New directions in recycle: recycled fiber collection and use has increased dramatically in recent years. New technology can help papermakers improve the quality, of this increased quantity.

Editor's note: This article is part of a continuing series of reports from the Forest, Wood and Paper Industry Technology Summit, held in May 2001 in Peachtree City, Georgia, USA The Technology Summit was sponsored by TAPPI, American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technology (DOE/ OIT).

Recovered paper has been an important fiber source for newsprint, tissue/toweling, corrugated containers and printing and writing papers for decades. Chipboard, packaging, and tube and core manufacturers have also used recovered mixed papers and board. These uses developed and continued with favorable economics for stable regional collection and mill reuse.

Over the last 15 years, the use of recovered fiber to increase mill capacity has increased sharply. U.S. paper recovery increased from 26.8 million short tons/year in 1985 to about 48 million short tons/year currently (nearly 50% recovery) (1). Almost 40 million short tons/year are recycled back into domestic paper and board production. This effort continues to divert huge quantities of reusable material from landfills.

Some underlying trends are creating new technical challenges lot paper recyclers and users. World fiber demand will continue to increase, as will the use of recovered fiber. To meet this demand, U.S. recovered paper suppliers must develop grades from lower quality mixed paper streams. Further, domestic recovery systems threaten to increasingly rely on "single stream collection," where all recyclables (paper, glass, and plastic) are commingled. Rising package/container exports from new Asian paper mills will increase the quantity of inferior quality old corrugated containers (OCC) in U.S. recovered paper streams. To sustain and improve our industry's position, we must improve profitability through dramatic innovations that reduce manufacturing costs and improve the quality of fiber delivered to the paper machine.

PROGRAM GOAL AND GAPS

The 2001 Technology Summit significantly changed the focus of and goals for the industry's recycling research program. The new challenge is to "make recycled fiber interchangeable with virgin fiber with respect to product quality and economics." Now more than ever; recycled fiber must directly compete with virgin fiber on all metrics: availability, strength potential, quality (uniformity and minimal contamination), runnability, performance, and cost. The two areas where targeted technology development can facilitate this are:

1. Improved quality and quantity of recovered paper delivered to paper mills

2. Improved mill processes, including the development of next generation fiber evaluation, defiberizing, and decontamination technologies.

QUALITY AND QUANTITY GAPS

The prime research objective is improved procurement to increase the volume of recovered paper and the bale quality. The key gaps are:

* Significant losses from gross contamination and mixes of fiber types that recycling mills cannot handle. Once inappropriate fibers (such as unbleachables in white ledger or excessive mechanical fibers in OCC) get into the pulper, subsequent mill process equipment cannot adequately remove or bleach them. North American OCC fiber quality is being compromised by mixing with increasing volumes of inferior offshore OCC fiber. Single stream collection is compromising all fiber grades

* Lack of metrics for paper grades at the recycle plant or fiber types in the recycle mill

* Lack of methods to monitor and sort paper types. Mills must know if feed materials are lignin-free, unbleached kraft, or mechanical fiber

* The paper industry itself perceives recycled fiber as inferior to virgin fiber

* The present supply structure--with its fragmentation and long shipping distances--causes periodic and systemic lack of adequate recovered paper grades, leading to huge price volatility and long-term shortages

* Commercialization of all technologies takes too long.

Target research areas to address these gaps include:

* Separating fiber types: Develop technologies to separate: (1) mechanical and unbleached kraft fibers from lignin-free; (2) unbleached kraft from mechanical and lignin-free; (3) mechanical from unbleached kraft; (4) offshore OCC from domestic OCC. Reduce variability from bale-to-bale and recovery plant-to-recovery plant

* Removing gross contamination (plastic, glass, metal, adhesives)

* Increasing the amount of recovered paper: This requires recovering more paper from existing industrial and commercial sources and implementing effective recovery programs for small generators (small office, multi-family and residential)

* Improving working conditions: This requires reducing exposure to repetitive motion injuries and protecting workers from direct contact with potentially dangerous and hazardous contaminants.

