SPECIAL EDITION PREVIEW: PaperWeek Canada & BIOFOR International
J-FOR A PAPTAC PUBLICATION
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FOR FOREST PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES VOL. 6, NO.5
FEATURING
Reality maintenance is coming: Augmented reality that is International project lead by VTT will speed up the development of fibre-based products J-FOR’s technical peer-reviewed papers February 5-8, 2018 Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel Montreal, QC, Canada
2018 PAPERWEEK CANADA
www.paperweekcanada.ca
Canada’s premier joint conferences for the Pulp, Paper and Forest Bioeconomy industries www.bioforinternational.com
BIOFOR
International Montréal 2018
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE FOREST INDUSTRY
News, Stories, Interviews contributed by:
Total Chemistry Management A smart new way to improve your operational efficiency Kemira TCM (Total Chemistry Management) is a system that enables pulp and paper makers to improve operational efficiency and save costs through the optimized use of chemicals. With this strong partnership you get a full range of chemicals from a single supplier and benefit from the best-in-class application know-how and technical service. In addition, we provide you with direct access to our smart process management technologies and the latest innovations from Kemira R&D. Let’s work together to build value into paper. https://tcm.kemira.com
News, stories, interviews contributed by: PA
J-FOR
Paper Advance
A PAPTAC PUBLICATION
TABLE OF
2018 PAPERWEEK
CONTENTS
BIOFOR
5 EDITORIAL
International Montréal 2018
CANADA
Greg Hay, J-FOR’s publisher
SPECIAL ISSUE
7 INDUSTRY PULSE
CONFERENCE PREVIEW
CONFERENCE PREVIEW SECTION
9 20 Reality maintenance is coming: Augmented reality that is
28 International project lead by VTT will speed up the development of fibre-based products
32
TECHNICAL PAPERS
9 10 12 15 15 16 16 17 19 23 24 25 27
PaperWeek Canada Conference Why Attend PaperWeek PaperWeek Conference Overview PAPTAC Awards Roundtables FPInnovations Nanocellulose Research Symposium Workshop on Mill Process & Energy Integration PWC Program at a Glance Keynotes at PWC and BIOFOR BIOFOR International Conference Why Attend BIOFOR BIOFOR Program at a Glance Registration / Accommodations
FEATURED ARTICLES 20 Reality maintenance is coming: Augmented reality that is
28 International project lead by VTT will speed up the development of fibre-based products
INDEX OF
ADVERTISERS
Kemira Kadant Valmet Nalco
2 4 14 18
Andritz Paper Advance Buckman
Published by:
PAPTAC
Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada
For inquiries, please contact: PAPTAC 740 Notre-Dame St. W., suite 1070 Montreal (Quebec) H3C 3X6 CANADA Phone: (514) 392-0265
J-FOR
22 30 64
Publisher: Greg Hay, PAPTAC Executive Director Co-editor: Stéphan Desjardins, Paper Advance Co-editor: Carmie Lato, PAPTAC Production Specialist: Thomas Périchaud, PAPTAC
TECHNICAL PAPERS
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Optimization of a biomass procurement network with integrated forest harvesting for an eastern Canadian newsprint mill Jose Meléndez, Yan Feng, Jean-François Audy, Luc LeBel and Paul Stuart
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A study of kraft lignin acid precipitation in
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Leagile strategy implementation for supplying
aqueous solutions using focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM®) Tor Sewring and Hans Theliander
forest raw materials to the bioeconomy
Shuva Gautam and Luc LeBel
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J-FOR
EDITORIAL
Greg M. Hay, Publisher
A PAPTAC PUBLICATION
The ‘all in one’ conference for the benefit of all industry stakeholders
It’s that time of year again! Your industry’s global conference “where skills lead to competitiveness” is back at the recently renovated Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal February 5-8 2018, and will surely prove that “Forest products are part of a new bioeconomy”. This edition will host the 104th annual congress of PAPTAC, and again we are very excited with this year’s program and can’t wait to welcome you all in our beautiful city to celebrate our industry. So take a break from your daily routine and come sharpen your technical and managerial skills at PaperWeek Canada and BIOFOR International 2018! This is your best chance to finally meet “online friends” from your industry and get to network face to face! From CEOs and industry suppliers to technical staff and academic or governmental experts, you will have the opportunity to meet and talk with all kinds of leaders to share ideas and develop potential businesses. Our industry has been evolving a lot in the past 10 years as new projects and technologies are implemented, whether on traditional papermaking mills, recent rebuilds or bioproducts startups, and this is exactly what PaperWeek and BIOFOR are all about: bringing innovations and new trends directly to you in one place. One event combining the best of both worlds; this is what PAPTAC strives to offer the industry by organizing these two flagship events. With keynotes from industry leaders, technical experts debating key aspects of papermaking, tissue, board, energy and bioproducts, an incorporated tradeshow and numerous other networking opportunities, participants will learn, laugh, and most of all SHARE their passion and dedication with their peers. As a global event combining so many people and ideas in the industry, let’s not forget that participants will not only learn skills and get technical updates for themselves - they will also bring all these news and ideas back with them at work and, again, SHARE with their colleagues who will benefit from this professional development just as much as their companies. Because this industry is defined by ALL of us, back at the mills, labs, head offices, universities, and government, we all benefit from uniting under the same roof at PaperWeek and BIOFOR to work together towards the creation of a bright future for a sustainable, innovative industry that’s been so generous to us and our communities. We look forward to welcoming you all in Montreal and have a great time learning, networking and most of all sharing our passion and dedication!
LEAD ASSOCIATE EDITORS Martin Fairbank Consultant Patrice Mangin CRML/Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières ASSOCIATE EDITORS Thore Berntsson Chalmers Institute of Technology (SWEDEN) Virginie Chambost EnVertis Inc. (CANADA) Christine Chirat Grenoble INP – Pagora (FRANCE) Jorge Luiz Colodette Federal University of Viçosa (BRAZIL) Ron Crotogino ArboraNano (CANADA) Sophie D’Amours Université Laval (CANADA) Robert Dekker (BRAZIL) Gilles Dorris FPInnovations (CANADA) Paul Earl Paul Earl Consulting Inc. (CANADA) W. James Frederick Table Mountain Consulting (USA) Ramin Farnood University of Toronto (CANADA) Gil Garnier Australian Pulp and Paper Institute (AUSTRALIA) Ali Harlin VTT (FINLAND) Mikko Hupa Åbo Akademi University (FINLAND) Mariya Marinova École Polytechnique de Montréal (CANADA) David McDonald JDMcD Consulting Inc. (CANADA) Glen Murphy Oregon State University (USA) Yonghao Ni University of New Brunswick (CANADA) Ivan Pikulik Consultant (CANADA) Risto Ritala Tampere University of Technology (FINLAND) Reyhaneh Shenassa Metso Power (USA) Paul R. Stuart Ecole Polytechnique (CANADA) Trevor Stuthridge FPInnovations (CANADA) Honghi Tran University of Toronto (CANADA)
See you in February 2018!
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CONNECTING PEOPLE PAPTAC plays an essential role in facilitating the exchange of information on a variety of issues related to operations optimization, management and industry advancement. Webinars, e-mail discussion groups, on-line forums, conferences, industry news: a wealth of information accessible to all PAPTAC members.
Join or renew your membership today www.paptac.ca
INDUSTRY PULSE FEATURED NEWS ON THE INDUSTRY
Cascades scoops up four Ontario containerboard plants
Industry giant Cascades made the recent announcement of its purchase of four plants in Ontario that will strengthen its grip on the containerboard packaging sector. To round out its investment, the company also bought an ‘ownership position’ in Tencorr Holdings Corporation, and increased its equity holding of Greenpac. The four plants specialize in the manufacturing of boxes and specialty products and are located in Etobicoke, Burlington, Scarborough and Peterborough, and cost a total of $49M. "These new assets will support our growth by providing us with increased capacity and flexibility,” said Charles Malo, President and Chief Operating Officer of Cascades Containerboard Packaging. “This transaction will also enable us to better serve our customers as we will be better positioned to provide them with the packaging solutions they seek. I would also like to welcome all of the employees of these new plants to Cascades."
There’s an app for that? There’s a robot for that U.S.-based researchers are spearheading a $2M project to develop robots that can be trained to work alongside people in the manufacturing sector, potentially taking on more risky or dangerous job functions, and putting humans out of harms’ way. This could have particularly salient implications for industries such as forestry, where dangerous working conditions can be a part of the job. The researchers are looking at ways to channel the power of sensors and artificial intelligence to help robots to learn about their environment and adapt to it.
PA
Paper Advance
J-FOR
New Mill Manager at Domtar Rothschild
David Faucett is set to take the helm of Domtar’s Rothschild paper mill, located in Rothschild, Wisconsin. He has been in the position since July 1, 2017, on an interim basis. With more than 20 years of experience at the mill, Faucett has tried his capable hand at a number of management positions in the facility, including pulp, wood and biomass. “Dave is a respected leader known for his passion and commitment to success. He brings a wealth of experience and is the right leader to guide Rothschild on their improvement journey to future success," said Bill Edwards, Domtar's vice president, communication paper manufacturing.
FPInnovations creates new framework
FPInnovations recently split its bioproducts division off from its pulp and paper sector. The creation of a distinct division for bioproducts will allow the research organization to recruit new players along the new value chains it is developing, chiefly in the applications of new bioproducts. The newly-created division will focus on opportunities to integrate bioproducts into non-traditional applications, such as the automotive sector.
Wax on, wax off A new study has revealed that the use of traditional wax coatings on corrugated boxes has steeply declined. Since the corrugated industry introduced a recyclability protocol in 2005, the use of wax as a moisture barriet to preserve strength, has fallen out of favour and been replaced with recyclable alternatives. In 2016, the corrugated industry shipped 12.4 billion square feet of boxes with a wax alternative coating, marking a 849% increase from 2002.
FPInnovations, FPAC, team with American Forest and Paper Association to develop Product Category Rules
FPInnovations, in collaboration with the American Forest and Paper Association, and the Forest Products Association of Canada, developed a Product Category Rules (PCR) for North American market pulp, paper and paperboard products, tissue and containerboard manufacturers. The main objective of the PCR is to clearly outline the rules and requirements for conducting lifecycle assessment project reports, and developing environmental product declarations. The PCR will allow manufacturers of these forestry-based products to communicate the environmental footprints of their products, and assess whether they are in compliance with international standards.
Domtar has got a bio-solution for that
As plastic falls out of favour with environmentalists and regular consumers alike, global demand for renewable biomaterials is on the rise, and Domtar is heeding the call. Through biomaterials science, the company is leading the charge in shifting from fossil fuels, to a bio-based economy that relies on the most renewable fossil-fuel alternative available: trees. Through the use of technology, nearly any petroleum-based product can be replaced with a bio-based alternative, and sometimes the alternative not only performs better, it’s less expensive as well. Domtar has developed a list of 100 areas where its current pulp and paper offering could be supplemented with biomaterials.
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WHY JOIN PAPTAC? PAPTAC EXPLORES
PAPTAC ELEVATES
PAPTAC PROVIDES
PAPTAC PROMOTES
PAPTAC ASSISTS
PAPTAC IMPROVES
PAPTAC EXPLORES - Where advancements and opportunities arise through the support of an industry-dedicated network PAPTAC ELEVATES - The platform for industry innovation PAPTAC PROVIDES - Means for the interchange of knowledge and expertise among its members PAPTAC PROMOTES - The efficient stewardship of natural resources PAPTAC ASSISTS - In the solution of technical and business challenges facing the industry PAPTAC IMPROVES - The skill level & effectiveness of present and future employees through training and education
CONNECTING PEOPLE PAPTAC plays an essential role in facilitating the exchange of information on a variety of issues related to operations optimization, management and industry advancement. Webinars, e-mail discussion groups, on-line forums, conferences, industry news: a wealth of information accessible to all PAPTAC members.
To learn more about PAPTAC membership or to join, visit the Membership Section at www.paptac.ca or contact the PAPTAC Membership Team (514-392-0265 / tech@paptac.ca)
BUILDING FOR THE NEW PULP & PAPER COMMUNITY
M
Membership
TC
Technical Communities
PB
Publications Bookstore
BI
BIOFOR International
PWC
PaperWeek Canada
www.paptac.ca
SPECIAL CONFERENCE PREVIEW SPECIAL CONFERENCE PREVIEWSECTION SECTION The Annual Conference of the Pulp and Paper Industry in Canada
2018 PAPERWEEK CANADA
February 5 - 8, 2018
Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel MontrĂŠal, QC, Canada
WHERE SKILLS LEAD TO COMPETITIVENESS
Where Skills Lead to Competitiveness The 2018 edition of PaperWeek will feature an incomparable learning and networking opportunity, bringing together experts, point of views and experiences from around the world on topics of the highest relevance. As a hub to expose its members and industry players to the latest practices in Management, Safety, Technology, Reliability and variety of technical areas, PaperWeek puts the emphasis of creating opportunities for knowledge and skills development, leading to improved operational efficiency. PaperWeek Canada is the most important annual conference & tradeshow serving the pulp/paper and forest products industry and facilitates the exchange on the latest technology, operation improvements, and business development among the sector’s key players. We look forward to welcoming you and the global pulp & paper industry in Montreal next February! Greg Hay Executive Director PAPTAC
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Sharpen your technical and managerial abilities at PaperWeek Canada 2018, “Where skills lead to competitiveness”. For the 104th consecutive year, PAPTAC is preparing a cutting-edge program covering the key aspects of forest products advancement for the benefit of all industry stakeholders.
