Energy reduction in mechanical pulping

全球对可再生、可持续、气候友好型木浆材料和产品的需求持续增加。满足全球纤维需求的关键是通过高产量的机械制浆，比化学制浆多生产50%的纤维。加拿大拥有丰富的森林、水和电力基础设施，这是能源密集型产业成功发展所必需的，使其成为具有重要战略意义的可再生出口产业。这一战略性产业面临的最大威胁是生产过程中消耗的电能成本。在不列颠哥伦比亚省，机械制浆行业每年消耗近5太瓦时，占不列颠哥伦比亚省水电年产量的10%，占纤维生产成本的1/3。能源技术容易受到突然变化的影响。例如，向插电式混合动力汽车的转变可以迅速而显著地改变电能成本，使目前的高产量纸浆生产变得不切实际。这一生产部门包括新闻纸、轻质铜版纸和出口到卫生纸和纸板的市场纸浆，其长期生存取决于我们大幅降低这些机械纸浆产品比能的能力。为了减少机械制浆的能源消耗，我们制定了一项大学-工业合作研究计划，重点开发和展示节能技术、工艺和战略。该项目将主要利益相关者聚集在一起，形成一个独特的技术团队，包括TMP工厂、相关供应商行业、研究机构、大学、公用事业和政府机构。这项拟议研究计划的具体目标是开发和示范生产少于1000千瓦时/吨（超过50%的能源减少）的机械纸浆的技术，适用于各种高质量的纤维产品，包括通信，包装和纸巾产品。该计划包含三个主题，旨在使工厂过渡到实施这些新技术，并为每个子工艺制定优化策略。提案的三个主题是过程优化、先进传感器和控制以及新产品开发。

The global demand for renewable, sustainable, climate-friendly wood pulp materials and products continues to increase. The key to meeting the global fibre demand is through high yield mechanical pulping that produces 50% more fibre than chemical processes. Canada is uniquely positioned with the abundant forests, water and electrical infrastructure required for this energy intensive industry to be successful making it a strategically important, renewable export industry. The single largest threat to this strategic industry is the cost of electrical energy consumed in the process. In BC the mechanical pulping industry consumes nearly 5 TWh/y or 10% of BC Hydro's annual production and represents 1/3 the cost of fibre production. Energy technologies are susceptible to sudden shifts. For example, the move to plug-in hybrid vehicles could quickly and dramatically alter the cost of electrical energy, making current high yield pulp production impractical. The long term survival of this manufacturing sector, which includes newsprint, light-weight coated papers, and market pulp for export into tissue and paperboard, depends on our ability to dramatically decrease the specific energy of these mechanical pulp products. To reduce the energy consumption in mechanical pulping, we have developed a university-industry collaborative research program focused on developing and demonstrating electrical energy reduction technologies, processes and strategies. This program brings together the key stakeholders to form a unique technical team of TMP mills, associated supplier industries, research institutes, universities, utilities and governments agencies. The specific objective of this proposed research program is to develop and demonstrate technologies to produce less mechanical pulp with less than 1000 kWh/t (more than a 50% energy reduction) suitable for a wide range of high quality fibre products, including communication, packaging and tissue products. This proposed program contains three themes aimed at transitioning mills to implement these new technologies and to develop optimization strategies for each sub-process. The 3 themes of the proposal are Process Optimization, Advanced Sensors and Controls, and New Product Development.