, employment fluctuates but remains near 150,000 for the decade.

Lancastle believes the most likely scenarios are the two that fall between these two extremes, which would put employment in 2020 at 172,000 or 193,000, which translates to 60,000 or 80,000 new jobs in the sector.

SUB-SECTOR SNAPSHOTS

(excerpts from the FPSC study Renewing Canada’s Greenest Workforce) Forestry and Logging “Some of the strongest productivity growth in the sector has been in the logging sub-sector over the past 20 years and the trend is expected to continue, limiting employment growth.”

Sawmills and Wood Preservation “….sawmills employment is not expected to return to its previous peak before 2020.”

Veneer, Plywood, and Engineered Wood Products “Most important is the timing and size of the recovery in the U.S. housing market.”

Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard “….has the weakest employment outlook within the forest products sector.”

Support Activities for Forestry “….has experienced fairly stable growth….and its relative strength is expected to continue in the coming years.”

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MANAGEMENT

Regional employment in pulp and paper (2010)

7000

4,600 5,200 11,000 21,500 9,700

Paper mills stable or declining

However, the picture for the pulp and paper sector does not follow such a growth curve. Employment in 2010 was estimated to be about 52,000. The least optimistic scenario for pulp and paper basically follows the same downward curve as the retirement/attrition curve, so that in 2020, pulp and paper mills employ only 34,000. In the most optimistic outlook, 18,000 new workers will be added to replace retiring workers, and total workforce demand will be about 53,000, only slightly higher than the current level. The two other scenarios place 2020 workforce demand at 38,000 or 44,000.

It appears much of the expected decline in the pulp, paper and paperboard sector is based on the assumption of continued weakness in demand for communications paper, newsprint in particular. Newsprint accounts for onequarter of the sales of this sub-sector.

However, there is more optimism on the pulp side, with mills converting to dissolving pulp and the potential for biobased products. The study suggests that in the future it may track newsprint, other paper grades, and pulp separately.

One of the major trends influencing this labour market outlook report is the changing sub-sector mix, with paper products declining in relative importance. Pulp and paper mills account for a steadily shrinking share of employment.

6000 5000

Employment growth

Atlantic Canada Prairies (AB, SK, and MB) Ontario Quebec British Columbia

Employment growth in pulp and paper by region

4000

Atlantic

3000

Quebec Ontario

2000

Prairies British Columbia

1000 0 -1000

Red (least optimistic)

Brown (alternate)

Blue (alternate)

Green (most optimistic)

-2000

FPSC forecast scenario

levels of knowledge and skills, and higher literacy and numeracy skills.

The authors believe other sectors, such as mining, petroleum, and high technology, will continue to draw workers away from forest products companies by offering better wages and working conditions.

“The competition for professionals and skilled tradespeople will be fierce over the next decade,” the study notes.

Among employees who responded to FPSC’s online survey, 58% said they plan to leave the forest products sector in the next 15 years.

There is a concern that forest prod-

ucts companies will have to repopulate the sector with new people, rather than re-hire workers who have been lost to other sectors.

“Having the right people is a critical success factor for the industry - it’s equally important as having fibre, markets and technological change. Without people it doesn’t happen,” says Lancastle.

FPSC will now move to develop plans and projects in response to the issues raised by the research. For more information on Renewing Canada’s Greenest Workforce, visit the Council’s website at www.fpsc-cspf.ca/sectorstudy.

PPC

The rise and fall of forest products employment

More skills, more competition

Another trend affecting the forest products workforce is an increase in the skill requirements needed to operate machinery. Pulp and paper mills, for example, are employing fewer machinery operators and more control operators. In logging, a transition from chain-saw operators to logging machinery operators is apparent. This shift in occupational demands requires higher pulpandpapercanada.com

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 13

260,000 2003 forest products industry total employment 230,000 most optimistic FPSC forecast for 2020 193,000 alternate FPSC forecast for 2020 172,000 alternate FPSC forecast for 2020 150,000 least optimistic FPSC forecast for 2020 150,000 2009 forest products industry total employment

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The China Connection

and Other Global Trends The pull of China and the uncertainty surrounding bio-products are changing the rules in the global pulp and paper market. Producers are tweaking their product mix to adapt to new market realities.

By Cindy Macdonald, editor

T

he collected industry knowledge gathered in Vancouver for a week last May was impressive.

Economists, analysts, and CEOs were all attempting to forecast the future of an industry that no longer conforms to its established patterns.

With China’s purchasing power exerting such an influence on global markets, bioenergy and biofuels in the wings, and companies branching into non-traditional products, older business models are crumbling.

The industry’s thought leaders plus hundreds of delegates were in Vancouver for a collection of events in May — International Pulp Week, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Forest & Paper Industry Conference, B.C. Bioenergy Network conference – billed collectively as the Global Forest Products Leadership Summit.

Their collective wisdom distills down to a few prevalent trends:

New uses for fibre present opportunities

The possibility to convert wood fibre for new purposes is going to expand dramatically, with heat and power, biofuels and chemicals all vying for access and control of fibre resources over the next decade, according to a recent forest industry report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“New biomass energy plants and biofuel refineries are returning to the most fundamental use of lumber for heat and power,” said Frédéric Bouchard, PwC’s national deals leader for forest, paper and packaging. “As a result, energy will 14

again be the baseline use for wood over the more traditional uses of paper. The energy sector’s growing interest in biomass will change demand patterns, as well as industry practices.”

On the other hand, the industry will continue to consolidate in traditional areas, especially where market demand is declining. Companies will be pressed to secure financing for mill conversions or other capital investments required to shift their business to energy production or other new products.

Bouchard said, “Companies are going to continue to respond to the radical changes in the industry, whether it means consolidating, divesting, closing down mills or reducing costs, with a rigour that makes sure the returns from their existing core business are maintained and they can regain support from their investors, many of whom have been deterred by the poor returns in the industry.”

Asian influence is strong

China accounts for somewhere between 20% to 30% of global pulp demand, a fact which gives it tremendous influence in

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the marketplace and makes it a target of intense scrutiny by analysts.

Tom Wright, a director with Hawkins Wright, a pulp, paper and bioenergy consultancy, states that China’s demand for pulp is driven by its domestic paper demand, exports of paper and board, and exports of packaged consumer goods.

Domestic paper demand, he explains, is growing at 10-15% annually, but is dependent on the government maintaining the growth of the middle class, and vulnerable to the long-term threat of new media.

Paul Leclair, vice-president and chief economist, Pulp and Paper Products Council, noted that global demand for printing and writing grades will grow 5.3 million tonnes over the next three years.

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COVER STORY Half of that gain is in coated woodfree papers. Of the global growth, 4.5 million tonnes will be consumed in Asia (exluding Japan).

“This highlights how dependent on Asia the industry has become,” said Leclair.

The demand for printing and writing grades dropped by 14.4 million tonnes during the recession in 2008-2009. It has begun to rebound, with demand rising 6% in 2010.

Kevin Mason, Equity Research Associates, spoke of the changing end-use markets for pulp, particularly the growth of textile opportunities for dissolving pulp.

“Who knew a little spillover from textiles could have such an effect?” he mused.

In the next few years, there will not be much greenfield capacity added to world pulp production, but a lot of shifting around of existing facilities is expected, said Mason. Hardwood to softwood, conversions to fluff and dissolving pulp, and integrated producers going to market pulp.

Securing fibre supply is paramount

Chad Wasilenkoff, entrepreneur and CEO of Fortress Paper Ltd., takes a much broader point of view. He told the PricewaterhouseCoopers audience that he considers one- to three-year trends just “noise”. In the dissolving pulp market, which his Thurso, Que. mill will enter in just a few months, Wasilenkoff is looking 10 years ahead. He’s confident cotton is not going to meet the growing demand for textiles, and that rayon, which uses dissolving pulp, is poised to rise.

Wasilenkoff said the Thurso mill will be first new entrant in the dissolving pulp market in about 40 years. The price for dissolving pulp earlier this year was $2600/tonne. He expects the price to settle at $1200 to $1800 long-term. Production cost per tonne from the Thurso mill, delivered to Shanghai, he estimates at $600/tonne.

