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Pulp and Paper Industry of the United States

Ilan Zugman - 43320330

School of Geography, Planning, and Environmental Management

The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland

12/09/2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction - Page 3

2. Background of the paper industry of the United States – Page 3 and

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3. Key Processes of the Pulp and Paper Industry – Page 4

a. Wood preparation – Page 4

b. Pulping – Page 4 and 5

c. Bleaching – Page 5

d. Chemical recovery – Page 5

e. Pulp drying – Page 5

f. Papermaking – Page 6

4. Environmental issues – Page 6

a. Forest – Page 6

b. Water – Page 6 and 7

c. Air, GHG emissions and energy – Page 7 and 8

d. Solid Waste – Page 8

e. Kraft Pulping and bleaching: the biggest villains – Page 9

5. Current and future trends in sustainable production and

consumption for the pulp and paper industry – Page 9, 10 and 11

6. Conclusion – Page 12

7. References – Page 13

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1. Introduction

This report will describe and discuss the environmental impacts of

a specific industry sector: pulp and paper industry of the United States.

The report will cover the whole industry background (products, services

delivered, and the significance of the industry for the country), key

process undertaken until the paper is ready to go for the consumers, all

the environmental impacts related to the manufacturing processes as

well as their significance and the last part will talk about the current and

future trends in sustainable production and consumption for the industry.

All the information to be provided will come from government reports,

academic literature and pollution databases.

2. Background of the paper industry of the United States

The pulp and paper industry group comprises three big areas: the

manufacturing of the pulp (dissolution of cellulose fibers from other

impurities in the wood), paper (transforming pulp fibes into sheets), and

converted paper products (paperboard, boxes, writing paper) (Ellefson et

al 2010). This industry has two kinds of facilities: pulp and paper mills,

the ones which produce the pulp and paper, and the other type of facility

are the converting factories that are the ones which transform the paper

into a great range of different products such as the ones described above

(EPA, 2002).

The industry produces mainly primary products, such as: writing

and printing paper, boxes, paperboard, sanitary tissue, containerboard,

etc. The process will be described at the next heading, but can be

summarized in two main steps: pulping and paper manufacturing (EPA,

2002).

Since the last century it is a sector in continuous growth. The total

US production capacity rose from 61.899 thousand tons per year in 1970

to 112.429 thousand tons per year in 2000 (Lamberg, 2012). Usually the

facilities of this industry are very large as 67% of the 514 pulp and paper

mills employed more than a 100 people and adding all the facilities the

number of employees reach 172.000 thousand people who generated 59

billion of dollars in shipments (in 1998). In 2000 the number of

employees increased to 182.000, generating 79 billion in shipments. The

industry is between the top 10 of the US manufacturing industries in

shipments value (EPA, 2002).

The geographic distribution of the mills varies according to the sort

of mill. Pulp mills can be found in regions of the country where trees are

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harvested (Southeast, Northwest, Northeast, and North Central regions).

Anon, paper mills are more widely distributed. They are located close to

pulping operations and/or close to converting markets. This wide

distribution result in the location of manufacturing in general, as those

operations are primary market for paper products.

Thirty percent (30%) of the paper and paperboard of the world is

produced by the U.S, this industry is fundamental for the balance of trade

of the country. Facts that can explain this huge production are:

technology of the mills, quality of the work force (highly skilled), big

domestic market and an efficient be highlighted is technology. U.S paper

and pulp companies invested big amounts of money in order to improve

their facilities (EPA, 2002).

3. Key Processes of the Pulp and Paper Industry

Until the paper is ready to go to the consumers or to be converted

for different purposes it is a long process. There are some variables, but

basically the process can be divided in six steps: wood preparation,

pulping, bleaching, chemical recovery, pulp drying and papermaking

(EPA, 2010).

a. Wood preparation

Even though other materials can be used for the production of the

pulp, wood is the primary raw material. After the delivery, the logs have

to be prepared before entering in the pulp mill. Logs are sent to the

slasher, where they are transformed in wood chips and then, ready to go

to the pulp mill (EPA, 2010).

b. Pulping

As this essay will describe later, pulping is the major source of the

environmental impacts of this industry. During the pulping process, the

lignin is removed; therefore the wood chips can be separated into

Wood preparation

Pulping Bleaching

Chemical recovery

Pulp drying Papermaking

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individual cellulose fibers. It is a complex process and there are five

different ways about how this process can be done: chemical,

mechanical, semi- chemical, recycle and other. Since the chemical is the

most common of them, will be the one to be described (Cheremisinoff,

2010)

Chemical (kraft, sulfite) pulping is a process where the raw

material (wood chips) is “cooked” utilizing aqueous chemical solutions

and high temperature and pressure to extract pulp fibers. Kraft pulping

and sulphite pulping are the most used, being kraft by far the leader (80

percent of total U.S. pulp production) (EPA, 2010).

The kraft pulping method uses hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium

sulfide (Na2S), which is mixed with the wood chips in a digester. After

this part, the contents of the digester are put under pressure in a blow

tank and then the wood chips disintegrate into “pulps”. The sulphite

pulping process uses sulfurous acid (H2SO3) and bisulfite ion (HSO3-).