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Where skills lead
PaperWeek is certainly the ‘all in one’ conference, as you will find relevant, diversified and rewarding activities, that will allow you to invest your time valuably in further developing your interests, improving your skills and sharing ideas with your peers.
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While we believe that there are countless opportunities why you should attend the PaperWeek Canada (PWC) Annual Conference, here are countable reasons why you need to get out from behind your desk and join other members of your profession at a live event.
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1. Renew your excitement about the work you do While there’s a world of information available to you online getting out and hearing from people who are doing what you do, but differently, can reignite your enthusiasm. 2. Meet online friends and colleagues FACE TO FACE! We all have the ability to make strong professional connections using digital technology today, but at PaperWeek you can meet your online contacts face to face, something that serves you and your company well in future business relationships. 3. Learn skills and stay up to date No matter how long you've been in the industry or what position you hold at your company, chances are there is still something you need to learn. Compelling subject matters and top-notch speakers are on the menu. Trends, new strategies, and innovations happen all the time, PWC provides the right platform to expose you to these elements.
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Journal of Science & Technology for Forest Products and Processes: VOL. 6, NO. 5
4. Develop new ideas The PWC sessions can spark new ideas on process, technology and management. By interacting with your peers you create opportunities to collaborate, hear new ideas, and validate or change your perspectives. You hear what others are doing and are inspired to implement something similar. 5. Meet with new vendors and suppliers Our exhibitors are industry experts and solution-providers who truly know what is happening in the world of the P&P business – and they have answers to your questions. Invest time in the exhibition hall – our vendors are some of the best people for you to get to know if you want to learn more about what's happening now – and what's going to happen in the future. 6. Get out for a few days and refresh Take a couple of days away from the pressure cooker to think about where you are and where you should be going. The Fun factor is part of the conference as an investment in your own health and well-being. PWC will give you the opportunity to get to know and meet new people who work in the same industry while sipping a Canadian beer. 7. Engineer Professional Development Your attendance at PWC earns you credits toward maintaining your valuable certification (to maintain the engineer profession updated) or other general designation. 8. Share Bring your participation experience back to the office and share it with all the folks who didn't get to go to the conference, but could benefit from the good stuff, as an encouragement to be present and engaged during future conferences.
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Featured Initiatives and Partnerships for P&P Advancement
2018 PAPERWEEK CANADA
PAPERMAKING PROGRAM & JOINT SECTOR EVENTS
2018 PAPERWEEK CANADA
PAPERMAKING PROGRAM The Papermaking Program is the ultimate showcase for presentations about improved efficiency with immediate benefits in machine productivity and product quality.
TISSUE
MASTERS
Tissue Masters Conference
The tissue sector is now an integral part of PaperWeek. Looking to highlight key innovations, process improvements and market information on the tissue business, Tissue Masters is positioning itself as a key platform for the tissue industry in North America.
TECHPACK
Source: Valmet
TechPack Conference
With experts covering the latest technology advancements and market updates in the sector, TechPack will provide cover some of the most recent projects and developments that have been implemented in the packaging world.
Pulp EX
PulpEx Conference
PulpEx returns to PaperWeek bringing together mill representatives, market analysts, suppliers and experts who will discuss the latest advancements in pulp operations, mill technology and market perspectives. Source: Resolute FP
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Featured Initiatives and Partnerships for P&P Advancement
2018 PAPERWEEK CANADA
BUSINESS LEADERSHIP RELIABILITY
SAFETY MANAGEMENT One of the most attended segment of PaperWeek returns with the latest trends and best safety practices. A real must for all mill personnel.
The strategic combination of human and technical skills can turn a simple manager into a true leader. Come and learn from the best in Canada!
Reliability and profitability come in pair. Experts will expose the most recent advances to guide you through one of the toughest day-to-day challenge in the industry.
TECHNICAL INNOVATION NANO BLEACHING Passionate and devoted to the cause, our Bleaching experts will share their latest discoveries and help your company improve and optimize the overall performance.
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ENERGY Energy is a key element for a mill to be cost-efficient in today's P&P market. Come learn on opportunities to make energy a profit center.
The discovery of the unique properties of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and the scaleup of production processes to the demonstration plant stage are exciting developments in the search for new value-added products that can be manufactured from forest resources.
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Valmet Industrial Internet
Let’s start a meaningful dialogue with data
Valmet’s Industrial Internet services are based upon a meaningful dialogue with data. Turn your data into a valuable asset with our know-how in process technology, automation and services. Our experts know which data to analyze and how to utilize it. Together we can make tangible improvements to the performance of your mill or plant. Let’s move forward and start a dialogue with data today! Read more: valmet.com/dialoguewithdata
PAPTAC National Awards National Awards for business leadership, research & technical papers Awards for leadership, research advancement and technical papers, recognizing service to the Canadian forest products industry and PAPTAC are conferred at the Annual Meeting of the Association (PaperWeek Canada).
Mill Managers’ Breakfast Roundtables The Mill Managers Roundtables have become a key component of PaperWeek, an event several mill managers look forward to to exchange on a number of issues with their counterparts. It has grown into a dynamic forum and a unique opportunity to get news ideas, learn from different management cultures and benchmark best practices. The Mill Managers Roundtables will be led by Eric Ashby, General Manager at Domtar Windsor.
Eric Ashby General Manager Domtar Windsor
They will take place on all three mornings of PaperWeek (Tues., Wed., Thurs.). Come prepared! Topics this year will be focused on updates from each participant on their respective operations, and key points of discussions and presentations will address: o Safety o Reliability o Continuous Improvement
Papermaking Rountables It is with great pleasure that we are bringing back the Papermaking Roundtables as part of PaperWeek 2018. Justin Charron PM1 Technical Assistant, J.D. Irving Ltd. – Irving Paper
The roundtables will be hosted by Justin Charron of Irving Paper and Chairman of the Papermaking Technology Committee (PMTC) of PAPTAC. They will take place on Wed. Feb 7. This is a time where there is a renewed need for troubleshooting, discussing the latest and upcoming repurposing projects, and to have a forum to share issues and network among papermakers.
Roundtable discussions: o Paper machine safety o Operator training o Mill process improvement case studies o Shutdown planning o Sheet break reduction
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We hope to see many of you present!
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FPInnovations NANOCELLULOSE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM All day Thursday February 8, 2017 during PaperWeek Canada
The discovery of the unique properties of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and the scale-up of production processes to the demonstration plant stage are exciting developments in the search for new value-added products that can be manufactured from forest resources. The now extensive research literature on CNC has suggested many novel industrial applications, but has also identified common technological challenges that are hindering the development of these opportunities. Upon its dissolution, the Business-Led Network of Centres of Excellence ArboraNano concluded an agreement with FPInnovations to launch a research and development program aimed at solving key technological challenges identified by experts working in the area and to disseminate the results as rapidly and widely as possible. Six challenges were identified: aqueous dispersion, non-aqueous dispersion, strength reinforcement potential, characterization, compatibilization and heat stability. Seven collaborative research projects involving researchers at seven Canadian universities and funding partners NSERC, PRIMA Quebec, Ontario Centres of Excellence and Innotech Alberta have been underway for up to a year. This symposium will describe each of the challenges and report their early results.
CanmetENERGY's Workshop on Cogen and Data Analysis Softwares All day Wednesday February 7, 2017 during PaperWeek Canada
CanmetENERGY
Improving Mill Cogeneration Workshop
Process Operation Improvement Workshop
This half-day workshop on Wed. Feb. 7 will introduce the basics of industrial cogeneration systems. It will also be a unique opportunity to learn and apply CanmetENERGY’s COGEN software to optimize cogeneration systems in pulp and paper (P&P) case studies.
This half-day workshop on Wed. Feb. 7 will include both introduction to data analytics and practical exercise using the CanmetENERGY EXPLORE software. The attendees have the opportunity to practice using real data from a recovery boiler operation.
By attending this workshop, participants will be able to: Understand the concepts behind cogeneration for the efficient use of energy in industry / Understand the main operating challenges of a cogeneration system in the P&P industry / and Use COGEN to analyze and optimize industrial cogeneration systems.
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By attending this workshop, participants will be able to: Understand the theory behind multivariate data analysis / and Use EXPLORE to analyse and improve process operation using data.
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2018 PAPERWEEK
PROGRAM AT A GLANCE February 5 to 8, 2018 • Fairmont Queen Elizabeth
CANADA
MONDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2018 Morning
Afternoon 17:00 - 18:30
Welcoming and Awards Reception
TUESDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2018 Morning Mill Managers’ Roundtable 7:00 - 9:00 PaperWeek Opening Breakfast Panel 8:30 - 10:00
Afternoon 13:00 - 13:30 13:30 - 15:00
10:00 - 10:30
Networking in Tradeshow
15:00 - 15:30
Networking in Tradeshow
10:30 - 12:00
Papermaking Safety Energy
15:30 - 17:00
Papermaking Safety Energy
12:00 - 13:00
KEYNOTE LUNCHEON AND GOLD MEDAL
17:00 - 18:30
NETWORKING RECEPTION in Tradeshow
Coffee and Dessert in Tradeshow Papermaking Safety Energy
TRADESHOW
ALL DAY (10:00 - 18:00)
WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2018 Morning Mill Managers’ Roundtable cont’d 7:00 - 9:00 Papermaking - Roundtable 8:30 - 10:00
Afternoon 13:00 - 13:30 13:30 - 15:00
Reliability PulpEx - Drying expert circle
Coffee and Dessert in Tradeshow Papermaking - Tissue Masters Reliability PulpEx - Alkaline Pulping
10:00 - 10:30
Networking in Tradeshow
15:00 - 15:30
Networking in Tradeshow
10:30 - 12:00
Papermaking - Roundtable Reliability PulpEx - Drying expert circle
15:30 - 17:00
Papermaking - Tissue Masters Reliability PulpEx - Alkaline Pulping
12:00 - 13:00
KEYNOTE LUNCHEON Sofidel, CEO, Luigi Lazzareschi
17:00 - 18:30
NETWORKING RECEPTION in Tradeshow
TRADESHOW
ALL DAY (10:00 - 18:00) ALL DAY (8:30 - 17:00)
CanmetENERGY's Workshop on Cogen and Data Analysis Softwares
THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2018
Morning 8:30 - 10:00
Bleaching Management PulpEx - Mechanical Pulping
10:00 - 10:30
Networking in Tradeshow
10:30 - 12:00
Bleaching Management PulpEx - Mechanical Pulping
12:00 - 13:00
KEYNOTE LUNCHEON RBC Capital Markets, Paul Quinn
(10:00 - 14:00) ALL DAY (8:30 - 15:00)
Afternoon 13:00 - 13:30 13:30 - 15:00
15:00 - 15:30
Coffee and Dessert in Tradeshow Bleaching Management PulpEx - Mechanical Pulping Networking in Foyer
TRADESHOW FPInnovations NANOCELLULOSE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM NB: This program is preliminary and is subject to changes.
REDUCE
YOUR CHATTER!
Learn how our Early Warning Chatter Detection Technology: • Protects Yankee dryer surface • Guards against harmful crepe blade vibrations • Enhances Yankee coating stability • Continuously monitors and reports in real time For more information, visit http://www.ecolab.com/program/nalco-water-early-warning-chatter-detection
www.nalco.ecolab.com ©2017 Ecolab USA Inc. All Rights Reserved
2018 PAPERWEEK CANADA
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Keynote Luncheon – Tuesday, Feb. 6
Dr. Aled Edwards
Dr. Aled Edwards is a world-renowned expert in open innovation and drug discovery. He is the founding CEO of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), a U.K.based charitable company that carries out open-source research to support the discovery of new medicines, with support from the public and private sectors. As we look at diversifying the forest sector toward new biochemicals, advanced biofuels, bioenergy and biomaterials, the question of innovation and how it is applicable to the forestry business model has generated many debates. His work on genomics as well as his position on open innovation will be of great interest and bring out very interesting parallels to the new forest products. Dr. Aled Edwards currently holds the Banbury Chair of Medical Research at the University of Toronto, Canada and is a Visiting Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Oxford, U.K.
Keynote Luncheon - Wednesday, Feb. 7 We are excited to welcome Luigi Lazzareschi as a Keynote Presenter at the PaperWeek Business Luncheon on Wednesday February 7th. His presentation will lead the Tissue Masters’ sessions following the luncheon, as part of the Papermaking Program. Mr. Lazzareschi will take this opportunity to provide his views as a major producer in the tissue sector. Luigi Lazzareschi is the Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of all Italian and foreign companies of the Sofidel Group, the sixth largest manufacturer of tissue paper in the world (the second in Europe).
Luigi Lazzareschi
Keynote Luncheon - Thursday, Feb. 8 Paul Quinn will speak on the current economic context and the timely issues of the exchange rate and future perspectives of the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate. Nafta is obviously also up the air and Paul will also address some of the key impacts that are at stake the forest products industry.