Considering broad socio-economic issues, Wasilenkoff says “fibre security will be the most critical issue in our industry going forward.”

He cites population growth, especially in China and India, and a continued migration to the middle class. This will lead to further demand for crops, meat pulpandpapercanada.com

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 15

and dairy. There will be competition for land to grow food crops. On the energy front, oil prices will go higher as reserves dwindle. He feels the pressure on arable land will be critical, so Fortress Paper is planning to invest downstream and secure its fibre supply.

Building new partnerships

The Dows and DuPonts of the world want fibre, said Dr. John (Jack) Saddler, professor of forest products biotechnology and bioenergy, University of British Columbia. He is convinced forest products companies should be partnering with chemical companies because we know how to sustainably harvest and transport wood products while chemical companies know the end-use markets.

The forest sector is going to transform from commodity products to high-value manufacturing, said Saddler. But biorefineries won’t look like oil refineries. The first generation will look like pulp mills.

Second generation biorefineries will be close to water and not based on biochemical (sugar-based) processes.

Consider the wood pellet sector as an example of transformation, noted Saddler. Canada didn’t have a sector 10 years ago; now have 33 million making 2 million tonnes a year.

Joe Nemeth, CEO of Canfor Pulp, has a similar vision of branching out: “I envision the pulp and paper complex of the future, in five to seven years, will produce pulp and paper, power, biofuels and higher value products.”

Presenting the European point of view, Ilka Hämälä, president and CEO of pulp producer Metsä-Botnia, told participants at International Pulp Week that the long term vision of the Finnish forest federation is to achieve double the value of forest products and services between 2006 to 2030. At least half the value is expected come from products and services that were not in production yet in 2006.

The corollary is that traditional products are not going to grow significantly.

Financial health improving

PricewaterhouseCoopers released key indicators for the health of the forest, paper and products industry that show the beginning signs of a return to full recovery.

Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) is a key metric of sector financial health.

Overall, the top 100 public companies’ aggregate ROCE increased in 2010 although levels varied regionally. Preliminary ROCE figures for 2010 for the top 100 global companies indicate the following: • Global ROCE has been improving steadily to an estimated 4.8% in 2010, up from 3.2% in 2009, and from 2.4% in 2008. (The current average cost of capital is 11% to 15%.)

• Canada’s ROCE showed significant gains, increasing from -3% in 2009 to 3.8% in 2010. B.C. and Atlantic Canada experienced a strong pickup at 4.6% and 3.4% respectively from their negative positions last year (-1.7% and -2.9%).

• The US and emerging economies in Asia, including China, have the highest ROCE (5.8% and 5.2% respectively).

Supply chains are under the microscope

Mike Bradley of Canfor Pulp provided some insight into the effects of customers “greening” their supply chains. He said Canfor Pulp fills out about 100 customer questionnaires per year, and notes that some are really demanding. The company has performed carbon studies and life-cycle analysis, identifying gaps in its knowledge.

“Our pulp customers would be satisfied if we could provide FSC certification, but there is no FSC-certified fibre within 1000 km of Canfor’s B.C. mills,” he commented.

Canfor Pulp sources its chips from Canfor sawmills, which are certified to CSA standards, he said.

Richard Brooks, Greenpeace Canada’s forest campaign coordinator, suggested that companies which do not address the legality and sustainability of their fibre supply are putting themselves at risk. They are risking customer relations, market share, brand image, fibre supply disruptions and staff morale.

“Failure to act is not really an option,” concluded Brooks. A sentiment that could easily apply to all of the trends affecting the Canadian pulp and paper industry.

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GLOBAL OUTLOOK

Brazil: Concerns and Challenges The Canadian industry shares some business concerns with its Brazilian counterparts, but seven-year rotation and genetically modified trees are not among them.

By Carroll McCormick

I

n May, Pulp & Paper Canada spoke with three executives of Bracelpa, the Brazilian Pulp and Paper Association, who were in Montreal for the International Council of Forest & Paper Association’s (ICFPA) annual meeting and CEO’s round table: Elizabeth de Carvalhaes, CEO, Bracelpa; Carlos Augusto Lira Aguiar, former CEO of Fibria and vice-president of the Deliberative Council of Bracelpa; and Antonio Maciel Neto, CEO of Suzano Papel e Celulose and also a vice-president of the Deliberative Council of Bracelpa.

Of the 220 pulp and paper companies in Brazil, Bracelpa’s 40 member companies account for more than 90% of Brazil’s 14 million tonnes of pulp and 9.5 million tonnes of paper production. These products are produced exclusively from eucalyptus plantations, which have a seven-year growing cycle. In the next seven to nine years, Bracelpa members will increase pulp production to 17 or 18 million tonnes and paper production to about 14 million tonnes as they double their eucalyptus forests to four million hectares.

PPC: What are your goals at ICFPA this year?

De Carvalhaes: “The main issues are to open discussions worldwide on tree biotechnology. Brazil is expressing this issue and creating a task force on biotechnology issues for trees. We are also discussing carbon trading within the Koyoto Protocol.”

Neto: “We will also discuss putting into place studies on the impact of genetically modified organisms. The discussion is to list the concerns and have a scientific approach, because today we have a reputation for improving the environment. We have trees that will reduce the need for chemicals, lower land and water requirements, and increase carbon sequestration.”

16

Brazilian business leaders Carlos Augusto Lira Aguiar, Elizabeth de Carvalhaes, and Antonio Maciel Neto, were in Montreal recently.

Photo C. McCormick

PPC: Give me an example of a public policy that needs to be changed or created in order to grow your pulp and paper companies.

De Carvalhaes: “We are asking the Brazilian government to defend our interests worldwide with respect to carbon sequestration, which is three to four times that of our industrial emissions.”

Neto: “When we make an investment we have to pay 17% tax up front.

This is on our agenda to discuss with our government. Why tax us like that?”

PPC: What it is it about your industry’s image in the eyes of the world that you find most troubling?

De Carvalhaes: “There is not much knowledge of the process of planting of our eucalyptus forests and their sustainable management. We also have an important social program based on buying wood from 15,000 small producers, who own almost 400,000 hectares.”

Neto: “There is no illegal logging in Brazil [for pulp] and most of our forests are certified.”

Aguiar: “I did an environmental and social audit of our Brazilian pulp and paper industry 15 years ago. After the audit was done Canadian researchers said that many Canadian mills would

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have had to close down [had they been subject to Brazilian environmental laws].”

PPC: Tell me about your plans for wood pellet production.

Neto: “The wood pellets will come from new plantations, from eucalyptus with different characteristics. We have wood clones that produce more lignin and less fibre. Renewable biomass energy is another market for new eucalyptus production.”

PPC: Do you expect that any of the fibre that you currently export to the US and Canada for paper production will be diverted to other users?

Neto: “No. There will be enough fibre for everyone.”

PPC: You have noted that paper consumption in Europe and the United States is decreasing. Where are the growth markets?

Neto: “The growth of paper consumption will be in developing countries. The consumption of tissue is increasing. There are 400,000 Chinese with no access to toilet paper.”

Aguiar: “The growth in investments will be to supply countries that do not produce their own fibre. If you don’t consume paper there is no recycling. If you don’t recycle there is no fibre. This is another reason why we are investing to cover this.”

PPC: Mr. Aguiar, 89% of Fibria’s kraft pulp production is for export.

Which markets (countries) account for the biggest share of production associated with your 431% increase in net income in the first quarter of 2011?

Aguiar: “The net profit was not based on volume. It was based on price. But there has been 1.5% to 2% annual growth in sales to North America. The big demand in the next five years will be in Asia, which is 5% to 10% a year.” PPC pulpandpapercanada.com

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CALL FOR PAPERS - Technical Program PaperWeek Canada, the major Canadian gathering for the advancement of the pulp and paper industry, will be taking place January 31st to February 2nd at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. Building on the success of the previous edition’s program, we encourage all mill personnel, suppliers, researchers and experts to submit their latest work for presentation in the technical program. PaperWeek Canada has been the top platform in Canada to reach the key players of the industry and raise global awareness of emerging paths towards the progress and transformation of the pulp and paper industry. We invite all technical experts to take advantage of this opportunity and play an active role in the shaping of the industry’s future.