The kraft is more utilized because the resulted pulp is stronger and also

because the efficiency of sulphite method depends of the type of wood

that is being used (Bajpai, 2012).

c. Bleaching

After pulping, bleaching is the process which more contributes for

environmental impacts. This procedure has the objective of removing the

colour from the pulp by adding chemicals and increasing its brightness.

Some chemical that are commonly used for this are: chlorine dioxide,

hydrogen peroxide, oxygen, caustic and sodium hypochlorite. The

effluent of this stage is either re-used or sent to treatment

(Cheremisinoff, 2010).

d. Chemical recovery

Due to environmental and economic causes, the pulp mills have

chemical recovery processes. This process allows the recovery of

almost all the chemicals used during the pulping process and involves

concentrating weak black liquor (product of the kraft pulping),

combusting organic compounds, reducing inorganic compounds, and

reconstituting the cooking liquor (EPA, 2010).

e. Pulp drying

The pulp has to be dried only at non-integrated mills (when the

pulp mill and paper mill are not located in the same area). At integrated

mills, the paper mill uses the pulp manufactured on-site.

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f. Papermaking

The last part of the process consists in transforming the pulp into

paper. The process is similar for all kinds of pulp. The pulp is removed

from the storage and placed into the paper machine. Then, using water a

suspension of pulp is formed and the pulp slurry goes inside the paper

machine. With the pressure of one sector of the paper machine the

water is drained and the sheet format starts to appear. Then the sheet is

put inside some cabins for drying and coating. Finally, the product from

the cabins is placed inside a rolling machine (calender), where the sheet

is pressed in order to reduce its thickness and wounded into reels

(Bajpai, 2012).

4. Environmental issues

The environmental impacts of the pulp and paper industry are very

big. The industry is the fifth largest energy consumer in the world (4% of

global energy use) and the largest industrial process water user in the

U.S. In Canada and in the US the industry is the third largest polluter to

water, air and land, releasing 100 million kg of toxic pollution per year

(Cheremisinoff, 2010). As it is an industry in a continuous growth much is

being said about reducing the impacts through sustainable practices and

techniques to decrease and control waste and emissions.

a. Forests

The industry has the conscience that if they do not manage the

forests in a proper and sustainable way their primary raw material will be

gone quickly. When people talk about this issue with the pulp and paper

industry they always reply saying that they are doing reforestation.

However, reforestation has many controversies, as companies only plant

trees which they can use to produce paper, and just do not pay attention

to other types of life that compose an ecosystem.

b. Water

When the discussion is about water there is no other type of

industry that consumes more water than the pulp and paper (in the U.S,

according to reference above). The main use of water is during the

papermaking process (but is also used during the whole process). This

water will finishes with all the waste and pollution (many different

chemicals, depending of which pulping method was used) from the

pulping process. Since it is an effluent that contains many chemicals, it

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must be properly treated and, in order to save water, after the correct

treatment the effluent can be reused on the papermaking procedure. One

of the largest paper corporations in the US, International Paper, utilized

148 million cubic meters of water in 2006 and by recycling the water the

company noticed a reduction of 2,4% in total water influent and a cutback

of 7,1% in total water effluent from 2004 to 2006 (Cheremisinoff, 2010).

c. Air, GHG emissions and energy

The table below show the air pollutants types and sources from

pulp and paper mills (EPA, 2002).

This other table, from (EPA, 2010), describes the direct

greenhouse gases emission from pulp, paper and paperboard facilities.

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Based on the two tables above it is feasible to notice the number

of different chemicals and pollutants that the process releases to our

environment. The GHG emissions can be attributed to mainly to high use

of energy. “Natural gas, fuel oil, biomass-based materials, purchased

electricity, and coal are the major energy-related GHG emission sources

for U.S. pulp and paper mills” (EPA, 2010). Therefore, to reduce the

GHG emissions the industry has to develop and implement different

devices in order to increase the energy efficiency of the facilities.

d. Solid Waste

After the whole process a large amount of solid waste is produced

and what to do with this is concerning many big companies. New

procedures and techniques to try to solve this issue are being

implemented and the most used by now is the incineration.

For example, just one company alone (International Paper),

produced and sent more than one million tons to landfills in 2006. Almost

half of this amount was incinerated. The incineration process, if properly

done, can be used to create energy for the process. Albeit, the

incineration process increases the amount of GHG emissions released

to the air. Reducing solid waste is very important, but will not solve and

control the problem of chemical and particulates emissions

(Cheremisinoff, 2010).

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e. Kraft Pulping and bleaching: the biggest villains

The worst problem of the bleaching method is that to this

operation works the industries use elemental chlorine. During the

process of bleaching the mills produce large amounts of dioxins. Dioxins

are one of the most toxic chemicals in the atmosphere and their released

is totally prohibited. However, due to the lack of legislation and

monitoring and with the pressure of consumer demand, only 6% of kraft

pulp is bleached without chlorine chemicals (Bajpai, 2012).

The kraft pulping is the main contributor source of air pollutants.

According to table above (EPA, 2002), it is possible to see why the kraft

pulping process is so prejudicial to the environment in general. It is a

process that affects all scales of life.