Paul Quinn
Paul has been a forest products analyst for over 13 years with the last nine years at RBC. Based in Vancouver, he is responsible for both US and Canadian forest products coverage and has been cited for stock picking and estimates accuracy over the years. Prior to his analyst role, Paul spent over 15 years in the forest products industry.
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Reality maintenance is coming: Augmented reality that is by Mark Williamson, Paper Advance
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.
Smart glasses or helmets are part of the augmented reality revolution. Photo source: SKF
"Imagine that an engineer sitting in Gothenburg, Sweden can conduct a bearing condition check at a paper mill in Johannesburg, South Africa without leaving her desk. All that's needed is for the local machine operator or maintenance engineer in Johannesburg to put on a pair of augmented reality glasses, connect via Skype and simply walk through the machine hall. The engineer in Gothenburg sees exactly what the mill person sees – in real-time. Live bearing performance data, overlaid on the real-life image that both the operator and engineer see, shows a lubrication adjustment needs to be made to avoid an unplanned and costly failure. The engineer in Gothenburg overlays instructions via the mill person's glasses – talking him through every step." That's the future of maintenance, according to Sweden's SKF bearing manufacturer in a recent LinkedIn post.
For instance, in a 2015 article in Paper 360 Magazine, Valmet's Mika Karaila says that the technology means on-the-spot visualization and solution of just-beginning maintenance problems. Measurement data, either raw or analyzed in the cloud, can be overlaid on a lens or face screen to supplement or augment the maintenance worker's normal field of view. A maintenance history of that specific component appears on the screen or glass lens and an in-situ diagnostics test, thermal image or vibration analysis from wireless sensors can be initiated. If trouble is noticed by a cloud-computing analysis, more detailed device-specific information, a repair manual or a supplier help center could be accessed. This is all done hands free without having to go back to a control room or maintenance shop.
This scenario is not far-fetched, as SKF is already developing use of this augmented or mixed reality technology, by using hardware such as the Microsoft Hololens. It might sound like something that's years and years away from being reality. But it's not; it's just around the corner, says SKF.
The front-end human machine interfaces (HMIs) for these AR applications already exist and are being promoted to application developers. Microsoft's Hololens and DAQRI's Smart Helmet or Smart Glasses are examples. Within the last year, Paper Advance reported on the development of these new technologies. To their credit, the positioning of these products in industrial applications avoids the common connection to virtual reality and associated awe-inspiring personal journeys in a closed environment. The AR products are meant to be used in an industrial setting with real-time
Around the corner Other companies are promoting this around-the-corner positioning for augmented reality (AR), which may become a new reality for pulp and paper mill maintenance departments.
Front end user interface
Maintenance diagnostics are moving from the control room to the production floor. Photo sources: Valmet (left) and DAQRI (right)
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situations and live data from the process. And, the environment is anything but closed. It's wide open for application developers to display their data.
thousands of dollars per unit, but that should come down considerably, like many hi-tech products after volumes increases.
For instance, DAQRI has just revealed maintenancefocused heat map applications in a recent LinkedIn post. Heat sensors in the smart helmet or glasses overlay a temperature profile map of what the user is looking at, warning of dangerous hot spots, hot bearings approaching failure or faulty electrical connections.
However, the user interface will realize its full value as the applications for real time process and mechanical condition data continue to develop. That will be the result of the implementation of Industrial Internet (IoT) technology which is being developed by a number of industry suppliers as we speak. IoT is an indispensible part of augmented reality.
A temperature proďŹ le map in front of a person's eyes warns of dangerous hot spots, hot bearings approaching failure, or faulty electrical connections. Source: DAQRI
DAQRI also touts the value of data visualization of process or mechanical condition, detailed explanations of how to install something or fix a problem, and online expert connections. The connection to a product expert thousands of kilometers away can help to solve a problem quickly and effectively and avoid process downtime.
Remote data analysis and expert advisory services are not new, as suppliers have used them for some years to diagnose mill problems and make corrective recommendations. However, continuous online connections, the use of cloud computing and the new augmented reality interface make these services real-time and very floor-level. With the integration of smart process measurements with IoT capability, wireless transmitters, cloud computing analytics and remote expert services the HMI will be complete, and a very valuable maintenance tool for the future. Some of those, like SKF's vision, are on the way. The terms just around the corner, coming soon, or Honeywell's "IoT ready" are common and appropriate these days, since there is some substance behind them. The enabling technology is there and the related customer service programs are strong planks in many companies' product development and marketing programs. Judging by the activities of numerous pulp and paper suppliers, the implementation will come sooner rather than later. I remember in the late 1980s I was a reluctant convert to PCs with the new Windows HMI. A colleague of mine said, "Try it; it will change your life." It certainly did, and there is no turning back for me or the rest of the world. The adoption of AR in pulp and paper mills will take less time.
The connection using AR to a product expert thousands of kilometers away can help to solve a mill problem quickly and eectively. Source: DAQRI
Industrial Internet indispensible part The HMI for augmented reality is coming along nicely and enhancements will no doubt appear in the future. Right now the cost for widespread use is a bit daunting at several
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Paper Advance
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The industrial Internet or internet of things (IoT) brings together remote data acquisition, cloud analytics and expert services. The augmented reality interface is a display medium for these services. Source: Honeywell.
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SPECIAL CONFERENCE PREVIEW SECTION February 5 - 8, 2018
Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel MontrĂŠal, QC, Canada
The International Conference for the forest-based Bioeconomy
Forest Products: Part of a New Bioeconomy Following the growing success of its 2nd edition in February 2017, the highly anticipated BIOFOR International Conference returns to Montreal in 2018 under the theme: Forest Products: Part of a New Bioeconomy. The Forest Products industry landscape is changing, and raising the level of knowledge of this transformation is an important component of this collective assessment. Join key players of academia, research institutes, forest products manufacturers, the financial sector, chemical sectors and government representatives, as BIOFOR provides an incomparable opportunity for the forest products sector and allied stakeholder industries to connect on all aspects of the rapidly emerging forest bioeconomy, across North America and worldwide. We look forward to welcoming you to Montreal in February 2018 for the next chapter of BIOFOR International. Greg Hay Executive Director PAPTAC
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Why Attend BIOFOR International Held in conjunction with PaperWeek, it is the sole conference in Canada that focuses on most important issues in the forest products sector. The BIOFOR conference is dedicated to the advancements of the global forest bioeconomy. MARKET development BIOFOR will focus on 3 main areas:
RESEARCH advancements & innovation TRANSFORMATION engineering
In order to facilitate synergies between the forest and bioceconomy sectors, the two events will take place under the same roof, Feb. 5-8 2018 at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. One single access to go from one conference to the other – a unique format that will help boost networking for participants, and lead to new potential partnerships. Within the MARKET DEVELOPMENT segment, targeted presentations and panels will set the table for a comprehensive overview of the current market potential and deployment of the forest bioeconomy. Noteworthy private and public international companies will provide pertinent examples of their current projects and initiatives underway. Furthermore, government representatives and policy organizations will describe the accessible funding to support innovation networks and clusters, and depict the tangible impacts for the industry and its stakeholders.
Under RESEARCH ADVANCEMENT & INNOVATION, participants will have in-depth updates through technical presentations by Universities, Engineering & Research organizations and industry. Pilot and demonstration projects will corroborate the level of research advancements and the latest innovations. The audience will have the opportunity to learn from these experiences and exchange with speakers and peers.
The TRANSFORMATION ENGINEERING segment will focus on the new transformation engineering programs and actual discoveries. Speakers will describe the possibilities for biorefinery start-ups within the context of creating economic growth in Canada’s forest communities and elsewhere in the world. Biomaterials will be part of this area and will cover steps to use existing pulp mills as a launchpad for bioeconomy development for the forest sector. Successful stories will demonstrate pathways from the traditional process to a new vibrant future full of possibilities.
Come to BIOFOR and expect to meet key players from public and private research organizations, academia, the financial sector, chemical sectors, forest products manufacturers, governments’ entities and much more all under the same roof!
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PROGRAM AT A GLANCE February 6 to 8, 2018 • Fairmont Queen Elizabeth
TUESDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2018 Morning
Afternoon 13:00 - 13:30
Coffee and Dessert in Tradeshow
13:30 - 15:00
Technical Panel: Accelerating the development of the bioeconomy
Networking in Tradeshow
15:00 - 15:30
Networking in Tradeshow
10:30 - 11:00
BIOFOR Opening Session
15:30 - 17:30
Market Development
11:00 - 12:00
Market Development
12:00 - 13:00
KEYNOTE LUNCHEON
17:30 - 18:30
NETWORKING RECEPTION in Tradeshow
8:30 - 10:00
PaperWeek Opening Breakfast Panel
10:00 - 10:30
WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2018 Morning 8:30 - 10:00
Afternoon Research advancement and innovation
13:00 - 13:30
Coffee and Dessert in Tradeshow
13:30 - 15:00
Research advancement and innovation
10:00 - 10:30
Networking in Tradeshow
15:00 - 15:30
Networking in Tradeshow
10:30 - 12:00
Technical Panel: Alternative renewable fuels for transport
15:30 - 17:30
Research advancement and innovation
12:00 - 13:00
KEYNOTE LUNCHEON
17:30 - 18:30
NETWORKING RECEPTION in Tradeshow
THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2018 Morning 8:30 - 10:00
Afternoon Transformation Engineering
13:00 - 13:30
Coffee and Dessert in Tradeshow
13:30 - 14:30
Transformation Engineering
14:30 - 15:00
Transformation Engineering: IFIT Project
10:00 - 10:30
Networking in Tradeshow
15:00 - 15:30
Networking in Foyer
10:30 - 12:00
Transformation Engineering
15:30 - 16:30
Transformation Engineering: IFIT Project
16:30 - 17:00
BIOFOR Wrap-up
12:00 - 13:00
KEYNOTE LUNCHEON
NB: This program is preliminary and is subject to changes.
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PAPTAC WEBINARS: A powerful, easy-to-access training tool and membership benefit We know knowledge transfer is a primary concern for mill management. PAPTAC’s Webinars are designed to help facilitate that transfer through the Association’s powerful committees. PAPTAC’s ever-popular series of webinars relating to topics ranging from papermaking technology, energy, environment, management, pulping, etc. continue to enhance our members’ personal professional development, as well as engage them in their peer committees, all with easy access from their office. Here are some the most recent webinars that were presented: • • • • • • • • • •
Improving mill efficiency and meeting quality targets through Multivariate Data Analysis Maximizing Profits in P&P through Process Integration On-Line Kappa Measurement Webinar – 5 mills describe their approach Assessing Potential Risk of Mill Process Changes on Biotreatment Health Spreading Threading – Recapturing Lost Capacity with Optimized Threading How to Move the Culture to Interdependency An Introduction to Human Performance Improvement (HPI) Wrinkling Retention Programs
This compelling mix of training topics permitted seasoned members, but most importantly junior engineers, to deepen their knowledge and strengthen their expertise and capabilities. The webinars are also helping us build a digital library that will help us deliver, in the near future, a more readily accessible, secure, continued high quality training experience that’s available when and how it’s most convenient for our members.
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2018 PAPERWEEK CANADA
Registration & Accommodations
PAPTAC Member
Non-Member
All Week
950.00
1225.00
Tuesday only (6 Feb)
550.00
800.00
Wednesday only (7 Feb)
550.00
800.00
Thursday only (8 Feb)
550.00
800.00
Registration Fees - $CAD Delegate
Student Member (must be able to provide a valid ID if asked)
295.00
Emeritus / Retired / Honorary Life Member
475.00
Speaker / Session Moderator
475.00
Note: An additional $250 (plus applicable taxes) will be added to all fees quoted above for on-site registrations. Everyone is encouraged to pre-register.
Hotel Reservations: The Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth boasts a brand new design blending a contemporary decor with a vintage flair reminiscent of Montreal’s golden years. Please visit the following link for on-line hotel reservations: https://aws.passkey.com/go/paperweek2018 or call the Queen Elizabeth Hotel directly at 514 861 3511 (toll free 1 866 540 4483) by January 19, 2018 and mention the code PAPER2018 to obtain the conference group rate of $189/night (standard room—Fairmont Room). This rate will be in effect from February 2 to February 11 for all PaperWeek Canada 2018 participants. Reservations made after January 19th are subject to availability and group rate will be honored solely depending on the category of rooms available at time of reservation. In-room internet access is not included in the standard room rate. Other room categories available to delegates are: Fairmont View Room at $219, Junior Suite at $289, Fairmont Gold Room at $309 and One-bedroom suites at $369. Complimentary in-room internet access with Fairmont President's Club membership (free) -- https://www.fairmont.com/fpc/ Check in time is: 4:00 PM, Check out time: 12 noon.
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Paper Advance
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International project lead by VTT will speed up the development of ďŹ bre-based products by SĂśren Back, Paper Advance
Together with a large industrial consortium, VTT Technical Research of Finland has launched a EUR 4.5 million project to speed up the development of fibre-based products as alternatives to oil-based materials like plastics. The project, funded partly by the European Regional Development Fund ERD, has brought together 33 companies, ranging from small to large global companies. An important part of the project will be to build a new pilot without wet press, specifically designed for development of porous materials. In order to get to know more about this interesting project involving partners from not only Finland but also from other European countries, North America and Asia, Paper Advance has interviewed Harri Kiiskinen, Future Fibre Products project manager. The Future Fibre Products project will transform laboratoryscale results into pilot-scale demonstrations for products and processes with a low carbon footprint. Does this mean that there are already a number of laboratory results ready for upscaling? If so, could you give us some examples? "We have produced several material demos in lab scale, e.g. sound/thermal insulation materials, filtering materials, foam formed specialty papers and foam formed nonwovens. Ideas originate mainly from VTT research."