The technical program is organized by Session Committees. Each committee will conduct its own call for papers, but submissions may also be sent through PAPTAC. In order to help us forward your abstract to the appropriate committee for review, please refer to the list of topics below.

Conditions: Abstracts will be selected according to level of quality and relevance; If applicable to more than one topic, please indicate the different topics (in this case, abstracts will be selected by committees on a first come first serve basis); Submissions in English and French are accepted.

Topics for submissions: Bleaching

Environment

Energy Cost Saving

Mechanical Pulping

Paper Machine Technology

Recycling

Process Control

Engineering and Maintenance

Research

Forest Biorefinery Symposium

Please submit your abstract to Carmie Lato: clato@paptac.ca / Telephone: 514-392-6969.

The deadline for abstract submissions is Friday September 30th, 2011.

Thank you for your active participation in PaperWeek Canada!

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SHOW REVIEW

This year at SPCI, it’s all about being smart. Be smart about collecting process data, be smart about making that data available across the enterprise, to management and maintenance too, and be smart about the chemicals you use, seeking out the least costly product that meets your needs.

Get

smart

By Cindy Macdonald, editor

T

he predominant theme at the SPCI trade show this year was process optimization. Better monitoring leads to better control which leads to better product and lower costs.

That’s the underlying message from process control suppliers and testing equipment suppliers. On the chemicals side, companies report that customers are tending to stick to the old favorites which are less costly, rather than taking a chance on newer formulations.

SPCI featured 230 booths, attracting more than 9000 visitors from 56 countries. The new concept of holding the conference sessions on the exhibit floor was well received by both exhibitors and visitors.

Also new this year was participation by some major pulp and paper producers, including Stora Enso and SCA. The event took place May 17-19 in Stockholm. Here are the highlights from my visit: Automated pulp testing is gaining favor in Europe. Representatives of Lorentzen & Wettre said in Sweden and Denmark at least 50% of the pulp mills have some kind of automated testing.

The L&W pulp tester measures CSF and brightness. It is able to collect 10 samples from different locations.

18

The new L&W moisture tester is a high-precision, offline benchtop moisture meter for production control and verification of online systems. The instrument is based on L&W’s microwave moisture sensors. It measures and calculates the moisture content and dry basis weight of paper, paperboard, dry pulp and other fibre materials. The tester is fast and easy to use; the operator takes a sample from the machine, puts it on the balance for a few seconds and then moves it through the measuring gap.

Imerys had an acquisition in Brazil last year that provides access to new deposits and extended the company’s reserves.

Imerys E-type additives are flat, platy products. E500 and E800 are designed to provide coating coverage and build coating bulk in precoating or low-gloss applications. They work especially well when blended with blocky pigments such as GCC. One of ABB’s newer products helps bridge the gap between process control and business management. Smart Client

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is an add-on the 800xA process control system. It allows company managers to access the process data through their laptop or PCs and generate their own graphics or reports. With Smart Client, production managers, purchasing officers, planners, economists, or environmental officers can, for example, gather real-time data from both System 800xA and its integrated systems, analyze it directly, and then create a wide variety of reports based on the findings.

ABB introduced at the show a new series of drives for low voltage applications, ACS880. These drives have integrated safety functions that minimize the need for external safety components, simplify configuration, and reduce the commissioning footprint.

The ACS880-01 is suitable for paper machines.

Also at ABB, the HPIR infrared moisture sensor was featured. This sensor was launched in 2010 to replace the HemiPlus.

With HPIR, papermakers can have more confidence in the precision of their moisture measurement and can shift pulpandpapercanada.com

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SHOW REVIEW

More than 9000 people from 56 countries visited the show.

Another potential application for wireless transmitters in the pulp and paper sector is in wastewater control. The wireless transmitters can be placed at the aerated ponds and transmit data up to 800 metres.

their moisture targets closer to acceptable quality limits, saving energy and reducing fibre costs.

A presentation by SCA raised an interesting point of view. The speaker noted that it’s not new capacity coming on-stream that unbalances supply and demand in the industry. It’s the old machines not being retired that is the problem.

Emerson Process Control is building on its Smart Mill concept, using advanced control devices to send plenty of information to the operator so that he/ she can make the right decision. There is an emphasis on wireless controls, because of their potential to access more measuring points.

One example is the use of wireless transmitters to provide direct measurement in the mid-zone of a lime kiln.

This is said to be more accurate than inferred measurements. In one instance, says Emerson, a southeastern U.S. mill using inferred measurement was found to be off by more than 350 degrees. pulpandpapercanada.com

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 19

At Omya, Peter Blomberg notes that most customers are looking for costeffective alternatives. He sees a trend of selling more of the “old standard” products, as customers downgrade as much as possible while remaining within spec.

Sodra displayed a number of its innovative pulp products: the Durapulp chair and the paper lamp among them.

Iggesund Tools offers ScanChip for the continuous measurement of chip quality. It helps to control the pulp process so that optimal production and pulp quality is achieved. The ScanChip concept is based on four key factors: speed, volume, analysis and accurate measurement.

Stafsjö’s MP knife gate valve is a full-bore valve with integrated purge ports for application with corrosive or clogging media. When moving to a closed position, the gate effectively cuts through the media, aided by the inner cavity of the valve body and the bevel-edged gate. The valve has gate support and casted bottom support cams to obtain bi-directional sealing.

One innovation of The Energy Square, part of the pulp and paper cluster The

Paper Province, is a new water turbine.

The turbine was developed by Wipab of Sweden, in cooperation with Metso Paper. The turbine takes advantage of the energy in a high-speed paper machine’s process water and can recover 50% of the energy supplied.

Eurocon is building on its PulpEye on-line analyzer for pulp. ControlEye is a multivariate control systems that uses input from the PulpEye to reduce freeness variation, control fibre distribution, reduce specific energy consumption, and maximize production. ExtractEye is a software tool that can visually represent the huge amounts of data available from a sample analyzed with PulpEye. The AFT MacroBar is a novel screen cylinder design that ensures a cleaner product and a more efficient pulp screening system. The MacroBar screen cylinder combines the efficiency of a slotted screen with the robustness of a traditional drilled cylinder.

Acosense is introducing to the industry ACOspector, a small clamp-on instrument for measurement of fluids.

The non-invasive instrument can be used to measure several properties in complex fluids simultaneously, for example, total solids, density or other properties of black liquor. It can also measure high concentrations of pulp during the causticizing process. ACOspector uses a technology called active acoustic spectroscopy.

PPC July/August 2011 PULP & PAPER CANADA

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CHEMICAL PULP

Boost your

“green” credentials

Metso’s LignoBoost process provides kraft mills with a simple, efficient method to isolate lignin and use it as a biofuel or sell it for bioproducts.

By Cindy Macdonald, editor

A

recent trip to Sweden presented Pulp & Paper Canada with an opportunity to see Metso’s LignoBoost system in action.

This add-on to the kraft pulping process extracts lignin from black liquor, permitting the solid powder to be sold as a chemical or a fuel, or used in-house as a fuel for the lime kiln.

The LignoBoost technology development started in the ’90s with the patent application filed in 2006 by the Swedish research institute Innventia and Chalmers University, and sold to Metso in 2008. In recent years, using lignin produced by the LignoBoost pilot plant at Bäckhammar, Metso and Innventia have shown that lignin can be used as a fuel, either to replace or supplement coal or oil, or to enhance the heat value of wood pellets. In one mill trial, the dried and pulverized lignin was able to meet 100% of the fuel requirements for the lime kiln.

Equipment for LignoBoost constitutes a stand-alone plant, installed in parallel to the evaporator line. A portion of the mill’s black liquor is redirected to the LignoBoost process, where carbon dioxide is added to the black liquor to cause the lignin to precipitate. The lignin-lean black liquor returns to the mill process stream, while the lignin is pressed and treated with

H2SO4. Then it is washed and pressed again. The two vertical plate pressure filters are the heart of the LignoBoost plant, says Anders Larsson, manager, marketing and sales of LignoBoost for Metso Power.

A typical LignoBoost installation would have two or three VPA pressure filters, piping, precipitation equipment, optional CO2 storage tanks, valves, heat exchangers, scrubber, vacuum pump and fan, process pumps and tanks, and belt conveyors.