GAPS IN MILL PROCESSES

The second objective is to improve and consolidate mill unit operations. The gaps are:

* Defiberization and repulping methods have not dramatically changed in many decades

* The lack of process knowledge to consolidate unit operations; today's complex systems are expensive, include multiple unit operations, and require complicated control systems

* The lack of novel physics applications with new technology transfer from other applications/industries

* Variation in recycled paper performance caused by fiber characteristic variability; after pulping, current systems measure consistency and freeness but do not address strength potential and ensuing paper variation

* Substandard recycled paper strength/cost ratio; how can next generation treatment improve profitability and offset the declining strength potential of U.S. recycled fibers?

Target research areas for these gaps are focused on mill process improvement. New technology should displace multiple process modules at recycling plants with single units that provide:

* Higher yield (the greatest processing cost opportunity): Recover all on-grade fibers

* Lower energy use

* Water reuse: Develop new ways to reuse and reduce total process water volume.

* Simpler process flows that streamline existing systems, consolidate unit operations and reduce installed capital cost

* Better chemistry: Develop chemicals or enzymes that conveniently process fibers

* Fiber analysis: Develop techniques to evaluate fiber characteristics after pulping to reduce recycled paper variability.

POTENTIAL FUTURE ISSUES

Several issues will directly affect the Future of paper recycling. These issues include:

* Increasing energy costs will drive innovation to reduce connected power to recycling systems. This factor is coupled with the capacity and cost of producing virgin market pulp, which competes--in many applications-with recovered fiber.

* New virgin pulp capacity outside the United States could dampen efforts to develop new recycling technology.

* Offshore recycling capacity is expected to continue, particularly in China.

* Increased recovery rates may not be economically viable. This factor will influence the growth rate tot recovered fiber utilization. Emphasis on new, more efficient technologies will enable improved economics for the industry.

Paper recycling has changed dramatically over the past two decades. The technology used to make recycling work must also change. The goal of the Technology Summit team has been to provide a roadmap for research that will allow us to develop a more efficient and effective future for recycled paper.

POTENTIAL CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE

Advanced Sorting Technology, LLC 

Van Dyk

CP Manufacturing

Remcon

Thermo-Black Clawson

Carnegie Mellon

IPST 

MIT 

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Maine 

College of Forest Resources, North Carolina State University 

College of Forest Resources, University of Washington

Voith Paper

Session Membership:

Gregg Brelsford, MeadWestvaco, co-chair

Tom Friberg, Weyerhaeuser, co-chair

David Devlin, National Labs

Loreen Ferguson, Bay West Tissue

Oliver Heise, Voith Paper

Jeff Mayovsky, Weyerhaeuser

Jim Ramp, Southeast Paper

Richard Venditti, North Carolina State University

Tom Woodward, Hercules

IN THIS ARTICLE YOU WILL LEARN:

* Why the recovered paper volume and shipped bale quality must increase.

* Key opportunities far paper recovan/plants to increase volume and quality.

* Research directions for recycling mill processes that will most effectively increase fiber yield and quality at lower chemical and energy costs.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

* For Technology Surereit information:www.tappi.crg/ctosummit.asp

* Phe U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technology's home page:www.oit.doe.gov/forest/forest.shtml

(1.) AF&PA 2001 Annual Statistical Summary, Recovered Paper Utilization, 15th Ed.; April 2001.

About the authors: Tom Friberg is a unit manager in research and development for Weyerhaeuser Co., Federal Way, Washington, USA. He is also on the board of directors for Advanced Sorting Technology. Over the past 30 years, he has been involved in chemical and physical testing, corrosion and failure analysis, fiber utilization, packaging and new product development and wood and paper recycling, Friberg holds a Ph,D from the University of Washington.

Gregg Brelsford is currently product development manager at the MeadWestvaco Wickilffe coated fine papers mill. Between 1991 and 1996, he was technical superintendent at the Westvaco Tyrone mill where he identified and implemented technologies for recycling potycoated board and postconsumer office waste used to make envelope and coated fine papers. He co-chaired the AF&PA Recycled Fiber Committee from 1997 to 2001. Brelsford also served on the IPST Advisory Board for Paper Recycling Technology from 1994 to 1996. He held positions as marketing manager, new products and research chemist for Westvaco. Brelsford received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Duke University in 1987 and did postdoctoral research at the University of Industrial Chemistry in Genoa, Italy. He earned a B, A. in Chemistry from the College of Wooster, Ohio, in 1983.