Pulp and papermaking: future trends in equipment and processes

Future trends in equipment and processes in the pulp and paper industry must be viewed against the background of changing economic and social global developments. Chief among these is the investors' demand for a better financial performance, in line with other manufacturing industries. A number of measures have already taken place in response to these demands, with a lot more to come. There has been an increased activity in industry consolidation, a shift in focus from production to customer, a more disciplined approach to capital and supply management and beginnings of new collaborative business practices.

Today's productivity and economy levels will continue to be improved through new technologies and economy of scale for commodity grades such as newsprint. For new products, mega-lines will more likely be replaced by smaller, more flexible and highly automated lines with rapid grade change capabilities.

In both cases, the paper machine will be integrated into fewer processes and will contain more built-in intelligence, automation and online control.

The industry is also very fragmented, with the largest corporation today producing only 5 per cent of global paper and board output and the largest top ten only 30 per cent. The result is fierce competition, volatile prices, irrational capacity development and high costs through insufficient scale.

Many corporations are shifting focus from commodity to customer, are becoming more disciplined in supply management and implementing new technological and managerial practices to create value and demand for their products. Mergers and consolidations, divestments, and product customisation are other clear signs of an industry in transition. In North America alone there were 37 major mergers in the last two years valued at roughly US$51 billion, and 47 permanent reductions in pulp and paper capacity amounting to 3.5 million tonnes of annual production, mostly through consolidations. Such mergers are projected to continue into the future to create fewer and bigger players better positioned to create demand for their products and improve earnings.

Future paper and board grades

While the world's annual paper and board consumption has increased by some 3 per cent annually over the last decade to its present 320 million tonnes and is projected to increase at roughly the same rate during the next decade, the products produced have continually changed in function and form while their prices have fallen. Additionally, greater numbers of clients are demanding decreasing tonnages of customised product with short delivery times.

The most promising, but also the most complex, of the emerging new products is 'intelligent paper' eg, disposable optics and electronics with applications in the packaging industry to sense product freshness, barcodes, price tags, sensors, etc. This involves implanting micro or nano-sized particles or polymers within the web's structure to perform specific optical or electronic functions. The particles can be implanted via the process of embossing, printing, laminating or vacuum coating, most of which are inherent in the papermaking processes.

Clearly, there are formidable technological challenges. The implantation of nano particles to perform precise monitoring or control functions within a paper structure of limited structural integrity, subject to changes in temperature and humidity, is clearly one such challenge.

Another is to elevate the integrity of fibre structure formation to a suitably small scale approaching that of a single fibre. Developments in structured pigment particles, new binders and co-binders will soon make it possible to form webs with specific properties to enhance printability, runability and surface properties for future niche grades. A more immediate need in grade development is to customise present unit processes to produce specific grades from specific pulps. There is much to be done in view of new furnish developments, increased use of recycled fibre, non-wood fibre and, particularly, additives and chemicals. All this requires customising, notably in the forming section, to achieve optimum quality. The trend to product diversification and niche grades will continue to impact negatively on traditional communications grades, quality and price development since they will have to compete in paper markets with higher quality demands.

Future paper and board machines

Both width and speed of paper machines have progressively increased over the years to the present 10 and 2000 m/min limits respectively.

A modern newsprint machine can produce 400,000 t/y compared with 100,000 t/y 35 years ago, at much higher quality and much lower unit cost.

While further increases in productivity are technologically possible, principally through increase in speed, the size of future