The pilot plant at Bäckhammar, Sweden, can produce about 1.2 tonnes/hour of lignin.

Larsson estimates the investment for a North American mill to install LignoBoost with a capacity of 40.000 tpa would be about $20-25 million to achieve 70% dryness, plus an additional investment if a drying plant is needed to bring the lignin to 95% dryness (which is needed if the material is to be dry-fired as a fuel).

PPC

Dry lignin at Bäckhammar awaiting distribution to various end-uses.

Powdered lignin in a bulk bag.

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PPC_July_August_2011.indb 20

The vertical plate pressure filter is visible behind the railing is open, allowing the dried lignin to drop onto the inclined conveyor below. pulpandpapercanada.com

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REFINING

Saving Electrical Energy by Alkaline Peroxide Pretreatment of TMP Prior to Low Consistency Refining

T12

Winner of the Douglas Atack Award

By X. F. Chang, C. Bridges, D. Vu, D. Kuan, L. Kuang, J. A. Olson, A. Luukonen, and R. P. Beatson Abstract: As part of a program to reduce electrical energy consumption in the refining process, the effects of alkaline peroxide treatments on second stage thermomechanical pulp properties before and after low consistency refining have been investigated. The low consistency refining stage was simulated using a “Waring Blendor�. Highly alkaline peroxide treatments resulted in gains in pulp properties that would allow reduced energy input in second-stage refining. The treated pulp was more flexible and more resistant to cutting during subsequent low consistency refining. The improved properties resulted mainly from production of acid groups on the fibre surface or in the fines.

T

he mechanical pulping process is a large consumer of electrical energy.

Approximately 11% of the total electrical energy produced in British Columbia is currently consumed by the mechanical pulping process. With globally increasing energy cost, reducing electrical energy consumption in mechanical pulping is strategically important for cost reduction and the sustainability of the pulp and paper industry.

Low consistency (LC) refining has been reported to be more energy efficient than conventional high consistency (HC) refining but its application is limited by fibre cutting at high specific energy [1]. It may be possible to maximize the electrical energy savings gained through LC refining by chemically pre-treating the pulp prior to LC refining to increase fibre resistance to cutting and/or decrease the specific energy required to achieve the desired pulp quality.

One possible chemical pretreatment is alkaline peroxide. Alkaline peroxide is conventionally used for brightening of mechanical pulps after refining. Moldenius [2] found that the brightening process of mechanical pulps with alkaline peroxide can serve to simultaneously enhance both brightness and tensile strength, depending on the alkali and peroxide charges used. In 1989, Bohn and Sferrazza [3] reported the application of an Alkaline Peroxide Mechanical Pulping Process (APMP) to spruce or aspen chips to provide strength and brightness gains. Recently the application of alkaline peroxide has been extended to TMP rejects [4]. According to these authors, the handsheets made from TMP rejects treated with alkaline peroxide followed by high conpulpandpapercanada.com

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 21

sistency refining showed significant increases in tensile strength and sheet density. In their work, it was not possible to separate the direct effects of the treatments on the TMP rejects from the impact of the treatments on behaviour of the rejects in the subsequent high consistency refining.

In this paper we report the results of our investigation into the application of alkaline peroxide treatments on low freeness TMP prior to low consistency refining. The TMP was treated with a range of peroxide and alkali charges and fibre and handsheet properties, prior and subsequent to LC refining, were assessed. The impact of the treatments on pulp refinability and energy savings are discussed.

X.F. CHANG Dept. of Wood Science, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.

J. A. OLSON Pulp and Paper Centre, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.

R. P. BEATSON British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, B.C.

C. BRIDGES Dept. of Wood Science, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.

D. KUAN Dept. of Wood Science, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.

A. LUUKONEN Pulp and Paper Centre, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.

D. VU Dept. of Wood Science, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.

L. KUANG Dept. of Wood Science, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. July/August 2011 PULP & PAPER CANADA

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T13

REFINING MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials The pulp used for the validation of the laboratory simulation of LC refining was a thermomechanical pulp (TMP) prepared from whole log hemlock wood chips in the Andritz pilot plant, Springfield, Ohio. The pulp used for alkali peroxide treatments was the second-stage outlet TMP made from a mixture of pine, hemlock, and spruce chips in the Elk Falls mill of Catalyst Papers. The freeness values of the pulps used for simulation and alkali peroxide treatments were 168 ml CSF and 137 ml CSF respectively.

Refining Pilot plant LC refining was conducted at 4% consistency using a 22 in. Andritz TwinFlow pilot refiner with 22TA101/102 plates (14.65 km/rev) at at specifc energy of 90 kWh/t per pass from tank to tank at Andritz pilot plant.

Refining with the “Waring Blendor” used a blender (Dynamic Corporation of America, model 33BL73) with a one litre capacity bowl and blades as supplied. A 500 ml suspension of pulp at 2.4% consistency was blended in the blender for 10, 20, 30 or 40 minutes. The blender was operated at the low speed setting keeping the input voltage and current at 115 V and 1.9 A. Refining with a PFI mill followed the PAPTAC method C.7 except in that the pulps, 240 g at 4% consistency, were loaded into the PFI mill set at a 0.2 mm gap.

Alkaline peroxide treatment The washed pulps (30 g oven-dry) were chelated with 0.2% diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) at 4% consistency and 60oC for 30 min. After chelation, the pulps were washed with deionized water and then dewatered to around 20% consistency. The pulps were put into plastic bags and mixed with bleaching liquor at 15% consistency before incubating in a water bath at 60oC for 2 hours with occasional mixing. Chemical charges were 0.1% magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), 3% sodium silicate (Na2SiO3), 0-4% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) based on O.D. pulp, and sufficient sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to give an initial liquor pH of 11, 12 or 13 (Table I). Further treatments were conducted at constant NaOH charge of 6% and H2O2 charges of 0%, 2% and 4% on O.D. pulp. The treated pulps were washed with deionized water with filtrate recycle to retain fines. Yield was calculated from the pulp mass difference before and after the treatments.

Pulp freeness Freeness of the pulps was determined according to PAPTAC standard method C.1. Pulps were hot disintegrated to remove latency prior to freeness measurements and handsheet preparation.

Handsheet properties Handsheets were made according to PAPTAC method C.4.

White water was recycled during handsheet making. Bulk, brightness, tensile strength and tear resistance were determined according to PAPTAC standards D.4, D.12, D.6H, and D.9 respectively.

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Table I. Sodium hydroxide charges used to obtain the desired initial pH (based on O.D. pulp) Amounts of NaOH charged Initial liquor pH

0% H2O2

2% H2O2

4% H2O2

pH 11

0.11%

0.57%

0.63%

pH 12

0.28%

2.11%

3.03%

pH 13

1.03%

4.43%

6.00%

Fibre length Fibre length of the pulp was determined using a Fibre Quality Analyzer (FQA) according to manufacturer’s instructions. The Fibre Quality Analyzer was set such that fragments less than 0.07 mm were not included in the calculation of the mean fibre lengths. Fibre lengths are reported as length weighted means.

For the calculation of fibre distribution, long fibres were defined as the fibres longer than 1.7 mm, while short fibres were those shorter than 0.25 mm. The long and short fibres of the pulp in this study were roughly equivalent to R28 and P100 of the Bauer-McNett fractions respectively.

Water retention value Water retention value (WRV) determination was conducted on the whole pulps according to TAPPI method UM256.B. Acid group content Amounts of acid groups in pulps were determined using the method of conductometic titration of pulp described by Beatson [5].

Fibre flexibility The method of Steadman and Luner [6] was followed.

The pulp used was collected from the P14/R28 section of a Bauer-McNett classifier. The median fibre flexibility was calculated from measurements on sixty fibres.

Statistics The data points in the figures are means of measurements.