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Is screening a part of the project, aiming at identifying promising projects with future potential? "Naturally we are all the time, also in the new project, screening new future potential solutions and applications. Parts of these might lead to new ideas and projects together with our current and new partners". "Typically we first produce demo materials and evaluate the mechanical performance and other critical properties. For a customer the cost structure is the next question if something is technologically applicable." Are you focussing on a limited number of upscaling products/ product areas? If so, which ones? "Within this project we focus on web-like roll goods, mainly low density/highly porous materials. We are not going 'too close' to any specific product. Product specific development will be done in separate company driven projects."
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The project will explore how the current paper and board production infrastructure can be utilised in the field of new packaging solutions, non-woven materials, porous insulation or as replacement for EPS-based materials. How will this evaluation be done? Collecting information from the project partners? Judging from the names of the participating companies there must be a lot of updated knowledge available in the group. "For sure companies have done their homework. We'll provide pilot scale data and also some mill scale simulation work towards up-scaling of the technology will be done. Companies can then utilize this information in their own cases. All companies are represented in the steering group and they have been very active which is a great help for a project manager." "We are constantly communicating the plans and results to the companies. They are involved in the actual planning phase for research work and in analysing the results together with our scientists."
In order to answer the increasing piloting needs of companies in the development of novel solutions for future fibre products, VTT is investing in another pilot line facility in the city of Jyväskylä. "The pilot will consist of a forming section, two non-contact dryers and a sampling unit. There is no wet press which is the biggest difference to the existing papermaking pilot. The new line will enable the production of lightweight, porous materials, as it can be operated without a wet-pressing unit. The line will be ready for trials in early 2018." "The new pilot, together with the current piloting environment, will have a central role in demonstrating alternatives with the most potential. We hope that it will be used as efficiently by industrial partners, universities, and other research organisations as the current one." "We'll utilize both the existing and the new pilot in the project. There are no restrictions, VTT pilots are available also for those companies who are not members of this consortium." "Finally, I would like to stress that this project is just one way of co-operating with VTT. We also have several other ways to serve our customers."
Thirty-three industrial companies from Finland, North America, Europe and Asia decided to join. The project brings together actors from small enterprises to global leaders in the field, to tackle major challenges through open innovation. The industrial project partners are A Fredrikson Research & Consulting, Ahlstrom-Munksjö, Albany International, Andritz, Anpap, BASF, Berndorf Band, BillerudKorsnäs, BinNova, Essity (formerly SCA Hygiene Products), Glatfelter, Humuspehtoori, Irving Paper Limited, Kemira, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Metsä Group, Moorim SP, Neenah Gessner, Novarbo, Paptic, Pixact, ProDeliver, Rejlers Finland, Sappi, SCG Packaging, Stora Enso, Sulzer Pumps Finland, Suominen, UPM-Kymmene, Valmet, Weidmann Electrical Technology, WestRock Corporation, and Wetend Technologies.
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INFORMING THE PAPER INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS Paper Advance and Le Maitre Papetier play an essential role in facilitating the exchange of information on a variety of issues related to operations optimization, management and industry advancement coupled with an industry-respected international editorial team.
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The source for Canadian pulp, paper and forestry innovation news
THE PULSE OF THE SECTOR We have our finger on the pulse of the sector in Canada and worldwide. With critical, up-to-date and diverse content focusing on pulp, paper, board and tissue manufacturing, converting operations, bioeconomy, technology reports, process optimization, sciences and exclusive interviews with top industry leaders, we offer a unique platform for all industry practitioners to exchange and offer information and to facilitate industry excellence. in production.
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J-FOR TECHNICAL PAPERS
OPTIMIZATION OF A BIOMASS PROCUREMENT NETWORK WITH INTEGRATED FOREST HARVESTING FOR AN EASTERN CANADIAN NEWSPRINT MILL ABSTRACT
JOSE MELÉNDEZ*, YAN FENG, JEAN-FRANÇOIS AUDY, LUC LEBEL, PAUL STUART When a forest products company develops a long-term strategic vision, changes must take place in the upstream feedstock procurement network to secure the necessary resources for current and new projects. This requires the development of an optimized biomass procurement strategy that can adjust to new material demands at the mill. The new procurement strategy must adapt to changes in current production as well as the potential start-up of new processes to expand the firm’s product portfolio. In this study, an MILP model was developed and used to evaluate the integrated procurement of both wood chips and residual materials (hog fuel) from forest harvesting operations to a pulp and paper mill. The model seeks to satisfy the mill’s long-term feedstock requirements while minimizing procurement cost. It considers the wide variability of materials obtained from the surrounding boreal forest and additional partners such as sawmills operating in the same areas. It also examines the impacts of changing from existing cut-to-length harvesting systems to a better-suited full-tree system that produces both wood chips and hog fuel at lower cost. An industrial case study in an Eastern Canadian newsprint mill was used to develop and validate the model. A detailed description of results for one year of optimization is presented to validate the model with historical data. In addition, results for the evaluated 20-year time horizon are presented. The optimized solution suggests that a reduction of up to 28% in biomass cost is possible. Furthermore, the scenario where harvesting contractors exchanged their cut-to-length harvesting equipment for a full-tree system reduced biomass costs by an additional 8%.
INTRODUCTION
Canadian pulp and paper (P&P) firms are actively seeking new opportunities in product development and commercialization by integrating new processes and technologies into their existing facilities to expand their market portfolios and increase their revenue streams. However, a successful transformation requires that P&P firms change the way they conduct much of their business [1,2]. The business transformation must be systematically and
JOSE MELÉNDEZ
strategically planned in a value chain context to minimize the negative impact on upstream and downstream operations. Introducing a new process into an existing P&P mill will disrupt upstream activities by increasing feedstock demands. A P&P mill’s upstream operations refer to procurement of forest materials and involve several activities and different types of machinery working together (i.e., a harvesting system) to deliver and prepare
YAN FENG Department of Chemical Department of Industrial Engineering, École Engineering, Université Polytechnique of Montreal, Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada Canada *Contact: jose.melendez@polymtl.ca
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JEAN-FRANÇOIS AUDY
École de gestion, Département de management, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada
materials for the P&P mill process. Whether preparation is done en route to the mill or once the material has been delivered is left up to the decision-makers. Another complexity in the procurement process is that many forest products (e.g., sawlogs, pulp logs, forestry residues) are harvested simultaneously (integrated harvesting), but are not all destined for the same mill. However, if the process is carefully planned and implemented, benefits
LUC LEBEL
Département des sciences du bois et de la forêt, Université Laval, Québec, Canada
Journal of Science & Technology for Forest Products and Processes: VOL. 6, NO. 5
PAUL STUART
Department of Chemical Engineering, École Polytechnique of Montreal, Québec, Canada
PAPERWEEK & BIOFOR PREVIEW
that were anticipated at the time of investment can be achieved [3]. Controlling feedstock procurement costs in a large-scale operation is challenging due to the many factors that affect delivered cost (e.g., variability and uncertainty in feedstock procurement). This research has focussed its efforts in this area by using modelling tools that make it possible to minimize the procurement costs of multiple materials extracted from multiple supply sources using integrated harvesting and delivered to a P&P mill customer. The objective of this research was to optimize the forest biomass procurement network of a P&P mill to minimize procurement costs while satisfying the mill’s feedstock demands over a 20-year timeframe (the average expected lifespan of a pulp mill). This paper implements a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to integrate harvesting, processing, and delivery of softwood chips and hog fuel to the case study mill. The optimization model addresses decisions about when and where to harvest a cutblock, what intermediate material quantities (sawlogs, pulp logs, fuel logs, and forest residues) to extract, and where along the supply chain to convert them into final products (i.e., wood chips and hog fuel). This paper addresses a problem not commonly reviewed in the forest industry: the integrated procurement of merchantable and residual materials from the forest for a P&P mill that can use both materials. The current practice of the P&P mill is to harvest wood chips for thermomechanical pulping (TMP) separately from hog fuel for the biomass boiler. The standard cut-to-length (CTL) harvesting system focusses on collecting sawlogs and pulp logs. Later on, if needed, other equipment is brought in to collect the remaining fuel logs and residues. A full-tree (FT) harvesting system has been shown to be better suited for collecting forest resides along with traditional log materials [4]. The current study also examines the economic impact on procurement costs of a transition from the currently used CTL system to an FT harvesting system. This
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transition assumes that contractors will achieve over a 10-year timespan the renewal of their current equipment as each piece reaches the end of its useful life. LITERATURE REVIEW
This section examines the use of optimization within the forest industry, highlighting studies that have focussed on practical application of supply-chain optimization to the integrated harvesting of traditional and residual forest products. Optimization modelling has been widely used in the literature to control feedstock procurement costs within the forest industry. Optimization modelling is used to find the most cost-effective way to carry out an activity (or a set of activities) subject to a set of constraints by maximizing desirable criteria and minimizing undesirable ones [5,6]. Within the forest industry, planning and scheduling are two areas in which optimization is commonly used, but the use of optimization has become more generalized and can be found at all decision-making levels (strategic, tactical, and operational) of the supply chain [7–9]. In recent years, supply-chain modelling and optimization for biomass procurement systems has received considerable attention from both academia and industry [10–13]. Results from these studies, such as models and practical case studies, can be used as decision-support tools in supply-chain management [14,15]. Carlsson and Rönnqvist [10] presented an industrial case study on the use of optimizationbased decision methodology in the forest and P&P industries. The purpose of this study was to exemplify the practical use of supply-chain management (SCM) with optimization models and methodologies in the forest industry. It was concluded that integrated supply-chain planning (e.g., integration of any or all SC activities: procurement, production, distribution, and sales) was needed. This required advanced planning tools and new technologies to support planning in the complex business supply-chain environment. Gunnarsson et al. [16] studied
supply-chain modelling and developed a MILP model for procurement of chipped forest fuel biomass to satisfy demand from heating plants. In accordance with the forest biomass procurement studies they reviewed, the authors confirmed that transportation is one of the higher-cost activities in the procurement supply chain. In addition, their results showed that contrary to common practice, the optimal solution often suggested using mobile chippers and transporting biomass directly to heating plants instead of sending it first to an intermediate storage location. A similar study carried out by Akhari et al. [17] came to the same conclusions when they applied an MILP model to the collection and delivery of biomass residues to produce bioenergy. Flisberg et al. [18] presented a decision-support system (DSS) based on a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model to address procurement logistics decision problems involving chipped forest biomass, in particular the selection of harvest areas and harvesting systems for producing forest biomass fuel. Comparing harvesting systems can demonstrate the advantages that one system may have over another in a specific case. For instance, the case presented by Meléndez [4] compared the production of wood chips and residues from a single cutblock using four harvesting systems. From an economic point of view, the study showed that an FT harvesting system produced the lowest-cost biomass because the residues were removed and piled at roadside at no extra cost. Because they left residues in the forest, the other harvesting systems evaluated (including a CTL system) required additional equipment (and cost) to collect and pile residues at roadside. Ultimately, using an FT instead of a CTL harvesting system led to harvesting-cost reductions and significant savings for the final customer (19% and 30% reductions in chip and hog-fuel costs respectively). Implementation of optimization modelling tools in emerging industries such as bioenergy [19] and biorefining [20] has made them economically attractive
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and technologically viable. Feng et al. [13] researched the potential opportunities for integrating biorefinery processes with forest product manufacturing systems to reduce biomass transportation cost and increase biomass usage for value-added manufacturing. An MIP model was developed for integrated forest biorefining supply-chain design. The optimal decisions on supply-chain configurations, locations, technologies, and capacity options were determined considering the various flows of forest products, by-products, energies, and fuels, as well as forest and process residues. Due to the size of the problem, collection of realistic data became an issue. With the use of an integrated forest supply-chain design approach, the results demonstrated that existing forest product mills should not be closed and that the supply-chain network should be expanded to include combined heat and power generation (CHP) and pellet facilities. All the studies mentioned earlier indicated that optimization tools provide useful information when applied to biomass procurement operations. However, no research has been found that examines the economic impact of forest harvesting activities as part of a larger P&P mill strategic plan when multiple feedstocks are required for the core P&P business and for ventures such as CHP. Moreover, studies of biomass procurement optimization have not considered integrated harvesting of multiple products extracted from the forest that will end up in different processes, nor have they been used to consider whether local feedstocks will be available over the 20-year expected lifespan of a mill. By resolving these issues, P&P mill decision-makers can find synergies between upstream operations and mill processes, which will improve overall efficiencies and reduce costs.
