NEAT: An Industrial Solution for Energy & Water Intensive Process
Can Sudoc’s NEAT Chemistry Enable Upcycling of Old Corrugated Container (OCC) Pulp While Reducing Waste in the Bleaching Process?
Analyzing NEAT’s Potential in the Pulp & Paper Industry
Analytical Partner: University of Maine’s Process Development Center
Scale: Small batch demonstrations
Performance Parameters: CIELAB, temperature, pH, time
Background: Lower cost, recycled fiber materials, such as old corrugated container (OCC) are of increased interest to manufacturers of consumer tissue products. The current limitation for increasing the amount of recycled material in their feedstock is the effectiveness of the bleaching process for the recycled fibers. A certain degree of whiteness is required to achieve quality tissues. Currently, OCC is limited to 5% of the pulp feedstock.
Problem: Conventional bleaching of fibers require large quantities of hydrogen peroxide where high temperature (90 ˚C), high pH (11) and auxiliary chemicals are added to improve effectiveness of the multi-stage bleaching process. Despite all of these inputs, the optical quality is limited.
Solution: NEAT™ has been demonstrated in a small batch, laboratory setting with operational pulp feedstocks to improve the effectiveness of hydrogen peroxide, bleaching higher percentages of OCC (35%) at lower temperature (60 ˚C), lower pH (9), and shorter retention times.
Cardboard Availability Up, Prices Down as China Bans Solid Waste Imports
The growth rate for tissue products has nearly tripled in the last two years as compared to the previous decade. Desirable, high-grade recovered paper (RCP) is becoming less available and more expensive. China – once the single largest importer of recycled materials like OCC - has banned all solid waste imports effective 2021, creating large availability of OCC while driving down the price point.
Raw Material Availability**
High-grade Recovered Paper (RCP) declining: CAGR (4.4%)
Old Corrugated Containers (OCC) growing: CAGR +3.7%
Raw Material Cost**
High-grade Recovered Paper (RCP): $193/ton
Old Corrugated Containers (OCC): $61/ton
Goals: Improve Visual Results & Efficiencies for Manufacturer
Goal 1 - How much additional OCC - above current limit of 5% - into the pulp feedstock can NEAT™ enable while maintaining color quality metrics?
Goal 2 - How much energy, water and chemical savings can be captured with NEAT™ compared to the current high temperature, high pH bleaching process?
Next Steps: Finding Partners in Pulp & Paper Market
North American Tissue Manufacturing Market
Throughput: 3 million tons per year from recycled pulp
Number of Facilities: 100s of mills
Customers: A handful of enterprise, owner/operator companies
Next Steps: Continue working with manufacturer to develope scope toward a 30-ton demonstration in 2024.
*Afonso, Telma & Moresco, Rodolfo & Uarrota, Virgilio & Bachiega Navarro, Bruno & Nunes, Eduardo & Maraschin, Marcelo & Rocha, Miguel. (2017). UV-Vis and CIELAB Based Chemometric Characterization of Manihot esculenta Carotenoid Contents. Journal of Integrative Bioinformatics. 14. 10.1515/jib-2017-0056.
**Franklin Zambrano, Ronald Marquez, Hasan Jameel, Richard Venditti, Ronalds Gonzalez, Upcycling strategies for old corrugated containerboard to attain high-performance tissue paper: A viable answer to the packaging waste generation dilemma, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Volume 175, 2021, 105854, ISSN 0921-3449, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105854.