The measurements are duplicated unless specified. Error bars in all graphs refer to 95% significant confidence intervals. All pulps were tested in the same laboratory.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Validation of the LC refining simulation with a blender In order to efficiently evaluate the effects of various alkalineperoxide treatments on TMP before and after LC refining in the laboratory, it was necessary to find a suitable laboratory scale device that could mimic LC refining. Previously, Shaw [7] found that a blender with a one gallon container could mimic the second-stage HC refiner in thermomechanical pulping. More recently, French and Maddern [8] were able to mimic a high shear low load refiner using a “Waring Blendor” with a one-litre container. Based on these previous studies, we explored the possibility of using the “Waring Blendor” to mimic a low consistency refiner. It was determined that when 500 ml of pulp at 2.4% consistency was refined for 10 minutes pulpandpapercanada.com

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PEER-REVIEWED

Effects of alkaline peroxide treatment on TMP properties and response to LC refining Based on the above findings, the “Waring Blendor” was used to examine the effects of alkaline peroxide treatments on the response of TMP to subsequent LC refining. A second-stage TMP, HC refined to 137 ml freeness, was treated with different combinations of sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide (Table I) before being blended for 10 min. As discussed above, the blending corresponds to the application of 110 to 150 kWh/t specific energy at a pilot scale. The properties of the alkaline peroxide-treated pulps were tested before and after blending. Yield losses were a maximum of 4% at the higher alkali charges [9].

Freeness for blending 1.8 Freeness for pilot mill LC refining Fiber length for blending Fiber length for pilot mill LC refining

180 150

1.6

120 1.4 90 1.2

60 30

Control

1

3

2

4

Fibre length (mm)

Freeness (ml)

in a one-litre “Waring Blendor” the freeness drop and tensile gain were similar to those obtained when the same pulp was refined in the LC refiner in the mill at a specific energy of 100 kWh/t. To further validate the laboratory refining process, TMP was refined in a 22 in. Andritz TwinFlow pilot refiner at 4% consistency and 90 kWh/t of specific energy per pass and the resulting pulp properties were compared to those obtained when the same pulp was refined in the blender.

As seen in Fig. 1, both freeness and fibre length decrease with refining for both processes. It is apparent that 10 minutes of blending develops the fibre properties somewhat more than the application of 90 kWh/t in the refiner. Indeed for freeness development, it appears that 10 minutes blending corresponds to around 110 kWh/t in the refiner. Fibre length is a little higher at a given freeness for pulp refined in the blender.

Reduced fibre cutting in the blender is consistent with Shaw’s conclusion that the blender acts as a low intensity refiner [7].

Table II compares the effects of blending for 10 minutes per stage with pilot mill LC refining at 90 kWh/t of specific energy per stage on handsheet properties. The reductions in bulk and tear are similar. However, tensile strength is developed more slowly in the refiner, with approximately 150 kWh/t being required to produce similar tensile gains as were obtained though 10 minutes of blending. Apparently, for a given drop in bulk, tensile strength was developed to a greater extent in the blender than in the pilot refiner. This may be related to better retention of fibre length (Fig. 1).

From the comparison of the results from blending with the results from mill and pilot refining, it is apparent that the “Waring Blendor”, operated at 2.4% consistency, can mimic low consistency refining, with 10 minutes of blending producing similar effect to the application of 110 to 150 kWh/t of specific energy in the pilot scale LC refiner.

T14

1.0

Refining stage

Fig. 1: Ten minutes of blending results in similar freeness drops to 110 kWh/t in the pilot LCR refiner. Fibre length is slightly higher at a given freeness for blending. (Refining stages: 10 min. blending; 90 kWh/t pilot refiner)

Handsheet Properties Tensile strength Figure 2 shows that both alkali and hydrogen peroxide increased the tensile strength of the TMP prior to LC refining. For a given peroxide charge, tensile strength increased significantly with increasing initial pH above pH 12, which is similar to Moldenius’ observation [2]. For the same high alkali charge (6% NaOH plus 3% Na2SiO3), tensile strengths of the pulps treated with 2% or 4% peroxide were not significantly different from each other but they were 23% higher than that of the pulp treated with alkali alone (Fig. 3). These results are consistent with Korpela’s [10] work on alkaline peroxide treatment of stone groundwood where he found that fibre bonding was more dependent upon alkalinity than peroxide charge.

The tensile gains on refining were the same for treatments conducted at low alkali charge (Fig. 2). At high alkali charge in the presence of peroxide (Figs. 2c and 3), no additional tensile gain was obtained through subsequent LC refining. Although highly alkaline peroxide treatments increased the pulp tensile strength they did not promote the further fibrillation during LC refining. It should be noted that these treatments were done on well developed pulp already refined to 137 ml freeness through high consistency refining in the mill. It is quite possible that the highly alkaline treatments would promote

Table II. Handsheet properties obtained on refining blending — 10 min. per stage; pilot LC refining – 90 kwh/t per stage.

Refining stage

Tensile index (Nm/g)

Bulk (cm3/g)

Tear index (mNm2/g)

Blending

LC refining

Blending

LC refining

Blending

LC refining

Control

33.79 ± 1.24

33.79 ± 1.24

3.13 ± 0.01

3.13 ± 0.01

8.92 ± 0.39

8.92 ± 0.39

1

38.10 ± 1.05

35.47 ± 0.92

2.96 ± 0.02

3.00 ± 0.02

9.09 ± 0.54

8.42 ± 0.57

2

42.00 ± 0.88

39.00 ± 0.39

2.82 ± 0.03

2.83 ± 0.02

8.87 ± 0.47

8.37 ± 0.47

3

43.39 ± 1.12

41.21 ± 1.12

2.77 ± 0.02

2.73 ± 0.02

7.89 ± 0.25

7.79 ± 0.34

4

45.05 ± 1.04

41.65 ± 1.94

2.70 ± 0.02

2.68 ± 0.02

7.58 ± 0.13

7.45 ± 0.32

pulpandpapercanada.com

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July/August 2011 PULP & PAPER CANADA

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T15

REFINING fibre development for a higher freeness pulp. The 15 Nm/g of tensile strength enhancement obtained by the treatment using 2-4% H2O2 and 6% NaOH (Fig. 3) would require the application of approximately 300 kWh/t of electrical energy in second-stage LC refining and around 900 kWh/t in secondstage HC refining [1, 11, 12]. Thus, it is apparent that these chemical treatments could lead to significant savings in electrical energy to a given tensile strength.

Brightness With alkaline peroxide treatments, the pattern of brightness gain is different from that of the tensile strength increase (Fig. 6). For the treatments using 4% H2O2, the brightness reached a maximum at around pH 12 and then decreased as pH increased. On the other hand, the brightness of 2% H2O2-treated pulp continued to increase until pH 13. This is consistent with the conclusion that there is an optimal ratio of total alkalinity to peroxide charge for a maximum brightness gain [15]. As the peroxide charge increases, the optimum ratio decreases, resulting in a maximum brightness gain occurring at a lower pH. Been [16] suggested that the drop in brightness with higher pH was related to the production of hydrogen peroxide resistant chromophores by the alkali.

Pulp Properties Freeness The alkaline peroxide treatments did not significantly change the freeness value of the original pulp. Subsequent LC refining with the blender decreased freeness of all the pulps from around 137 ml CSF to approximately 90 ml CSF. Water retention value Water retention value (WRV) measurements were conducted 24 

PULP & PAPER CANADA  July/August 2011

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 24

60

Tensile index (Nm/g)

Bulk The bulk of the pulp treated by alkaline peroxide developed in a similar manner to tensile strength (Fig. 5). The bulk of the pulp treated with highly alkaline peroxide (4% H2O2 and 6% NaOH) decreased from 3.1 cm3/g to 2.3 cm3/g while it did not change significantly during the subsequent LC refining. The lower bulk of the pulp treated by alkaline peroxide reflects greater sheet consolidation during pressing and drying.

Fig. 2. Alkaline peroxide treatments improve tensile strength. Subsequent LC refining increases the tensile strength of pulps treated at lower alkalinity (alkali charges see Table I).

Chemical treatment Chemical treatment then blending for 10 min

55 50 45 40 35 30

Control

0% H2O2

2% H2O2

4% H2O2

Peroxide treatment (6% NaOH on pulp)

Fig. 3. At high alkalinity, peroxide charges of 2 and 4% give equivalent tensile gains. No further increase in tensile was obtain when these pulps were refined.