pulping (TMP) process to produce pulp, which is then converted into newsprint. The mill also uses a high-moisture biomass boiler, which burns different types of biomass to generate steam for the papermaking process. It offsets their fossil fuel consumption and produces electricity that is used internally or sold to the grid. Because this study focussed on changes in the upstream feedstock procurement network, it assumed that the total yearly raw material demand of the mill’s TMP and biomass boiler will not change from one year to the next. Demand quantities are expressed in bone-dry metric tonnes (bdmt). The mill uses two main feedstock streams: softwood chips of fir and spruce species for the TMP process, and hog fuel for the biomass boiler. The softwood species mix fed to the TMP is determined by the required properties of the final paper product. Both species of softwoods (fir and spruce) are native to the local area. Mill Feedstock Supply Chain
As depicted in Fig. 1, forest feedstocks can be supplied through several intermediate locations: non-company-owned sawmills, the pulp mill log yard, a biomass storage depot, or roadside storage. The P&P mill leases a large area of forest land from the government to supply its demands. The
forest area leased by the P&P mill is divided into several Forest Management Areas (FMAs), which are further divided into harvest cutblocks. Each cutblock is unique, with different sizes, species mix, and tree ages, which affect the harvested material output in both volume and product assortment. Although the forest areas consist of a mix of softwood and hardwood species, the predominant species are fir and spruce, which account for 90% to 95% of the total volume of each cutblock. The remaining 5% to 10% are a mix of hardwood species. In each cutblock, more fir trees than spruce trees are found in cutblocks closer to the mill (65% fir, 30% spruce, 5% mixed hardwoods). Harvested cutblock areas farther away from the P&P mill (beyond 300 km) tend to have more spruce than fir. The harvesting age for forest cutblocks is 60–80 years. The diameters at breast height (DBH) at this age are usually between 12 cm and 16 cm. At the time of harvesting, the average tree density is 2500 trees per hectare. Harvesting operations are carried out by contractors, each owning and operating one or several crews. The crews usually harvest the trees in each cutblock using one of the three existing harvesting systems: cut-to-length (CTL), full-tree harvesting (FT), or a hybrid system consisting of first a feller-buncher followed
METHODOLOGY AND CASE STUDY
To develop the optimization model, an Eastern Canadian P&P newsprint mill and its forest supply chain were used as a case study. The mill uses a thermo-mechanical
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Fig. 1 - Biomass procurement supply chain network.
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by two processors and a forwarder (FBCTL). Selection of the harvesting system used by each crew depends on the contractor’s experience with the equipment, and they can freely change technologies if they decide. For each contractor, the maximum amount of operating time per year is set to nine months to account for time lost during the spring thaw when no harvesting takes place, plus any additional time for repairing and relocating equipment from one area to another. Meléndez [4] studied the operations, costs, and pros and cons of each of these harvesting systems. Depending on the harvesting system used, the characteristics of each cutblock, the assortment volume availability, and the sub-contractors’ productivity for the selected harvesting system, the harvesting cost and operating time were found to be different. During harvesting operations, four intermediate materials (depicted in Fig. 2) are made from each tree: sawlogs (small diameter above 10 cm), pulp logs (small diameter between 5 and 10 cm), fuel logs (small diameter below 5 cm), and forestry residues (branches and foliage) of different species [21,22]. Fuel logs include any softwood logs that are too small to be classified as pulp logs, as well as hardwood logs for which there is no market demand. Any deadwood, off-species softwood trees, or other logs that do not meet the requirements of the P&P mill or the sawmills are also classified as fuel logs. The final products of the forest harvesting supply chain are the softwood chips and hog-fuel materials delivered to the P&P mill. Conversion of intermediate materials from the forest into final products (i.e., softwood chips and hog fuel) can take place at several intermediate locations. Because the sawmills produce softwood chips and various materials that can be used as hog fuel (e.g., bark, sawdust, shavings) as by-products of sawmill operations, a mutually beneficial exchange program has been instituted between the P&P mill and three non-company-owned sawmills in the region. The P&P mill can exchange harvested sawlogs for softwood chips and hog fuel. For modelling purposes, capac-
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Fig. 2 - Forest trees disassembled into intermediate materials and final products.
ity constraints on quantities exchanged had to be set. Historical values for yearly exchanged quantities were used to set this upper exchange limit at each mill for each softwood species and hog fuel type. The P&P mill log yard is another intermediate location where pulp logs and sawlogs can be processed into softwood chips and hog fuel. Logs are sorted and stored in the yard; when needed, they are debarked, chipped, and sent to the TMP process. Given that the bark produced is considered a by-product of wood chip production and is consumed internally in the P&P mill biomass boiler, the preprocessing costs are assigned only to the wood chips, whereas the bark produced on-site is considered “free hog fuel material”. No other hog fuel material is produced at this intermediate site. Hog fuels used in the biomass boiler may be derived from any material not used
to produce wood chips. As shown by the material flows in Fig. 2, the final hog-fuel product may include forest residues from harvesting operations, fuel logs, and any hardwoods harvested. Occasionally, sawlogs and pulp logs may also be used as hog fuel, as well as by-products such as bark, sawdust, shavings, and off-cuts from sawmills and other intermediate processing locations. Materials derived from the forest (fuel logs, residues, and saw logs and pulp logs if needed) are processed by a mobile grinder into hog fuel at forest roadside or at a storage depot. In the latter case, log materials to be used as hog fuel (e.g., fuel logs and hardwood logs) are sent to a storage depot located 50 km away from the P&P mill, where they are stored until needed by the mill. When required, they are processed by a large mobile grinder into hog fuel and then loaded on a truck
Fig. 3 - Biomass supply chain: materials, locations, products, and harvesting systems.
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for direct delivery to the P&P mill biomass boiler. An alternative to the storage depot is to process any log materials and forestry residues directly in the forest, specifically at cutblock roadside with a mobile grinder. Once processed, the hog fuel is loaded onto a truck and delivered directly to the P&P mill. Once at the pulp mill, all the hog-fuel materials are mixed to maintain a relatively constant feedstock mix for the boiler. Although the biomass boiler has a maximum tolerance of 75% feedstock moisture content (%MC), a constant and lower biomass moisture content is sought to ensure high energy efficiency. Sawmills in the area usually have a surplus of softwood chips and hog fuel and are therefore willing to sell them to the P&P mill. These spot markets for chips and hog fuel are only considered within the optimization model to make sure that the model converges on feasible solutions (i.e., there is enough material to satisfy annual demand from the P&P mill). A very high spot market unit price (>$1500/bdmt) is used in the model to indicate clearly in the results the consumption of spot market materials. The reason that sawmill residues are not considered in the model is to make the model focus on consuming materials derived from harvested areas leased by the pulp mill. Consumption of spot market materials in the optimization model would indicate that P&P mill demand far exceeds available forest supplies and would not be a sustainable long-term practice. Figure 3 presents an illustrative representation of the model formulation. It shows the potential flow of materials from the forest resources (cutblocks contained within FMAs) to intermediate locations, to final customers; harvesting systems that can be used by contractor teams, intermediate materials extracted from the forest, as well as final products produced at intermediate locations, and the two final processes that use these final materials. The mathematical representation of Fig. 3, along with all the necessary decision variables, parameters, and constraints, is
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The objective function is:
(1) Subject to the following constraints: (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) formulated below to create the objective function that will be used to evaluate the network to find the optimum solution. The mathematical model was formulated as a MILP problem and used to evaluate the various procurement strategies for both wood chips and residual materials (hog fuel) from integrated forest harvesting operations to the P&P mill over a 20-year time horizon. The model seeks to satisfy the mill’s long-term feedstock requirements while minimizing procurement cost. It examines the impacts of changing harvesting systems considering
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the wide variability of materials obtained from the boreal forest. The objective function of this tactical/operational planning model seeks to minimize the total procurement cost of softwood chips and hog fuels delivered to the P&P mill’s TMP line and biomass boiler (E.1). All costs are represented in the objective function, which includes the total cost of harvesting, log transportation, production of softwood chips and hog fuels at intermediate processing locations, delivery of the softwood chips and hog fuels to the P&P mill, and storage
costs along the procurement supply chain. Constraint (E.2) establishes that all the product demand from the final customers (i.e., the TMP line and biomass boiler) must be satisfied in each period. Constraints (E.3), (E.4), and (E.5) are flow balance constraints at the forest, intermediate locations, and the P&P demand locations respectively. Constraint (E.6) is the capacity constraint for production of softwood chips and hog fuels at each of the intermediate locations. Given the exchange program established between the P&P mill and the sawmills, an exchange limit (based on the size of the sawmill and historical exchange rates) at each sawmill is incorporated here. Constraint (E.7) is the clear-cut constraint stating that if a cutblock is selected to be harvested using a specific harvesting system, then all trees in the cutblock must be harvested and either sent to an intermediate location or placed in a material inventory. The harvesting system capacity constraint is specified in (E.8), where the assignment of cutblocks to each contractor (harvesting system) in each period depends on the productivity, the time it takes to harvest each stand, and the capacity of the contractor. Constraint (E.9) is a harvesting sustainability constraint. Annual allowable cuts (AAC) of softwoods and hardwoods for each FMA are dictated by the local government to ensure that harvesting activities are spread out through multiple FMAs. Constraint (E.10) specifies that once a forest cutblock has been selected for harvest, only one harvesting system may be used to harvest that cutblock in any given period. Constraint (E.11) says that if a harvesting activity occurs at a forest cutblock in a FMA, the cutblock must be chosen (by binary variable) to be harvested. Constraint (E.12) further indicates that if a cutblock is selected, it cannot be re-selected again within the planning horizon, which further reinforces the clear-cut constraint within a single period. Finally, the non-negative constraints are provided by (E.13).
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DATA COLLECTION
Table 1 gives the data parameters needed for the model. All quantities are expressed in bone-dry metric tonnes (bdmt), and cost parameters are unit costs expressed in dollars per bdmt ($/bdmt). However, to keep sensitive cost information confidential, all cost results from the optimization model presented have been normalized. Data collection of material quantities and costs for such a large and complex network of mills and forest resources can be difficult, especially for unused forestry residue production quantities because companies usually do not keep track of this inventory. A common strategy in the literature to complete the missing data is the development of a simulation model that will realistically mimic the case study. Meléndez [4] created a forest/harvesting simulation model that creates virtual forest cutblocks along with all required quantitative material information based on forest characteristics (species mix, tree diameters, heights, density, etc.) specified by the user. The simulation model tracks quantitative information about each harvested tree, giving exact information about the quantities of intermediate TABLE 1
Fig. 4 - Forest cutblocks and supply-chain network.
and final products created. Then, using financial information for each piece of equipment, it is possible to calculate the harvesting, processing, and transportation costs for all materials extracted from each forest cutblock and transferred to the various mills up to the two final destinations. The stochastic simulation model can calculate harvesting costs for each of the harvesting systems available to contractors at each of the cutblocks. This information will enable the optimization model to determine which harvesting system is best suited (has the lowest cost) for each of the cutblocks and assign the corresponding crew to that site. Thus, the forest/harvesting simulation model was used to generate quantitative and cost information for over
Optimization model input information.
Pulp & Paper mill’s yearly material requirements Spruce woodchips required for TMP process Fir woodchips required for TMP process Biomass boiler hogfuel requirements Total optimization time horizon Optimization run time horizon Number of optimization runs to complete an optimization scenario Number of cutblocks in database Total number of hectares in database Initial number of available crews using CTL harvesting Initial number of available crews using FB-CTL harvesting Initial number of available crews using full-tree harvesting % of crews that change to full-tree harvesting in year 6 % of crews that change to full-tree harvesting in year 11 Distance from P&P mill to Sawmill 1 Maximum exchange amount with sawmill 1 Distance from P&P mill to Sawmill 2 Maximum exchange amount with sawmill 2 Distance from P&P mill to Sawmill 3 Maximum exchange amount with sawmill 3
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UNITS
VALUE
[bdmt/year] [bdmt/year] [bdmt/year]
117,600 122,400 50,000
[years] [years]
20 5 4
[ha]
600 55,927
[%] [%]
10 10 0 50% 100%
[km] [bdmt/year] [km] [bdmt/year] [km] [bdmt/year]
118 2,500 384 1,000 496 30,000
600 cutblocks. Data calculated using the forest simulation model for all 600 cutblocks were aggregated using Excel 2010® and then transferred to Microsoft Access 2010®, which served to construct the database for solving the case study as well as to store the output of the optimization runs. Once the solutions were found, Excel was used to analyze the results in more depth, run associated cost models, and further develop the solutions. The case study network shown in Fig. 4 involves two customers (TMP and biomass boiler) for final products located at the P&P mill along with the log yard, three sawmills, a storage depot, and as many roadside processing sites as there are cutblocks (i.e., 600), all of which are evaluated over a planning horizon of 20 years. Six forest management areas (FMAs) are also shown and are used in the results to report materials coming from the 600 forest cutblocks within those FMAs. This cutblock aggregation reduces the complexity of reporting dozens of cutblocks and their cost information. Computationally, the biomass procurement system creates over 4.5 million constraints and 5.5 million variables (372,000 of them binary), creating a very large optimization problem that is difficult to solve with current computers. Therefore, the procurement optimization problem was divided into four sub-problems, with each consisting of a five-year planning horizon. This decomposition approach was necessary to reduce significantly the number of constraints and variables created, as well as to reduce solution time to a manageable timeframe (less than
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30 minutes per sub-problem) and to avoid the need for an excessively large database. The overall problem was solved by running the model four times in succession with different planning horizons. The cutblock selections, harvesting and material flow decisions, and the inventory results from each sub-model were imported into the next model to ensure continuity of the long-term problem. The breakdown of the optimization model into four runs also makes it possible to change a contractor’s harvesting system technologies every five years, as would be the case in practice. Specifically, the implementation strategy involves the transition of all harvesting crews from their current harvesting systems to a full-tree system. To implement this over the entire network, the harvesting system changes are carried out in stages, assuming that changes happen at the end of each piece of equipment’s useful lifetime. During the first five years, each contractor continues to use its own harvesting method. In the second five-year period, 50% of the contractors switch over to a full-tree system, and during the third five-year period (i.e., sub-problem 3, years 10–15), the remaining contractors switch to full-tree harvesting. The mathematical model was solved using IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio v12.6® on an Intel Core i7, 2.7 GHz processor with 8.0 GB of RAM. A Microsoft Access database was developed to enable automatic data input and output from the CPLEX server. The optimality gap was set to be less than 1%.
