While paper as a medium of information is declining in demand, paper as a sustainable alternative to plastic packaging is gaining interest. In light of these changes, the paper industry is seeking ...new growth by developing highly-functional paper material that can replace plastics. To this end, the industry needs to develop paper with high-barrier and strength properties, as well as technologies that can improve recyclability of such material. Beyond paper, the industry is also developing novel wood-based chemicals that can replace traditional fossil-fuel derivatives. For these to become commercially viable, the industry needs to focus on achieving cost-competitiveness. Finally to reinforce these two initiatives, the government needs to engage in active dialogues with the industry leaders and provide related R&D support.
Pulp and paper industry is one of the major sector in every country of the globe contributing not only to Gross Domestic Product but surprisingly to environmental pollution and health hazards also. ...Paper and paperboard based material is the one of the earliest and largest used packaging form for food products like milk and milk based products, beverages, dry powders, confectionary, bakery products etc. owing to its eco-friendly hallmark. Various toxic chemicals like printing inks, phthalates, surfactants, bleaching agents, hydrocarbons etc. are incorporated in the paper during its development process which leaches into the food chain during paper production, food consumption and recycling through water discharges. Recycling is considered the best option for replenishing the loss to environment but paper can be recycled maximum six to seven times and paper industry waste is very diverse in nature and composition. Various paper disposal methods like incineration, landfilling, pyrolysis and composting are available but their process optimization becomes a barrier. This review article aims at discussing in detail the use of paper and paper based packaging materials for food applications and painting a wide picture of various health and environmental issues related to the usage of paper and paper based packaging material in food industry. A brief comparison of the environmental aspects of paper production, recycling and its disposal options (incineration and land filling) had also been discussed.
The paper industry is a major environmental polluter due to paper waste sludge (PWS), often disposed of in hazardous ways. The techniques are employed to disposing of PWS are posing significant ...environmental hazards and risks to well-being. This study aims to evaluate PWS as a potential replacement for commercial adsorbents like AC and ZEO in treating stabilized leachate. Contact angle analysis of PWS was 92.60°, reveals that PWS to be hydrophobic. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted with parameters set at 200 rpm stirring speed, 120 min contact time, and pH 7. Optimal conditions for COD and NH
-N removal were identified at 120 min contact time, 200 rpm stirring speed, pH 7, and 2.0 g PWS ratio. Removal percentages for COD and NH
-N were 62% and 52%, respectively. Based on the results of the isotherm and kinetic studies, it was observed that the Langmuir and Pseudo second order (PSO) model exhibited greater suitability compared to the Freundlich and Pseudo first order (PFO) model, as indicated by higher values of R-squared (R
). The R-squared of Langmuir for COD and NH
-N were 0.9949 and 0.9919 and for Freundlich model were 0.9855 and 0.9828 respectively. Whereas the R-squared of PFO for COD and NH
-N were 0.9875 and 0.8883 and for PSO were 0.9987 and 0.9909 respectively.
In this study, the treatment of paper industry wastewaters by the electrocoagulation (EC) process with a strong oxidant, persulfate addition, was investigated. Persulfate was activated by dissolution ...of Fe and Al from electrodes during the process. Central composite design method, being one of the response surface methods, was applied for the optimization of process parameters and the development of a mathematical model for chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal from paper industry wastewaters. The effects of S
O
/COD ratio, current, pH, and reaction time, being the variables of process, were assessed on the efficiency of contaminant removal. For COD removal in EC processes in which Fe and Al electrodes were used, the model's correlation coefficients (R
) were determined as 90.14% and 87.46%, respectively. As the result of experimental study actualized under optimum conditions determined by the model in order to obtain maximum contaminant removal, COD removal efficiencies were determined as 63.5% and 72.8% respectively for the Fe electrode (S
O
/COD ratio: 1.25, current: 4.14 A, pH: 6, and reaction time: 5 minutes), and the Al electrode (S
O
/COD ratio: 0.5, current: 4.25 A, pH: 7.25, and reaction time: 25 minutes). Electro-activated persulfate process is an appropriate treatment alternative for COD removal from paper industry wastewaters.
The low-carbon supply chain is one of the predominant topics towards a green economy and it establishes the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions across the product value chain. This paper focuses ...on recycling and optimized sourcing in the paper industry as a case company. The main objective is to engage the case company with their supplier networks to diminish the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and cost in their production process. It proposes a model to support the selection of the best green supplier and an allocation of order among the potential suppliers. The proposed model contains a two-phase hybrid approach. The first phase presents the rating and selection of potential suppliers by considering economics (cost), operational factors (quality and delivery), and environmental criteria (recycle capability and GHG emission control) using Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (Fuzzy TOPSIS) methodology. The second phase presents the order allocation process using multi-objective linear programming in order to minimize cost, material rejection, late delivery, recycle waste and
CO
2
emissions in the production process. A case study from a paper manufacturing industry is presented to elucidate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The results demonstrate a 26.2 % reduction of carbon emission by using recycle products in the production process. The firm benefits by forming a systematic methodology for green supplier evaluation and order allocation. Finally, a conclusion and a suggested direction of future research are introduced.
