Looking back over the last several years, the Canadian northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp industry has been on a roller coaster ride.

Metsä is not only the Finnish word for forest, but also the name of a Finnish cooperative owned by 90,000 Finnish forest owners that collectively own over half of Finland’s private forests.

Cake batter can be easily mixed with a wooden spoon, but bread dough, with its higher solids content, requires a lot more energy to be properly mixed. Similarly, wood pulp becomes more difficult to mix with bleach liquor as the solids content increases, requiring higher mixing energy.

In recent years there have been extensive closures of printing paper mills and large investments within the Swedish and Finnish paper and pulp groups. Overall, therefore, their product portfolios have undergone major changes as this blog contribution will show.

In addition to present heavy investment in the Swedish paper and pulp industry, new start-up companies are bubbling with different ideas regarding opportunities for new products and applications based on forest raw materials and industrial side streams.

How is electricity produced and distributed in Europe? Why do we have today's situation with high electricity prices and a lack of electricity? Why is Europe affected by the natural gas prices? What is causing the paper and pulp industry in Europe to be plagued by sky-high prices for electricity and other energy?

In my last blog, I emphasized that Green Chemistry Principles provide useful, actionable ways to drive innovation strategies and accelerate transformation in the pulp and paper (P&P) industry. Here, I will focus on a facilitating technology in the development and implementation of biomolecules, biomaterials, and bioproducts from biorefinery: molecular modeling (MM).

Increased level of pollution worldwide (soil, air and water) calls for urgent action and scalable solutions.

The Kraft pulping process, patented in 1879 and implemented in 1890, has shown resilience for more than 100 years, as it provides higher pulp strength and allows for about 98% of chemicals recovery cycle and energy efficiency.

Wildfire risks in Canada are currently elevated and continue to increase in severity and frequency.

View the list of FPInnovations’ most recent reports, publications, and recordings, as well as other items recently made available through the research library.

In March 2017, Québec’s Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs (MFFP) and Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation (MEI) launched the SM² Initiative (also referred to as Smart Manufacturing 2.0) to address structural competitiveness issues for Eastern Canadian sawmills and to promote increased diversification of new products and applications based on smart and agile technologies.

This will be my last blog as executive director of PPEC, the environmental council I have run for the past 30 years. Yes, 30 years. Unbelievable how time marches on, isn’t it?

What is it about pizza boxes that they always seem to get singled out for special mention? Is it the guilt we feel at scoffing down all that cheese and pepperoni?

Green visions, aspirational goals, and political grandstanding are all very well in their place. But at some point, we have to be realistic.

Finnish pulpmills and sawmills have long been dependent on imported wood raw-material to meet their wood fiber needs.

Wood raw-material costs for sawmills in North America and Europe eased in the 3Q/22 as demand and prices for lumber fell.

Prices for pulplogs and wood chips have gone up in practically all markets worldwide in the 3Q/22.

March 28, 2023 - Earlier today, Forest Products Association of Canada President and CEO, Derek Nighbor, released the following statement on the Federal Budget 2023 tabled by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland:

An array of new prospects and obstacles rest at our bilateral doorstep as we embark on the greatest economic feat of the next two decades – the transition to a low carbon economy across North America.

The Chisholm Awards for Innovation in Forestry, a national awards program that recognizes youth leadership and innovation in the forest sector, is now accepting applications for its second year.

Planar microwave moisture measurement, since its inception in 2000, continues to develop sophisticated instrumentation tools which greatly expand the utility of the technology into an ever-expanding range of papermaking applications. 

Introduction

As early as 2016, studies were introduced that showed numerous process control benefits that can be realized on paper machines equipped with the EasyScan traversing permeability, water content, and temperature measurement capabilities.

Introduction

In the day-to-day operation of paper machines, little thought is typically applied to carrier rope runs until something changes that affects downtime related to sheet transfers and/or rope replacement.

A large-scale pilot plant at Resolute’s Thunder Bay mill will further develop FPInnovations’ patented process to produce “2G” sugars and hydrolysis lignin (H-lignin) using mechanical refining, mild chemical treatment and enzymatic hydrolysis.

Some companies have latched on to this visualization technology to make at-the-scene maintenance more time-effective and sure. Integration with the Industrial Internet (IoT) is essential to achieve it's full value potential.

Stora Enso and BillerudKorsnäs announce plans to phase in microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) in paperboard products. Lightweight milk cartons with Stora Enso MFC are already market tested.