non-optimized delivered costs of chips for a single year. • The cost breakdown of chip and hog-fuel costs into harvesting, transport, and pre-processing costs both for the total averaged cost for the entire system and for the average cost of materials extracted from each FMA. • The quantitative flow of materials through the procurement system. • A breakdown of the various types of materials used to produce hog fuel. • The optimized cost of chips and hog fuel for the entire 20-year timeframe evaluated and the effects on costs due to a change in harvesting technologies. The optimization model provides detailed information for every material and product in every year modelled, as well as for the total period optimized. Therefore, it is possible to analyze a single year’s worth of information as well as the overall results for the 20-year period. Because the
P&P mill provided historical data for one year of procurement operations, this paper will first review and compare results for one year’s results to show the degree of detail that the model provides, after which the overall trends for the 20-year period will be reviewed. Year 3 was arbitrarily selected from the first five-year run of the optimization model for a comparison of optimized with non-optimized chip procurement, as shown in Fig. 5. Data from this first run were used because in the other optimization runs (i.e., years 6–20), additional changes occurred in the harvesting systems used by contractors. These additional changes will be explored in more depth later in this paper. Note that inventory costs are not included because the optimization either moved all the material through the supply chain in the same year that it was harvested, or kept the harvested non-used materials in the forest where the cost of
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results described in this section consist of information that can be derived by applying the optimization model to the case study supply chain, as well as a number of comparisons to non-optimized values based on historical data supplied by the P&P mill, specifically: • The cost reduction obtained by running the optimization on delivered chips for any year compared to the
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Fig. 5 - Comparison of delivered chip costs between a non-optimized harvest done by the P&P mill in 2010 and the optimized results from year 3 of the model.
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inventory was assumed to be nil. The first results presented in Fig. 5 compare optimized to non-optimized chip procurement. They show how the optimization model adjusts the selection of harvesting cutblocks, the procurement quantities of intermediate materials, and the transportation to intermediate and final destinations, all to reduce overall procurement costs. To normalize the calculated chip and hog-fuel costs, the non-optimized procurement cost data provided by the P&P mill for a single average year were set equal to one and then used to normalize the costs derived from the optimization. The optimization model searches for the most cost-effective way of procuring the necessary materials for the P&P mill. A better solution was found that reduced the total procurement cost to 0.72 of the non-optimized value, with transportation followed by harvesting as the sources of cost reductions. As shown in Fig. 5, harvesting and transportation are the two major chip procurement costs, accounting for 57% and 30% respectively of the P&P mill’s nonoptimized costs. Optimization creates cost reductions at the cutblock level by selecting lower-cost combinations of cutblocks and harvesting systems and by prioritizing harvest of cutblocks with lower transportation costs to intermediate locations, depending on the required material demands from the P&P mill. Pre-processing costs increase by 2% compared to the non-optimized P&P mill data. This slight increase is due to delivery of more logs to the P&P mill for wood-chip processing instead of exchanging more material with the sawmills. The model determined that although the pre-processing cost increases, transportation costs are reduced. In addition, pre-processing materials at the P&P mill log yard also produces bark material that can be used as hog fuel with no added cost. This is the lowest-cost hog fuel material produced in the system, and therefore the optimization will produce as much of it as possible to reduce hog-fuel procurement costs. Figure 6 presents costs and quantities
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Fig. 6 - Average material costs and quantities in dry tonnes for each FMA for wood-chip and hog-fuel production in year 3 of optimization.
for both wood-chip and hog-fuel materials harvested in the same period (i.e., in year 3) as the data in Fig. 5. Because over 50 cutblocks of different sizes (ranging from 10 ha to 200 ha) are harvested in a single year, the cutblocks have been grouped into larger FMAs to present the information more clearly. In addition, the FMAs in the figure have been organized (left to right) according to their distance from the P&P mill, so that FMA1 contains the P&P mill location and FMA6 is farthest from the mill (see Fig. 3 for a map of the case study locations). The total height of each bar in the
figure represents the average optimized cost of delivered feedstock to the P&P mill (normalized costs are read on the y-axis), whether softwood chips or hog fuel from each FMA. These costs are broken down into their activity components: harvesting, transportation, and pre-processing. The values on top of each bar represent the total quantity of materials extracted from each FMA and delivered to the P&P mill. Figure 6 clearly shows that even after optimization, chip harvesting costs are still the largest cost component. Transportation costs are reduced for FMAs closer to the P&P mill, and pre-processing costs
Fig. 7 - Flow of materials through the supply chain during year 3 of the optimized harvest.
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tend to maintain their average level in all FMAs because this is a fixed cost at the P&P mill log yard. Pre-processing costs in FMA6 are zero because all the materials harvested have been sent to sawmills that absorbed the pre-processing costs. As for hog fuel materials, the cost structure varies considerably depending on where the materials are harvested and pre-processed. This can be better explained by also looking at material and product flows through the supply chain. Figure 7 illustrates these flows and complements the cost information provided in Fig. 6. FMA 1 has the highest hog-fuel costs because it is the only area where materials from the forest are processed at roadside and incur harvesting, processing, and delivery costs. It makes sense that the model would choose the closest FMA to carry out the highest-cost hog-fuel processing to minimize transportation costs. FMAs 2 and 5 are delivering materials only to the P&P mill log yard, where the only cost associated with the hog-fuel material is a $1/ bdmt charge included in the optimization to represent costs associated with chip transfer from the log yard to the TMP process. Hog fuel produced from FMAs 3 and 4 has a similar cost structure to that of hog fuel from FMAs 2 and 5, except that a small quantity of materials from each (FMAs 3 and 4) is delivered to sawmill 1. The sawmills charge a $5 processing fee for each bdmt of hog fuel produced. This fee, plus the cost of shipping the hog fuel from the sawmill to the pulp mill, represents the hog-fuel costs incurred in FMAs 3, 4, and 6. However, because large quantities of hog-fuel materials are being produced at the pulp mill at the lowest cost ($1/bdmt), the sawmill hog-fuel costs from FMAs 3, and 4 are diluted within all this material. Hence, only a small increment is visible in the hog-fuel costs for FMAs 3 and 4 (as shown in Fig. 6), in contrast with the much higher cost of hog fuel in Fig. 7, where no hog-fuel material is being produced at the pulp mill. Materials coming from FMA 6 are all delivered to sawmills. This strategy increases harvesting costs because saw log
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TABLE 2
Key results for year 3 of the optimized harvesting network. UNITS
Number of sawmills used to exchange material Amount of chips provided by sawmills Number of contractor crews used Total area harvested Largest number of hectares assigned to single contractor Smallest number of hectares assigned to single contractor Percentage of hogfuel demand procured from the sawmills Percentage of hogfuel demand procured from the P&P mill log yard
quantities extracted from each cutblock are smaller and hence their harvesting costs are higher. In addition, transportation costs are high due to the long distance that materials must travel to reach the sawmill and then the pulp mill. As is, the cost agreement is beneficial for all mills because the sawmills receive sawlogs for their processes while removing unwanted by-products from their sites, and the P&P mill receives ready-to-use feedstocks at lower cost due to fixed preprocessing and transportation costs. Table 2 summarizes key results to be used as guidelines in a decision-making process. These results are an example of the information provided by the optimization model and show how a decision-maker can go deep into the details (selected cutblocks, intermediate locations, flows and costs from each location, etc.). Annual results would typically be extracted for all 20 years. For the sake of brevity, Table 2 shows only the results for year 3. Figure 7 and Table 2 show that the optimization model will trade fibre with only two of the three sawmills, leaving the furthest away outside the exchange. Additional benefits for an exchange with the third sawmill would have to be negotiated for an exchange agreement to be made. These additional benefits could range from shared costs for transportation, higher-quality hog fuel or chip materials (e.g., less moisture content), or a higher exchange rate of sawlogs to chips. The profitability of both parties involved must also play into the negotiations. The quantities of material exchanged at the sawmills were maximized by the optimization model. A sensitivity analysis
[bdmt/year]
VALUE 2 6,000
[ha/year] [ha/year] [ha/year]
15 6,242 700 173
[%] [%]
1.1 52
was carried out to determine the impacts of changing the exchange limit (5,000 bdmt/year and 1,000 bdmt/year). The results showed that as the exchange limit increases, the exchanged amount increases linearly up to the exchange limit. This result implies that given the lowest-cost exchange program for the P&P mill procurement strategy, the optimization model would continuously maximize the exchanged amount subject to the exchange limit. The storage depot was not used due to its much higher unit pre-processing and storage costs along with added unloading, handling, and reloading costs. Hog fuel product produced at the storage depot therefore has the highest cost of all options and is always avoided by the optimization model. In practice, the P&P mill stopped using the storage depot due to this specific cost issue, preferring to process material either at cutblock roadside or at the P&P mill log yard. It is suggested that hog fuels be procured from two major sources, the P&P mill log yard for processing residues during chip production, and the intermediate roadside locations from materials not used for wood-chip production. A third smaller source is sawmill #1, from which 556 tonnes of hog-fuel material are transferred to the biomass boiler (see Figs. 7 and 8). Figure 8 shows a breakdown of the materials used for hog-fuel production in year 3. Because chip production at the P&P mill log yard can generate a considerable amount of bark from pulp logs, which are regarded as process residues, the cost of hog fuels is often considered “free�. A similar analogy applies in the forest for forestry residues (branches), with the
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difference being that these residues still require pre-processing (i.e., grinding) and transportation to the P&P mill, which does have a cost associated with the final hog fuel produced. Figure 8 shows that after material produced at the pulp mill, fir fuel logs, followed by forestry residues, are the largest contributors to hog-fuel production. Hardwoods are used in lower proportions, which may be beneficial because P&P managers have suggested that these materials may not all be available because hardwoods are often used by the local population for personal consumption as firewood. The detailed procurement costs for a single year of optimization were then examined. Figure 9 shows the larger optimization problem results for the integrated procurement costs of both wood chips and hog fuels over the 20-year planning horizon. Inflation was not considered in these results. Each feedstock material in Fig. 9 has two lines: purple and red for chip costs, blue and green for hog fuel costs, but the cost of chips is linked to the cost of hog fuel by each scenario that is run in the optimization model. The “business-as-usual” scenario (red and green lines) describes the results of harvesting using traditional harvesting systems (i.e., the scenario where CTL and FB-CTL harvesting systems are used to harvest all cutblocks) throughout the 20-year time horizon. These lines show the minimum procurement cost to fulfill the P&P mill’s annual demands for both softwood chips and hog fuel. The other two lines (purple and blue) represent the scenario where harvesting system changes occur. This scenario assumes that a progressive switch from CTL and FB-CTL is made towards an FT harvesting system, switching out 50% of the old harvesting systems every five years, so that by year 11, all harvesting is done using the full-tree method. Figure 9 shows that in the businessas-usual scenario, the costs of wood chips and hog fuel stay relatively constant, with slight increases over time. These slight cost increases probably occur because after the
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Fig. 8 - Optimized material types and quantities used to produce hog fuel in year 3.
lower-cost materials or cutblocks are harvested in earlier years, the contractors must move farther away or harvest highercost cutblocks (which may have smaller quantities of the required materials). In the harvesting change scenario, wood chip and hog fuel cost reductions can be observed in the years (6 and 11) when changes from CTL and FB-CTL to an FT harvesting system are made. These reductions offset the increases caused by consumption of the lowest-cost materials and cutblocks and reduce the overall cost of materials by the end of the 20-year planning horizon by 12% for wood chips and 7.5% for hog fuel compared to business-as-usual costs.
The y-axis in Fig. 9 shows cost data for the optimization runs normalized to the non-optimized procurement data provided by the mill. The final 20-year value of 0.64 on the purple line (i.e., a reduction of 36%) for wood chips represents the aggregate cost reductions both because of the optimization model’s re-structuring of the logistical harvesting network and stand selection and because of the cost reductions caused by the harvesting system change. The cost of hog-fuel materials decreases with the switch of harvesting systems by the end of the time horizon, but it is not the only reason for the lower costs of hog fuel. It is important to remind the reader that these hog fuel and wood chip costs
Fig. 9 - Optimized chip and hog-fuel costs for the P&P mill with and without harvesting system change from CTL and FB-CTL to FT in years 6 and 11.