12

Tear index (mNm2/g)

Tear strength The development of tear strength with the alkali peroxide treatments is shown in Fig. 4. For treatments with an initial pH lower than 12, the tear strength of the pulp increased. As the pH was increased further, tear strength decreased. The decrease in tear was greater for the peroxide-treated pulps.

However in all cases, the tear strength of all treated pulps was not lower than the original pulp. The subsequent LC refining slightly lowered the tear strength of each sample.

The general trend of an initial increase in tear followed by a decrease as the tensile increases is a well known phenomenon for mechanical pulps and is related to increased bonding and is not necessarily a reflection of fibre shortening [13, 14].

Chemical treatment Chemical treatment then blending for 10 min

a

12

b

12

10

10

10

8

8

8

6

6

6

4

Control pH 11 pH 12 pH 13

0% H2O2

4

Control pH 11 pH 12 pH 13

2% H2O2

4

c

Control pH 11 pH12 pH 13

4% H2O2

Fig. 4. Tear increases with pH of treatment to a maximum at pH 11 then falls. Blending reduces tear at lower pH values.

on the pulps treated using different alkali and peroxide dosages. Figure 7 shows that the WRV of the treated pulps increased by around 14%, independent of hydrogen peroxide and alkali charge. Subsequent LC refining increased the WRV of all the pulps by a further 9%. pulpandpapercanada.com

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PEER-REVIEWED

3.0

3.0

2.8

2.8

2.8

2.6

2.6

2.6

2.4

2.4

2.4

Bulk (cm3/g)

3.0

2.2

Control pH 11 pH 12 pH 13

2.2

0% H2O2

Control pH 11 pH12 pH 13

2% H2O2

2.2

Control pH 11 pH 12 pH 13

4% H2O2

Fig. 5: Alkaline peroxide treatments reduce handsheet bulk.

Further bulk reductions are achieved through LC refining.

Brightness (ISO)

4% H2O2 2% H2O2 0% H2O2

2

1

0

Control

0% H2O2 4% H2O2 2% H2O2 6% NaOH 4.4% NaOH 6% NaOH

60

Fig. 8. Alkali with or without peroxide increases fibre flexibility.

50

40 Control

pH 11

pH 12

Chemical treatment

pH 13

Fig. 6: Brightness reaches a maximum at an initial pH of 12 and 4% peroxide charge.

Water Retention Value (g-H2O/g-O.D. pulp)

3

Chemical treatments

70

3.2

Chemical treatment Chemical treatment then blending for 10 min

2.8 2.4 2.0 1.6 1.2

4

c

3.2

Flexibility (*1012)(1/Nm)

3.2

Chemical treatment Chemical treatment then blending for 10 min a b 3.2

T16

Control

4% H2O2 2% H2O2 0% H2O2 6% NaOH 4.4% NaOH 6% NaOH

Chemical treatment

Fig. 7. All chemical treatments increased the WRV by around 14%. A further 9% increase was obtained on refining with the blender. pulpandpapercanada.com

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 25

This pattern of WRV increase is distinctly different from increases in tensile and decreases in bulk (Figures 2 and 5).

For example, the water retention value of the pulp treated with no peroxide and 6% alkali is the same as that of the one treated with 4% peroxide and 6% alkali yet the tensile strength of the latter is 17% higher than the former. Also, refining increases the water retention values of the pulp treated with 4% peroxide and 6% alkali yet no gain in tensile was observed. Figure 8 shows that the fibre flexibility of the treated but not refined fibres follows the same pattern as the water retention values.

The lack of a relationship of WRV and fibre flexibility to tensile strength and bulk indicates that other factors are dominating. Perhaps reactions with peroxide that modify the fibre surface and/or change the quality of fines are critical for the increased tensile whereas fibre swelling is mainly caused by alkali.

Resistance of fibre to cutting during refining To examine if the alkaline peroxide treatments make the fibres more resistant to cutting during refining, the original pulp and pulp treated with 4% H2O2 and 6% NaOH were refined using a PFI. The PFI mill has previously been shown to produce more fibre cutting than a “Waring Blendor” [8].

The results show that the original pulp quickly reached the maximum tensile strength at around 1000 revolutions and then started to deteriorate with further refining (Fig. 9). On the other hand, for the 4% H2O2-treated sample handsheet tensile strength improved slowly up to 5000 revolutions. As the PFI revolutions are increased, more energy is applied to the pulps, promoting the external and internal fibrillation of fibres, fibre flexibility and possibly fibre cutting. Increased fibre fibrillation and flexibility would increase tensile strength while fibre cutting would have the opposite effect. The observation of tensile decrease for the original pulp implies that fibre cutting is occurring whereas in the treated pulp the continuous rise in tensile implies protection of the fibre from the cutting.

July/August 2011 PULP & PAPER CANADA

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T17

REFINING 55

50

4% H2O2, 6% NaOH on pulp Original Pulp

45 40 35 0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

PFI revolutions

Ratio between long and short fibres

1.9

1.8

1.7 4% H2O2, 6% NaOH Original Pulp 1.6 0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

PFI revolutions Fig. 10. Treatment of pulp with 4% H2O2 & 6% NaOH helps maintain fibre length during refining.

The lack of any observable tensile increase for this pulp during blending may be just related to a lower extent of refining.

The protection from fibre cutting by the chemical treatment is confirmed by fibre length measurements. Fibre length measurements using the FQA show that the original sample had continuously decreasing ratios of long fibre (>1.7 mm) to short fibre (< 0.25 mm) as PFI revolutions increased, while 4% H2O2-treated pulp maintained a high ratio of long to short fibres until 3000 revolutions, after which the ratio dropped rapidly (Fig. 10). The high resistance of the 4% H2O2-treated pulp to fibre cutting is likely related to its improved fibre flexibility. It may be possible to exploit this phenomenon in industrial scale LC refining where fibre cutting is known to be a problem [1]. This would open the way PULP & PAPER CANADAâ&#x20AC;&#x192; July/August 2011

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 26

50

NaOH Charge 6.0%

45 40

1.03% 0.57%

NaOH Charge 6.0%

NaOH Charge 6.0%

4.43%

3.03%

2.11% 0.63%

35 120

Fig. 9. Pulp treated with 4% H2O2 & 6% NaOH increases in tensile on beating to 5000 revs. whereas the original pulp loses tensile after 1000 revs.

26â&#x20AC;&#x192;

0% H2O2 2% H2O2 4% H2O2

55

Tensile index (Nm/g)

Tensile index (Nm/g)

60

160

200

240

280

Acid group content (mmol/kg)

320

Fig. 11. Tensile strength is correlated with acid group content.

to increased application of LC refining and further electrical energy reduction in TMP production.

Correlation between tensile strength and acid group content amongst the alkaline peroxide treated pulps It has previously been noted by many researchers that there is correlation between incorporation of acid groups into the fibre and increased tensile strength. This has been found to hold both for chemical pulps [17][18] and for mechanical pulps [19]. Figure 11 shows that, also for our treated pulps, there is a good correlation between acid group content and tensile strength among the pulps treated with 0%, 2% or 4% peroxide. In general, the more acid groups generated, the higher the tensile strength of the pulps. The generation of acid groups and development of tensile at a given alkali charge is similar for treatments with both 2% and 4% peroxide. Thus, the similar development in tensile for these treatments, noted previously (Fig. 3), is apparently the result of alkaline peroxide reactions that lead to similar acid group contents. In the absence of hydrogen peroxide, even at high alkali charge, few acid groups are formed. Both peroxide and high alkali are necessary to maximize acid group content and obtain maximum strength gains.

The lack of a relationship between WRV or fibre flexibility and tensile strength noted earlier also holds for acid group content. For example although the pulp treated with 6% alkali alone has a much lower acid group content compared to that treated with 6% alkali and 4% peroxide, the fibre flexibility and water retention values are very close (Figs. 7 and 8). These small changes in fibre flexibility and WVR, which reflect changes within the fibre wall and can lead to small tensile gains through increased interfibre bonded area, seem to be more controlled by alkali charge rather than acid group content. The main gain in tensile strength comes from the generation of acid groups outside the fibre wall, on the fibre surface or in the fines, presumably increasing bond strength. These findings are consistent with the studies of Barzyk et al [18] on chemical pulps and Engstrand et al [19] and Ampulski [20] on mechanical pulps. These pulpandpapercanada.com

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PEER-REVIEWED researchers concluded that generation of acid groups on fibre surfaces are much more important for strength development than introduction of acid group into the fibre wall.