Physicochemical treatment, consisting of a combination of primary settling, coagulation–flocculation-aided clarification (alum, lime and magnesium sulfate as coagulants) and activated carbon ...adsorption, was employed for the treatment of pulp and paper mill wastewater. Treatability studies were undertaken to assess the feasibility of recycling the effluents from a paper mill. The results of laboratory scale investigation showed that the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of four hours for plain settling was effective to reduce 30% of the pollution load from pulp and board mill wastewater (PBMWW). The chemical secondary treatment reduced turbidity (89%), Chemical Oxygen Demand (84%), total suspended solids (90%) and color (89%) at the mass loading of 3400 mg/L of magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), when primary-treated effluent was subsequently treated by the coagulation–flocculation process. The combination of primary settling and lime coagulation (optimum dosage of 1400 mg/L) resulted in a turbidity removal of 94%, a COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) reduction of 86%, a Total Suspended Solids (TSS) removal of 93% and color removal of 91.6% at an initial pH of 11. The combination of this primary settling and coagulation–flocculation treatment trial indicated that the pollutant reduction efficiency of alum was better than the other two coagulants (MgSO4, lime), because the plain settling and coagulation–flocculation process with alum (optimum dosage of 1200 mg/L) resulted in a turbidity removal of 98%, COD reduction of 93%, TSS removal of 98% and color removal of 96% at the pH 6.0 with the sludge volume index of 156 mg/L. This chemically-treated water required further treatment with activated carbon in a batch reactor for up to four hours to meet the paper mill water quality standards. Pollutant reductions at the rate of 99.5%, 99.1%, 99.4% and 99.5% were obtained for turbidity, COD, TSS and color, respectively, with the combination of the sedimentation, coagulation–flocculation process and activated carbon adsorption meeting the production process quality standards. The study revealed that a hybrid end-of-pipe physicochemical treatment was effective in reducing the pollutant load of paper mills effluent and meeting the discharging standards.
The European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) represents the masterpiece that the EU adopted to achieve the Kyoto Protocol and “Europe 2020” strategy goals of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG). ...Although the EU-ETS is designed “in order to promote reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effective and economically efficient manner” and “without prejudice for the Treaty”, the system has become a concern issue for firms and industries over competitiveness in European and international markets in addition to carbon leakage.
This paper analyses whether and to what extent the EU-ETS may harm competitiveness, by following a qualitative approach, and presenting the case of the Italian paper industry, included in the system as an energy-intensive sector. More specifically, first the paper identifies those key factors that provide a qualitative measure of the “competitiveness risk” related to the EU-ETS; then, those factors are used to examine the Italian paper industry and to assess the actual and potential risks affecting the sector. This analysis is of interest given the lack of similar studies on the Italian paper industry and represents a starting point to serve further studies and future policymaking in Italy and Europe.
•The European Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) and the effects on the Italian paper industry competitiveness.•Key factors that provide a measure of the “competitiveness risk” for the Italian paper industry.•Those risks are limited at the moment, but some factors need to be carefully managed, such as electricity uses and prices.•Industrial policies and new firms strategies are required to manage the “competitiveness risk” in the coming years.
Liang Yuan
Angewandte Chemie International Edition,
September 4, 2023, Letnik:
62, Številka:
36
Journal Article
Recenzirano
“My favorite material is rosin. It is sustainably available from the extrusion of pine trees and from papermill waste and has so many successful commercial applications … My favorite thing about my ...lab group is when a student excitedly tells me something unexpected and describes puzzling experimental observations.” Find out more about Liang Yuan in his Introducing … Profile.
Structural symmetries of linear dynamical systems can be exploited for decoupling the dynamics and reducing the computational complexity of the controller implementation. However, in practical ...applications, inexact structural symmetries undermine the ability to decouple the system, resulting in the loss of any potential complexity reduction. To address this, we propose substituting an approximation with exact structural symmetries for the original system model, thereby introducing an approximation error. We focus on internal model controllers for cross-directional systems encountered in large-scale and high-speed control problems of synchrotrons or the process industry and characterise the stability, performance, and robustness properties of the resulting closed loop. While existing approaches replace the original system model with one that minimises the Frobenius norm of the approximation error, we show that this can lead to instability or poor performance. Instead, we propose approximations that are obtained from semidefinite programming problems. We show that our proposed approximations can yield stable systems even when the Frobenius norm approximation does not. The paper concludes with numerical examples and a case study of a synchrotron light source with inexact structural symmetries. Exploiting structural symmetries in large-scale and high-speed systems enables faster sampling times and the use of more advanced control techniques, even when the symmetries are approximate.