Development of new technologies for the pulp and paper industry

由于新兴电子商务的兴起，以及来自巴西、印度尼西亚和中国等依赖廉价劳动力成本和/或原材料的国家日益激烈的竞争，加拿大纸浆和造纸行业正面临挑战。为了保持健康和竞争力，该行业需要在开发新的增值产品和/或改进制造工艺方面进行创新。倪永好博士目前的提议满足了这些需求。在过去的24年里，他建立了广泛的研究计划，为纸浆和造纸工业开发新技术/产品，其中包括对现有制造工艺/产品和新工艺/产品的改进。在此次应用中，他将继续进行相同的研究计划，并专注于两个方面，即：1)高导电纸的开发和表征及其在纸天线中的应用及其在射频识别(RFID)中的应用；*2)通过提高纯度来生产高质量的纤维素材料。*为纤维素纤维创造价值的纤维工程最近受到了广泛的关注，因为纤维素纤维具有可持续、可回收和可生物降解的固有优势，可以用来生产通常由塑料、金属等制成的新型产品。纸质天线的研究及其在RFID中的应用很好地契合了纤维工程的概念。这项研究的结果将直接关系到加拿大制浆造纸业，该行业正在努力开发以纤维素纤维为原料的新技术。*纤维素(也称为溶解纸浆)在加拿大是一个不断增长的部门。在接下来的5年里，倪博士和他的团队的目标是通过提高半纤维素的去除来提高纤维素的质量。预计这一结果将使这一重要部门受益。加拿大拥有丰富的森林资源，是全球纤维素(溶解纸浆)生产的领先者，加拿大生产的溶解纸浆全部出口到其他国家。预计这项研究将给加拿大带来显著的社会效益和经济效益。

The Canadian Pulp and Paper Industry is facing challenges due to emerging e-commerce and increasing competition from countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and China, which rely on inexpensive labour costs and/or raw material. To remain healthy and competitive, the industry needs innovations in the development of new value-added products and/or of improved manufacturing processes. The present proposal by Dr. Yonghao Ni addresses these needs. He has established an extensive research program in the past 24 years on the development of new technologies/ products for the pulp and paper industry, which includes both the improvements in the present manufacturing processes/ products and novel processes/ products. In this application, he will continue the same research program and focus on two aspects, namely: 1) development and characterization of high electro-conductivity paper and its application for paper antenna and its application in the radio-frequency identification (RFID); ***2) production of high-quality cellulose material by increasing the purity.******Fiber Engineering, which creates values for cellulose fibers, has received much attention recently because cellulose fibers, due to their inherent advantages of sustainability, recyclability and bio-degradability, can be used to produce novel products that are usually made of plastics, metals, etc. The research on paper antenna and its application in the RFID fit the fiber engineering concept well. The outcome of the research will be of direct interest to the Canadian Pulp and Paper Industry, which strives for the development of new technologies that use cellulose fibers as raw material.******Cellulose (also known as dissolving pulp) is a growing sector in Canada. In the next 5 years Dr. Ni and his team are aiming to improve the quality of cellulose by enhancing the hemicellulose removal. The results will be expected to benefit this important sector. Canada, rich in forest resources, is a global leader in the cellulose (dissolving pulp) production, and all of the dissolving pulp produced in Canada is exported to other countries. It is expected that the research will have significant social/ economic benefits to the Canada.