CONCLUSIONS

Alkaline peroxide treatments on the mechanical pulp have the potential of significantly improving pulp quality allowing reduced electrical energy consumption in mechanical pulp production.

Treatment of TMP with highly alkaline peroxide prior to low consistency refining provides tensile strength increases along with increases in brightness. The highly alkaline peroxide treatments do not promote further fibrillation during subsequent LC refining but protect the fibres from cutting. The main improvements in TMP properties gained through highly alkaline peroxide treatment are the result of the reaction of hydrogen peroxide to produce a large amount of acid groups on the surface of the fibres or in the fines.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through the Collaborative Research and Development program and through the support of our partners BC Hydro, Paprican, Catalyst Papers, Howe Sound Pulp and Paper, West Fraser Quesnel River Pulp, Canfor, Andritz, Arkema, Honeywell, WestCan Engineering, Advanced Fibre Technologies, Ontario Power Anthority and CEATI International. Special thanks go to Marc Sabourin and Eric Xu of Andritz for assistance with pilot trails and to Andritz for use of their pilot facilities.

LITERATURE

1. MUENSTER, H. Energy savings in TMP by high temperature LC/MC refining, in Int. Mechanical Pulping Conference, Oslo, Norway, 2005.

2. MOLDENIUS, S. The effects of peroxide bleaching on the strength and surface properties of mechanical pulping, J. Pulp Paper Sci., 10:172-177, 1984.

3. BOHN, W. L. and SFERRAZZA, M. J., Alkaline peroxide mechanical pulping, A revolution in high yield pulping, in Preprints, 1989 International Mechanical Pulping Conference, pp. 184-200.

4. BIAN, Y., NI, Y., YUAN, Z., HEITNER C. and BEAULIEU, S. Improving TMP rejects refining through alkaline peroxide pretreatment for

T18

value-added mechanical papers, Tappi J.,.6:24, 2007.

5. BEATSON, R. P. Determination of sulfonate groups and total sulfur, in Methods in Lignin Chemistry, S. Y. Lin and C. W. Dence, Eds. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, 1992, pp. 473-484.

6. STEADMAN, R. and LUNER, P. The effect of wet fibre flexibility on sheet apparent density, Papermaking Raw Materials, pp. 311-337, 1985.

7. SHAW, A. C. Simulation of secondary refining, Pulp & Paper Canada, 85:107-112, 1984.

8. FRENCH, J. and MADDERN, K. N. A mini pulp evaluation procedure, APPITA, 47:38-44, 1994.

9. PAN, G. X. Relationship between dissolution of fiber materials and development of pulp strength in alkaline peroxide bleaching of mechanical pulp, Holzforschung, 58:369-374, 2004.

10. KORPELA, A. Improving the strength of PGW pine pulp by alkaline peroxide treatment, Nordic Pulp And Paper Research Journal, 17:183-186, 2002.

11. LUUKKONEN, A., OLSON, J. A., and MARTINEZ, D. M. Predicting refiner gap and pulp quality in LC refining of mechanical pulp, in International Mechanical Pulping Conference, 2009, pp. 195-202.

12. NURMINEN, I. High strength TMP with 25% lower energy consumption by changing only fiber separation conditions, in International Mechanical Pulping Conference 2001, 2001, pp. 167-173.

13. SHALLHORN, P. M. and KARNIS, A. The tear and tensile strength of mechanical pulps, Trans. Tech. Sect. CPPA, 5:TR92-TR99, 1979.

14. ATACK, D., HEITNER C. and STATIONWALA, M. I. Ultra high yield pulping of eastern black spruce refiner mechanical and thermomechanical pulps [TMP], pretreatment, properties, energy consumption. Svensk Papperstidning (Sweden), 81:164-176, 1978.

15. PRESLEY, J. R. and HILL, R. T. Peroxide bleaching of (chemi)mechanical pulps, in Pulp Bleaching: Principles and Practice, C. W. Dence and D. W. Reeve, Eds. TAPPI Atlanta, GA, 1996, pp. 457-489.

16. BEEN, J. A novel approach to kinetic modeling of the hydrogen peroxide brightening of mechanical pulp, Tappi Journal (USA), pp. 144-152, 1995.

17. SCALLAN, A. M. and GRIGNON, J. The effect of cations on pulp and paper properties, Svensk Papperstidn, 82:40-47, 1979.

18. BARZYK, D., PAGE D. H. and RAGAUSKAS, A. Carboxylic acid groups and fibre bonding, in The Fundamentals of Papermaking Materials: Transactions of the 11th Fundamental Research Symposium, Cambridge, 1997, pp. 893-907.

19. ENGSTRAND, P. SJOGREN, B. OLANDER, K. and HTUN, M. The significance of carboxylic groups for the physical properties of mechanical pulp fibers, in 6th International Symposium Wood Pulping Chemistry, 1991, pp. 75-79.

20. AMPULSKI, R. S. The influence of fiber surface charge on tensile strength, in Tappi Papermakers Conference, 1985.

Reference: CHANG, H., BRIDGES, C., KUAN,, D., KUANG, L., OLSON, J.A., LUUKONEN, A., BEATSON, R.P. Saving Electrical Energy

by Alkaline Peroxide Pretreatment of TMP Prior to Low Consistency Refining. Pulp & Paper Canada, 112(4): T12-18 (July/Aug. 2011). Winner of the Douglas Atack Award for the best paper in the field of mechanical pulping.

Paper presented at the 2010 PAPTAC Annual Meeting, Montreal, Feb 2-3, 2010. Not to be reproduced without permission of PAPTAC.

“Technical Innovation’s Role in Delivering Competitive Advantage” (continued from page 30) We need to work with government to design smart policy to incent investment/competitive advantage.

• Fully utilize FPAC (build upon the Green Transformation Program and the Boreal agreement successes).

• Develop effective provincial lobbying associations.

• Incent/reward smart investment (green energy, environmental improvements, biofuels and new technology).

• Industry needs to take the lead in providing workable solutions for government (not whine for hand outs).

We need to partner with education, suppliers and labour.

• Technical and degree programs that directly relate to the needs of the pulp and paper industry.

• United front addressing issues (Finnish model).

• Long term partnerships with key suppliers. pulpandpapercanada.com

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 27

We need to search and apply technology effectively to create competitive advantage.

• We need an effective federal R&D program (FPInnovations needs to be re-invented and supported by industry, government and labour).

• The focus MUST be on creating competitive advantage.

Here are two examples: We are behind on energy, yet we have the most abundant wood waste resource in the developed world. Green energy/biofuels should be a source of competitive advantage. Secondly, we are losing our fibre quality advantage. The Canadian fibre endowment is unique – let’s build on this strength, not allow our competitors to close the gap, whether we pursue nano-technology enhancement or improved systems in our pulp processes to maintain strength.

PPC July/August 2011 PULP & PAPER CANADA

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7/25/11 6:40 PM

TECHNOLOGY NEWS Kadant launches paper drying energy tips Kadant Johnson Inc. has launched a paper drying energy tips program to help papermakers improve paper drying and energy utilization. The new program features a monthly email that provides insights into optimizing energy use on the paper machine. “The response from the industry has been overwhelmingly positive based on the number of subscribers to the monthly email. We look forward to engaging papermakers from around the globe in improving their drying operations,” said Gregory L. Wedel, president of Kadant Johnson Inc. To opt-in to the monthly Energy Tip email program, please go to www.kadant.com/energytips.

Kadant Canada, www.kadant.com

New OBA produces same whiteness at lower usage Clariant gives papermakers the opportunity to use up to 30% less optical brightening agent (OBA), reduce tinting colorant levels, and reach a truer, more neutral white, with the launch of its Leucophor® XL whitening system.

The Leucophor® XL range offers a new approach to controlling and optimizing whiteness. Its innovative technology improves whiteness build-up without destroying brightness for coated and uncoated papers and board. This provides a step-change in the whiteness and brightness of paper compared to conventional whitening methods where the colorant can make paper appear duller and grayer.