5. Current and future trends in sustainable production and

consumption for the pulp and paper industry

Because of the continuous growth of consumer demand in all over

the world for paper products and due to the environmental impacts

observed above, current and future trend will focus in reduce, reuse,

recycle, improve techniques and practices, increase efficiency and also

understand the behaviour of the consumer.

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The graph above describes the global demand for paper products

from the year 2005 until 2050 per thousand tons. In North America the

demand is predicted to grow 0.7% per year (from 99 million tons in 2005

to 133 million tons in 2050) (Lamberg, 2012).

With all the pressure over them, the pulp and paper industries are

investing large amounts of money in order to prevent the pollution,

increase profits and efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts as

well. Industries are implementing new procedures and changing parts of

the process to reduce its impacts. They are decreasing material inputs,

changing the use of toxic chemicals to products with less damaging

properties and re-engineering processes.

As mentioned in the environmental impacts, the chlorinated

compounds are most hazardous chemical used during the whole process

and therefore industries are focusing in ways to reduce the use of this

chemical. Surprisingly, the best way found until now is to simply prevent

using the chemical, instead of trying to treat it (technologies are not

effective in destroying chlorinated compounds and often just transfer the

pollutants to another area) (EPA, 2002). Thus the solution is focus in

reducing the amount utilized and in finding different material to use

instead of the chlorine compounds. Albeit, is not as simple as it sounds.

Chlorine compounds are hard to be substituted and when they do there

is a substantial alteration in the whole process, what means long time of

periods to implement and also considerable amount of money. In the U.S

the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the “cluster role”,

thus the final pulp and paper cluster role secures human health and the

environment by decreasing toxic liberation to the water and air from the

mills. By now all major pulp mill are now elemental chlorine free (ECF),

but there is still a long way to achieve the totally chlorine free (TCF).

The pulp and paper industry is also using every time more and

more secondary and recycled fibers for the pulping process. The industry

set and met in 1995 a goal of 40 percent recycling and reuse of all paper

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consumed in the U.S. Currently, the industry has set a new goal of

recovering 50 percent of all paper consumed in the U.S. for recycle and

reuse (EPA, 2010).

Energy and water are two others big issues as the burning of fossil

fuel for power purposes contributes heavily to the greenhouse gas

emissions. The American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA)

calculates that biomass comprises 64% of total fuel use by AF&PA

member’s pulp and paper facilities. (AF&PA 2008). Using these by-

products as fuels can easily decrease the pulp and paper industry

dependence on fossil fuels and electricity, with the other benefits, such

as: diminish raw material costs (avoided pulping chemical purchases)

and minimize waste generation. Natural gas and coal comprise the

majority of the remaining fuel used by the industry (Kramer 2009).

Talking about water the trends are recycle end reuse; in other words, try

to use the same water for more than one entire process, through

treatment techniques.

Biotechnological procedures present potential chances and

opportunities for switching the paper and pulp industry in a more

environmentally friendly one. What biotechnology enables are more

specific reactions, reduce the amount of energy used, create different

process (with less environmental impacts) and capacity to be used in

place of non-biological processes. The quantity of researches in

biotechnology in pulp and paper manufacture is increasing every year

and some results were alredy proved: “xylanases for bleach boosting;

cellulases for improved drainage; lipases for pitch”, etc. (Bajpai, 2012).

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6. Conclusion

The U.S pulp and paper industry is one of the biggest in the world

and it is an industry sector with large consumes of natural resources. The

industry process is standardized with some companies using integrated

mills and others working separately.

Due to the amount of natural resources (water, wood, land,

energy) necessary to obtain the final product it is an industry sector with

many environmental issues and impacts.

Fortunately it was possible to notice that the industry is becoming

conscious of the amount of resources that they need in order to produce,

and sustainable practices and techniques are being implemented and

developed.

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7. References

AF&PA 2008. Memorandum from Rhea Hale, AF&PA, to Reid Harvey, U.S.

EPA Climate Change Division. May 22, 2008.

Bajpai, P. 2012, Biotechnology for pulp and paper processing, Springer

Science+Business Media, LLC, New York.

Cheremisinoff, N.P. & Rosenfeld, P. 2010, Best practices in the wood and paper

industries, William Andrew, Norwich, N.Y.

Ellefson V.P & Kilgore A.M. 2010 United States Wood-Based Industry: A

Review of Structure and Organization, Department of Forest Resources,

University of Minnesota St. Paul, MN

Kramer, K., et al. 2009. Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving

Opportunities for the Pulp and Paper Industry (Report No. LBNL-2268E), Ernest

Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA. October 2009.

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/industry/downloads/Pulp_and_Paper_En

ergy_Guide.pdf

Lamberg, J. 2012, The evolution of global paper industry, 1800-2050: a

comparative analysis, Springer, Dordrecht.

United States Environmental Protection Agency 2010, Available and Emerging

Technologies for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Pulp and

Paper Manufacturing Industry, North Carolina

United States Environmental Protection Agency 2002, Profile of the Pulp and

Paper Industry 2nd Edition, Washington, DC