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can be achieved only with integrated harvesting of all materials because the multiple products share costs and in the case of hog fuel, produce a large amount of material at the mill, which helps reduce the overall annual cost of feedstock demands. The results obtained in this study concur with those of other authors [11,17] in finding lower feedstock costs through optimization, but also in the types of decisions made by the model. As in these previous studies, the available storage depot was not used by the optimization due to its larger pre-processing costs. The solution found that hog-fuel materials should either be chipped at forest roadside sites or produced at the P&P mill. In addition, the harvesting system changes concur with the findings of Meléndez [4]. The results demonstrated that using an FT harvesting system instead of CTL or FB-CTL reduces the cost of procuring both residues and wood chip materials. Finally, the results are also in line with [11,18]: transport costs are a major part of total procurement cost and can be significantly reduced using optimization models. The results obtained here have shown that an optimization model enables study of a large integrated harvesting system for delivery of multiple biomass products (i.e., wood chips and hog fuel). With the use of lower-level tactical and operational data, such a model can provide useful information for decision-makers. This makes it possible to evaluate the effects on the forest side of introducing new processes or expanding pulp production. There are, of course, limitations to the use and applicability of this model. The model constructed here does have a very economic-centric focus that may require further assessments focussing on environmental and social benefits. These changes could alter the final harvesting plan and increase the final costs. CONCLUSIONS
Development of a long-term procurement strategy for a P&P mill will bring about changes in processes, technologies, and logistic systems both internally and exter-
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nally to the mill, in the upstream supply chain. Decision-support systems based on optimization models are important tools in this development because they make it possible to assess current practices and examine alternative scenarios. This paper has described and exemplified this planning problem on a real industrial case study and developed an MILP model to tackle the existing problem. An optimization model was used to minimize biomass procurement costs in a current P&P mill and was shown to be able to reduce procurement costs significantly over a 20-year time horizon for the integrated harvesting of both wood chips and hog fuel materials. The optimization model was validated by comparing its results to information for annual harvesting operations from the case study pulp and paper mill and was shown to achieve improvements over current costs. Optimization by itself could reduce costs by as much as 28%, and then a further 8% reduction was accomplished by creating a scenario where contractors moved from their current harvesting systems to full-tree harvesting. The results from this study have been shown to concur with those from previous research by other authors. Although the optimization model was built using a particular case study, many of the principles (and the methodology) behind its development can be applied to other cases. A future development of the research carried out in this paper would be to expand the use of the proposed optimization model to include various P&P mill configuration scenarios that include the introduction of different biorefinery technologies in different time periods, while at the same time winding down newsprint production operations. This type of study will help develop a specific biomass procurement strategy for each biorefinery implementation scenario according to process feedstock requirements. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC)
Environmental Design Engineering Chair and the NSERC Strategic Research Network on Value Chain Optimization for their financial support, as well as Forest Products Innovations (FPInnovations) and Kruger, Inc., personnel at the mill for their cooperation and assistance in this research. REFERENCES 1.
Bradley, D., Canada Report on Bioenergy 2009, Climate Change Solutions, Ottawa, Ontario. 2. Knight, B., Mill Closures Devastate Canada’s Forest Industry, 2006 [cited 2009]; Available from: www.wsws.org. 3. Sessions, J., et al., Harvesting Operations in the Tropics, D. Czeschlik (Ed.), New York: Springer-Verlag (2007). 4. Meléndez, J., Biomass Procurement Cost Minimization for Implementation of a Retrofit Biorefinery in a Pulp and Paper Mill, Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Chemical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Quebec, Canada (2015). 5. Gilmore, D., Supply Chain Optimization versus Simulation, in Supply Chain Digest. 2007: Online Publication. 6. Marques, A.F., Sousa, J.P., and Ronnqvist, M., “Combining Optimization and Simulation Tools for Short-Term Planning of Forest Operations”, Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 29(1): 166–177 (2013). 7. Shapiro, J.F., Modeling the Supply Chain, 2nd ed. Duxbury Applied Series, Cengage Learning: Boston MA (2007). 8. Dansereau, L.P., Cadre de Planification Intégrée de la Chaîne Logistique pour la Gestion et l’Évaluation de Stratégies de Bioraffinage Forestier, Ph.D. Dissertation, Chemical Engineering Department, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Quebec, Canada (2013). 9. D’Amours, S., Rönnqvist, M., and Weintraub, A., “Using Operational Research for Supply Chain Planning in the Forest Product Industry”, INFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research, 46(4): 265–281 (2008). 10. Carlsson, D. and Rönnqvist, M., “Supply Chain Management in Forestry—Case Studies at Sodra Cell AB”, European
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11.
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14.
Journal of Operational Research, 163: 589–616 (2005). Gunnarsson, H., Supply Chain Optimization in the Forest Industry, Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Mathematics, Linköping University: Linköping, Sweden (2007). Weintraub, A. and Epstein, R., The Supply Model in the Forest Industry: Models and Linkages in Supply Chain Management: Models, Applications, and Research Directions, J. Geunes (Ed.), Kluwer: Dordrecht, 343–362 (2002). Feng, Y., et al., Integrated Bio-refinery and Forest Products Supply Chain Network Design using Mathematical Programming Approach, in Integrated Biorefineries: Design, Analysis, and Optimization, M.M. El-Halwagi and P.R. Stuart (Eds.), CRC Press (2012). Chopra, S., Meindl, P., and Kalra, D.V., Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and Operation, 5th ed. Pren-
tice-Hall: New Jersey, USA (2012). 15. D’Amours, S., et al., “Operations Research in the Forestry and Forest Products Industry”, in Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science, 2011. 16. Gunnarsson, H., Rönnqvist, M., and Lundgren, J.T., “Supply Chain Modelling of Forest Fuel”, European Journal of Operational Research, 158: 103–123 (2004). 17. Akhtari, S., Sowlati, T., and Day, K., “Optimal Flow of Regional Forest Biomass to a District Heating System”, International Journal of Energy Research, 38: 954–964 (2014). 18. Flisberg, P., Frisk, M., and Ronnqvist, M., “FuelOpt: A Decision Support System for Forest Fuel Logistics”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 63: 1600–1612 (2012). 19. Shabani, N., Akhtari, S., and Sowlati, T., “Value Chain Optimization of For-
est Biomass for Bioenergy Production: A Review”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 23: 299–311 (2013). 20. Dansereau, L.-P., El-Halwagi, M.M., and Stuart, P.R., “Value-Chain Management Considerations for the Biorefinery”, P.R. Stuart and M.M. El-Halwagi (Eds.)., Integrated Biorefineries Design, Analysis, and Optimization, CRC Press, 195–250 (2012). 21. Moroni, M. and Harris, D.D., Newfoundland Balsam Fir and Black Spruce Forests Described by the Newfoundland Forest Service Permanent Sample Plot and Temporary Sample Plot Data Sets, in Information Report M-X-224E, NRCan, Canadian Forest Service: Fredericton, NB (2011). 22. Briggs, D.G., Forest Products Measurements and Conversion Factors, with Special Emphasis on the U.S. Pacific Northwest, University of Washington: Institute of Forest Resources (1994).
PAPTAC BOOKSTORE! J-FOR - Journal of Science & Technology for Forest Products and Processes JPPS - Journal of Pulp and Paper Science (back issues) Reference Books & Conference Proceedings Standard Testing Methods Engineering Data Sheets
PAPTAC provides a wide source of technical information on a variety of subjects including, textbooks, conference preprint, monographs, standards, data sheets and glossaries and modules.
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Journal of Science & Technology for Forest Products and Processes: VOL. 6, NO. 5
2018
LIGNIN International Conference
September 18-20 Edmonton, Alberta
www.ligninconference.com
F i r s t PA P T A C I n t e r n a t i o n a l L i g n i n C o n f e r e n c e
The First PAPTAC International Lignin Conference will take place in Edmonton, Alberta on September 18-20, 2018. In a site visit during the last day of the conference, attendees will have the opportunity to tour the first installation of the LignoForce SystemTM at the West Fraser, Hinton mill in Alberta, Canada. The purpose of the First PAPTAC International Lignin Conference is to invite researchers to discuss their recent progress in all aspects of lignin chemistry and utilization in any one of several sessions including: • • • • •
Lignin analysis and characterization methodology Lignin extraction from pulping liquors or other biomass processing operations Lignin process integration into pulp mill or other biomass processing operations Lignin depolymerization and/or modification Lignin applications and products
Abstracts for full papers or posters are due by March 1, 2018.
www.paptac.ca
A STUDY OF KRAFT LIGNIN ACID PRECIPITATION IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS USING FOCUSED BEAM REFLECTANCE MEASUREMENT (FBRMÂŽ) ABSTRACT
TOR SEWRING, HANS THELIANDER* This study has measured the evolution of the particle size distribution during acid precipitation of Kraft lignin in aqueous solutions. Sulphuric acid was added to acidify the solutions, and precipitation occurred. The influence of Na+ concentration was investigated, and temperature, lignin concentration, and agitation speed were kept constant throughout the study. The results show that the onset of precipitation, as defined in this work, is strongly dependent on Na+ concentration and pH. Furthermore, a shift in the onset pH was observed if existing particles were filtered off before acidification; this indicates a metastable regime in particle-free solutions. The kinetics of precipitation were found to depend predominantly on the density of existing particles in the liquid at the start of acidification.
INTRODUCTION
Material yield and separation efficiency will be key factors in producing high-value biomaterials from wood in future integrated pulp mills and biorefineries. The main products from the Kraft process today are paper pulps; however, this process offers great opportunities as a platform for integrating lignin separation processes to produce high-purity Kraft lignin. Lignin is a macromolecule consisting of phenylpropan units that is soluble at high pH. Extracting lignin from black liquor may be a first step in extending conventional Kraft pulp mills into biorefineries. Understanding the solubility of Kraft lignin is of utmost importance for stably and efficiently separating lignin from black liquor [1]. One challenge is the heterogeneity of Kraft lignin molecular properties; different molecular-weight fractions of lignin have different degrees of solubility [2]. The solubility and the precipitation process of lignin must be better understood to fine-tune and control precipitation
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towards a certain material property profile and a certain yield. The solubility of Kraft lignin does not, however, involve only separation of lignin from black liquor. Other operations in which lignin solubility is important can be identified throughout the Kraft process, in particular the Kraft cook, pulp washing, black liquor evaporation, and bleaching. Moreover, the conditions in these units are not only very different, but may also change during operation. It has been proposed that the molecules in the high-molecular-weight fraction of Kraft lignin may act as natural nuclei, or be the starting point of macromolecular aggregation forming stable nuclei, as conditions favour precipitation: i.e., they initiate nucleation [3]. Results from a more recent study are in agreement with this description. The precipitation yields of different molecular-weight fractions of softwood Kraft lignin were studied under various precipitation conditions. The results
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TOR SEWRING
Chalmers University of Technology, Wallenberg Wood Science Center SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
HANS THELIANDER
Chalmers University of Technology, Wallenberg Wood Science Center SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden *Contact: hanst@chalmers.se
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of that study showed that the high-molecular-weight fraction precipitates at a higher pH than low-molecular-weight lignin [2]. Once nucleation has occurred, it is likely that the nuclei flocculate to form large aggregate structures. It has also been suggested that sorption precedes aggregation. This implies that lignin of various molecular weights may attach to the surfaces of the nuclei that are formed, regardless of whether the nucleus is a high-molecular-weight lignin molecule or an aggregate. Consequently, the nuclei will grow continuously into larger particles [3]. One study found that under solution conditions of 70°C, 1 mol/L NaCl, and pH 10.5, the precipitation process formed flocs of molecules exhibiting fractal structural patterns and having sizes up to 1–2 µm [3]. In a relatively recent study by Durruty et al. [4], the size distribution and shape of particles in a moist lignin powder produced from precipitated, washed, and filtered softwood lignin were analyzed. It was found that the size of the agglomerates was on average 9 µm and that the agglomerates consisted of smaller particles approximately 2 µm in size. This material had been subjected to a series of operations and hence had experienced a variety of conditions. Nevertheless, the agglomerates were made up of particles about 2 µm in size that were likely formed in the precipitation phase of the lignin in the black liquor [4]. In another relatively recent study [5], particle sizes were measured in softwood Kraft black liquors that had undergone acid precipitation with CO2 at 75°C and a pH of 9.8. The results indicated that agitation had a strong influence on the size and structure of the agglomerates formed, with volume-based median diameters of 11 µm and 19 µm being formed at agitation power levels of 1.0 kW/m3 and 0.1 kW/m3 respectively, although all aggregates were composed of smaller particles 1–2 µm in size. Furthermore, in that study also, the influence of impeller speed on agglomerate size was studied as the suspension matured after acidification. It was found that the agglomerates increased in size as they matured, and the lower the agitation speed, the larger the volume-
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based median diameters of the agglomerates became. The studies described above consistently state that lignin forms agglomerates when precipitated from black liquor and that the agglomerates consist of “primary” particles in the 1–2 µm size range. This work aims to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that govern the precipitation of Kraft lignin in aqueous environments. In acidification tests, the number of particles and their size distribution were measured continuously as the pH was decreased. The influence of sodium concentration was also investigated. THEORY
Kraft Lignin is dissolved at high pH because the phenolic groups are deprotonated and the lignin molecules are hydrophilic enough to be in a solution state. For lignin to precipitate, it must become less hydrophilic: the phenolic groups must be protonated, which occurs if the pH is lowered. As the phenolic groups become protonated, the lignin molecules become less charged, and the repulsive forces weaken. This makes the molecules more hydrophobic, making conditions favourable for the lignin molecules to aggregate and form a solid particle. The precipitation pathway can be divided into the following stages: stable
solution, metastable state, nucleation, growth of primary particles, and finally agglomeration of primary particles forming agglomerates. The stable solution consists of dissolved lignin molecules. At equilibrium conditions, nucleation occurs, the attractive and repulsive forces are of the same magnitude, and nuclei may be formed, but also redissolved. When the equilibrium condition is passed, the attractive forces become larger than the repulsive forces, and stable solid particles are formed. Such particles may grow in size as dissolved lignin molecules become solidified on them, but these particles may also agglomerate, and larger agglomerates are formed. Nucleation is a critical step. Two types of nucleation may be distinguished: homogeneous and heterogeneous. Homogeneous nucleation occurs in a particlefree solution; in this case, at equilibrium condition (the solubility limit), the nuclei that are formed may not be stable. There is, in fact, a concentration range just below the equilibrium condition where nuclei are unstable and no solid phase is formed: this is a so-called metastable zone. Once this zone is passed, stable solid nuclei are formed and start to grow. In heterogeneous nucleation, on the contrary, solid particles and/or very large macromolecules or polymers are present, onto which growth starts directly when the solubility limit is reached.