Also, by replacing traditional brighteners with an OBA from the Leucophor® XL range, significantly less OBA is required in order to achieve equal whiteness levels.

At the same time, lower levels of shading colorants are required in the wet-end, leading to higher brightness at less cost.

By moving away from the OBA saturation

28

limit, previously unattainable whiteness levels are made possible.

Clariant Corp. 800-631-8077, www.paper.clariant.com

Andritz to deliver biomass handling systems for Iggesund Paperboard, UK Andritz has received another order from Holmen AB’s subsidiary, Iggesund Paperboard Ltd., to deliver a wood-based biomass receiving and handling system for Iggesund’s paperboard mill Workington in Cumbria, UK. The start-up is scheduled for April 2013.

The order comprises the supply, installation, and start-up of the equipment for receiving and storing biomass, as well as conveying it to the ANDRITZ biomass boiler. Capacity will be 1000 m3 per hour.

The system includes a horizontally fed chipping line for logs with an HHQChipper, and a horizontally fed crushing line for wood waste. The storage facility, also provided by Andritz, will accommodate 20,000 m³ of biomass.

This follows an order received from Iggesund in April for an Andritz bubbling fluidized bed boiler for the Workington mill, which will generate steam at a rate of 195 t/h.

Andritz 514-631-7700, www.andritz.com

Neucel automates business management with manufacturing and sales software MAJIQ has successfully started up its PTMS integrated business software product for sales order processing (SOP) and the manufacturing execution system (MES) requirements of Neucel Specialty Cellulose’s manufacturing operations in Port Alice, B.C. and its headquarters in Richmond, B.C. Neucel manufactures a number of dissolving woodpulp grades and supplies these products to markets around the world.

The project automates business management functions which were largely handled by manual procedures with spreadsheet-based tools. PTMS provides to Neucel’s operations current, integrated systems that greatly improve the efficiency of customer service, logistics and operations personnel while providing timely, accurate, complete and relevant business intelligence data.

John Schroeder, vice-president supply

PULP & PAPER CANADA July/August 2011

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chain for Neucel, says: “We needed to modernize our information systems and improve the speed and effectiveness of communications among all our sales, operations and financial staff. Since I had used the PTMS system in a previous pulp manufacturing company, I was confident that PTMS would meet the requirements of our demanding dissolving woodpulp lines.

The MAJIQ team met our expectations, and the system has assisted us significantly in the achievement of our performance improvement goals.”

Steve Latham, president of MAJIQ, notes that some of Neucel’s functional requirements are exclusive to dissolving grades. “PTMS is uniquely tailored to pulp operations yet flexible enough to meet a wide variety of specific pulp mill footprints.

PTMS will meet Neucel’s SOP and MES needs for years to come.”

MAJIQ Inc. 425-881-7100, www.majiq.com

IR sensor reduces defects in coated products by up to 15% Honeywell has introduced new infraredsensing technology designed to help packaging makers significantly reduce defects in their coated products, as well as reduce the amount of raw materials used to produce them.

The Reflectance Infrared Spectrometer (RIS) uses proprietary array detector technology to provide the industry’s highest resolution and the broadest IR spectrum range, which allows mills to achieve unsurpassed quality by measuring multiple components of coatings, even on reflective or printed substrates.

RIS can be used in quality control systems like Honeywell’s MXProLine™, which uses an array of scanners and sensors to monitor the quality of coated products such as liquid and aseptic packaging. The total solution helps producers more accurately measure and control multi-layer or barrier coatings and adhesive layers, discriminate components with very similar spectral characteristics, measure on printed and reflective backings, and quantify variations in additives and fillers such as Ti02 and CaC03.

This approach can reduce defects by up to 15% and raw material usage by up to 8%. Additionally, the calibration tools can save time by cutting the calibration effort by up to 40%.

Honeywell, www.honeywell.com/ps pulpandpapercanada.com

7/25/11 6:40 PM

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PPC_July_August_2011.indb 29

7/25/11 6:40 PM

OPINION

Technical Innovation’s Role in Delivering Competitive Advantage

By Joe Nemeth The following is excerpts from a speech

by Joe Nemeth, president and CEO of Canfor Pulp Products Inc., delivered at PacWest, June 2011.

C

anada was the global leader in the production and marketing of pulp for many decades. In large part, this was driven by the abundance and quality of our fibre base.

As we all know, our leadership position has eroded as new low-cost pulp production, mainly from Latin America and now Asia, has taken center stage. Using market softwood kraft as the example, Canada’s output has shrunk from 8 million admt at the peak in 2000 to only 6.5 million admt today. We used to have 57% of the world’s NBSK capacity. Now there are 19 mills, producing 43% of the world’s capacity.

Why has Canada lost its lead?

The most obvious reasons are: 1) Fibre costs: With an average rotation age of 100 years in Canada, how can we compete with the ten to 15 years it takes to grow radiata pine in Chile? Or the 5 to 6 years for eucalyptus in Brazil?

2) Conversion costs: Canadian costs have increased (labour, energy, chemical costs) and are far higher than the lowcost Latin Americans.

But what about the role of technology and innovation? Isn’t this what the Europeans have done?

The short answer is yes. Europeans have invested billions of dollars in asset renewal – basically fully rebuilding their pulp mills to state of the art.

Today, the average size of a market pulp softwood mill in Europe is over 500,000 admt vs. less than 250,000 admt in Canada. As a result, the big three producers, Sodra, Mercer and Botnia, have delivered superior financial returns relative to Canadian producers. If you look at EBITDA margin/tonne of these three vs. the average Canadian pulp producer, it shows a $100/tonne advantage.

But this is not the whole story. The Europeans have used technology and innovation to drive competitive advantage as well.

Europeans started chip segregation back in the ’90s as a way of competing with Canada’s fibre strength advantage. All three major softwood pulp producers employ this strategy and 30

PULP & PAPER CANADA July/August 2011

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produce a residual spruce grade that targets Canada’s sweet spot – reinforcement grade NBSK. All three are net energy producers – and today derive a significant part of the net profit from green energy sales.

And in Finland and Sweden, they are actively piloting and moving to commercialization on a number of important technologies: • on-line quality measurement and control; • using lignin as a replacement for fossil fuels in lime kilns (Metso’s Lignoboost process); • and more recently, liquid biofuels.

So this isn’t simply an issue of scale and climate (two issues that are pretty difficult for Canadians to address), it is also one of having the courage and foresight to take charge of those factors we do have some control over.

Does the Canadian pulp industry have a future?

Canada is still the largest producing region of both softwood market kraft and BCTMP pulp grades. And something happened a few years ago that was the best thing that could have happened for us: the U.S. black liquor tax.

I remind you that at the time that it was introduced, it did not feel so good. With over $6 billion given to U.S. producers of kraft pulp with no strings attached, Canadian producers were put at a competitive disadvantage that averaged over $200/admt!

The better news is that the Canadian government (in collaboration with the Canadian industry) responded with the $1 billion Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program. A program which, unlike the U.S. one, required Canadian producers to invest these funds in their Canadian assets in pre-qualified projects that improved environmental or energy performance.

As a result, the Canadian industry received a much needed shot in the arm that not only resulted in the first meaningful step towards the creation of a green energy business but also is allowing companies to upgrade infrastructure.

Will we be smart enough to use this as the opportunity to re-invent ourselves so we are viable for the long term? I think we can…and I have four suggestions: We need to band together.

• Speak with one unified voice (an example is the Forest Products Association of Canada and the Boreal Forest Agreement).

• Thoughtfully choose priorities. continued on page 27 pulpandpapercanada.com

7/25/11 6:40 PM

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GREEN. Our Color. Our Commitment.

At Buckman, the most important commitment we can make is to a sustainable future.

We know it isn’t

just good for the planet; it’s good for business. And we know it isn’t just about the environment; it’s about people, too.

You can depend on Buckman to find the sustainable path forward. And to help you do the same.

For more information call 877-BUCKMAN (877-282-5626) or visit buckman.com ©2010 Buckman Laboratories International, Inc.

PPC_July_August_2011.indb 32

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