Fig. 1 - Left: two particles that may be of arbitrary size, but are both considered to be in a stable solid state, agglomerate. Right: particle growth results from macromolecules being sorbed onto the surface of a solid particle.
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The mechanism for particle growth is considered to be sorption of dissolved macromolecules on the surface of a particle that is in a stable solid state, but otherwise of arbitrary size. This mechanism resembles to some extent a kind of particle growth behaviour similar to crystal growth in crystallization theory, i.e., a gradually growing particle. However, it should be pointed out that the growing lignin particles are not crystalline, but amorphous, and are expected to show a fractal structure pattern. Figure 1 illustrates these mechanisms. METHODOLOGY Material and Preparation
The purpose of this study was to increase understanding of the solubility and precipitation of Kraft lignin by investigating its behaviour under known process conditions. Hence, instead of real industrial black liquors, model solutions in which the conditions could be controlled were prepared for the experiments. A LignoBoost™ lignin from a Nordic pulp mill was used as the lignin source in this study. It was dissolved in 1 mol/L NaOH solution prepared with deionized water, and the sodium concentration was adjusted with Na2SO4 ; sodium concentrations of 1, 2, and 4 mol Na+/L was investigated. The lignin was allowed to dissolve for either a short (maximum 4 hours) or a long (maximum 24 hours) period of time. In some cases, after the longer dissolution period, the mixture was also filtered to remove undissolved material from the solution. The filter paper used was a regenerated cellulose-based Sartorius stedim, Type 184, 0.45 µm cut-off. Vacuum filtration was performed in a filter funnel mounted on top of a conical glass flask connected to vacuum suction. The mass of insoluble material that was filtered off was about 1% or less of the total lignin mass. The total mass of the mixtures was never less than 405 g; the lignin concentrations varied slightly from one experiment to another, being in the 9 wt%–10 wt% range with respect to the total mixture mass.
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Experimental Set-Up and Measurement
The precipitation vessel used was a 0.5 L jacketed glass vessel with an inner diameter of 96 mm and an open top. It was equipped with stainless-steel baffles positioned along the walls. In addition, a downflow pitch-blade impeller with a diameter of 50 mm was mounted approximately 15 mm from the bottom. The temperature was controlled by a heating circuit connected to the vessel jacket, thus enabling the interior volume to be heated indirectly; the interior temperature was kept at 45°C during all experiments. A lid covered the open top of the reactor during the experiments except during pH measurement and sampling, as described below. The number and size of particles were measured with a Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement (FBRM) unit, model G400, from Mettler Toledo. This type of equipment is a laser-based technology that uses interference phenomena and back-scattered light to determine the
number and size of particles that pass close to a small window at the tip of a probe [6]. The particles (i.e., primary particles and agglomerates) were not perfectly spherical in this investigation, and therefore the particle size is referred to as the “chord length”, as shown in Fig. 2. This device measures and reports sizes in the 1–1000 µm range. The chord selection method defined for the measurements was “primary” (i.e., fines), which focusses the chord-length resolution at the fine-particle end of the detectable size interval. The probe was positioned with the tip pointing towards the leading side of a baffle, at an angle of approximately 35° to the direction of flow, yet relatively close to the impeller blades. The agitation rate was 150 rpm for all experiments. In an industrial case, CO2 is used to lower the pH. However, if CO2 is used to decrease the pH, there will likely be gas bubbles in the solution, which could contaminate the results obtained from the chord-length distribution measurements. Therefore,
Fig. 2 - The chord length in A is also the diameter of a sphere. The chord length in B is the same as in A, but lies across the projection of an ellipsoid. C illustrates the probability of finding a measured chord length in three chord-length bins with bin width 2x. The bin intervals are: 0–CL 1, CL 1–CL 2, and CL 2–CL 3. The relationships between the areas in the circle (distinguished by the bin edges CL 1–3) illustrate the probabilities of measuring a chord length belonging to one of these three bins.
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6 M sulphuric acid was chosen as the proton source. The pH was measured at various times during the experiment by sampling approximately 10 ml suspension from the vessel, cooling it to approximately 25°C, and measuring the pH with a pH meter calibrated at room temperature. The sample was then re-heated and returned to the precipitation vessel. The mixing conditions in the vessel must be good to make the sample representative of the suspension volume as a whole because the probe measures only in a local zone. The following test was carried out to confirm that the liquid could be assumed to be well-mixed: deionized water, prepared with the pH indicator phenolphthalein, was pH-adjusted with NaOH and sulphuric acid to a pH of 11.7, resulting in a solution that was pink in colour. 190 µL of 6 M sulphuric acid was then added and the change in colour of the solution recorded by video. The pink colour of the entire solution turned completely transparent ten seconds after acid addition when a pH of 8.7 was reached, implying well-mixed conditions. In this study, the point at which precipitation starts is called the “onset of precipitation”, which is defined as the point when particle or agglomerate formation is observed from the base-line count level. In addition, the particles formed must never again dissolve during the experiment, as shown in Fig. 3. The onset of precipitation corresponds to a certain pH, which may vary with temperature and with concentrations of ion species and lignin. A “time scale of precipitation” is also defined as the duration of the rapid kinetic precipitation phase that follows the onset of precipitation, as shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3 - Definition of the “onset of precipitation” and the “time scale of precipitation” used in this study. The curve indicates the increase in particle count during the experiments.
RESULTS Onset of Precipitation
Figure 4 shows a plot of the pH at “onset of precipitation” versus the total number of particles larger than 1 µm (before acidification), measured as the total initial count (#/s) recorded with the FBRM. The results clearly show that the sodium ion concentration influences solubility
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Fig. 4 - Onset pH as a function of the sum of all counts of all length classes, measured at the initial sampling point. Filtered experiments are indicated by asterisks.
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significantly. According to the data, the largest change in solubility, which was about one pH unit, was observed between 1 and 2 mol Na+/L. The change in the onset pH between 2 and 4 mol Na+/L was significantly smaller. The results highlight the importance of taking into consideration the pH and ionic strength in the various unit operations where lignin solubility may be a limiting factor. Furthermore, the data points close to zero counts (marked with asterisks) were filtered before acidification. As mentioned in the “Materials and Preparationâ€? section, the filter paper used had a pore size of 0.45 Âľm, and the chordcount measurements showed in principle zero counts (within the experimental error). It may therefore be assumed that the solution in this case is homogeneous. There is an obvious difference in the onset pH between the experiments that were precipitated from filtered (homogeneous) solutions and those precipitated from unfiltered solutions. A plausible explanation is a difference in nucleation mechanism: in the filtered solutions, the mechanism is likely to be homogeneous nucleation, whereas in the case of unfiltered solutions, it is heterogeneous nucleation. The zone between these is therefore likely to be a metastable zone. However, it is reasonable to assume that the process streams in a pulp mill contain small particles, which implies that the metastable regime state most likely will not exist. Consequently, in an industrial situation, the higher pH values at each sodium concentration are more likely to be valid.
lute count values are very different during the precipitation phase (Fig. 6), and therefore each distribution was normalized by the largest value in that particular distri-
bution, as shown in Fig. 7. Scaling the distribution in this way enables the relative abundance of particles in each chordlength class to be compared with other
Fig. 5 - Experiment performed under harsh acidification. Dashed red line: onset of precipitation. Green and pink lines: guiding time stamps for the chord-length distributions given in Figs. 6 and 7, ( 2 mol Na/l).
Nucleation, Growth, and Agglomeration
Figure 5 shows data from an experiment in which the acid was added all at once. The pH decreased relatively rapidly, and a distinct onset of precipitation was observed, followed by fast formation of particles of varying sizes. In Fig. 5, the onset of precipitation is marked by a dashed red line, and two guiding lines (green and pink) mark two times that are related to chordlength distributions; these are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. The magnitudes of the abso-
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Fig. 6 - Chord-length distributions for the data set in Fig. 5.
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distributions, regardless of the magnitude of absolute count values. A shift towards larger particles may be due to the attachment of much smaller particles to each other or onto existing agglomerates and/or to sorption of dissolved lignin macromolecules. The fine particle fraction of the distribution remained almost the same during the first 16 minutes after onset, whereas the large particle fraction increased in relative abundance during precipitation. This observation may possibly be explained by simultaneous nucleation and the attachment of small particles and/or sorption of dissolved molecules onto larger particles, as described above. After a further 20 minutes, i.e., 36 min after onset, the normalized distribution shifted further towards larger particles. The relative abundance of fine particles decreased, indicating a change in nucleation mechanisms or kinetics. This may have occurred because the amount of dissolved lignin decreased during precipitation. Moreover, the molecular weight of the dissolved lignin decreased because the high-molecular-weight lignin precipitated first [2]. It is also very likely that growth of primary particles was influenced both by lignin concentration and by the molecular weight of the remaining dissolved lignin. Furthermore, it is likely that agglomeration and attrition or breakage phenomena also influenced the course of events during particle formation. The net effect of those two opposing mechanisms may depend on agglomerate particle stability at a given pH. Figure 8 shows the results from an experiment where acidification was gentle (i.e., more or less dropwise and with at least an apparent equilibrium in terms of stable pH in the liquid) and the rate at which the pH decreased towards the onset pH was very slow. The precipitation phase following onset was much smoother than the earlier case shown in Fig. 5. One interpretation could be that the system in Fig. 8 had time to equilibrate after each addition of acid, which was not the case in Fig. 5. Over the course of precipitation, the normalized distributions in Fig. 9 are seen to
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overlap to a large extent, which means that the net rates of formation of particles of all measurable size classes are approximately the same.
Following from the discussion regarding Figs. 5–7, the normalized distribution can be expected to shift with time towards larger particles as growth proceeds.
Fig. 7 - Normalized chord-length distributions from Fig. 6. Each distribution is normalized by the largest value in the distribution.
Fig. 8 - Experiment performed under gentle acidification. Dashed red line: onset of precipitation. Green and pink lines: guiding time stamps for the chord-length distributions given in Figs. 9 and 10, 2 mol Na/l) .
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Assuming that nucleation and growth govern precipitation, at least one phenomenon must counter-balance particle growth, and at a fairly similar rate. As mentioned earlier, both agglomeration and attrition or breakage are likely to have an effect, influencing the course of particle formation and the resulting particle size distributions. By comparing the distributions in Figs. 7 and 10, it is apparent that the particles are larger at the end of the experiment for the case with lower pH and harsh acidification (all acid added at once). One possible explanation could therefore be that the lower pH stabilized the formed agglomerates and consequently shifted the particle size distribution towards larger particles. Quite interesting in both cases is that the pH value slowly decreased throughout all the experiments. This was most obvious in the case where the acid was added all at once, but could also be observed when the acid was added gently. Obviously, protons had been released from the lignin, but the reason for this is not known. From the description above, it is obvious that lignin precipitation is very complex and that a number of process parameters influence the course of events. The pH and dissolved lignin concentration of dissolved lignin macromolecules are obviously two crucial parameters, and changes in overall particle formation kinetics are likely to occur when these two parameters change during precipitation. Figure 11 shows the time scale of precipitation (see definition in Fig. 3) versus total initial count (resembling the density of existing particles in the solution). The Na+ concentration varied in the 2.1–2.2 mol Na+/L range between the experiments shown in Fig. 11. These results show that the precipitation kinetics depend predominantly on the density of existing particles in the solution. A possible explanation could be that existing particles provide initial surface areas on which agglomeration and particle growth can occur. In addition, an indication of shorter precipitation time scales with increasing difference in pH can be observed as well, but this must be further investigated. The pH difference is defined here as the differ-
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ence between the precipitation onset pH and the pH obtained after the time lapse corresponding to the time scale of precipitation, as shown in Fig. 3.
Overall, the changes in chord-length distribution during precipitation suggest that simultaneous nucleation and particle growth and/or agglomeration are
Fig. 9 - Chord-length distributions for the dataset in Fig. 8.
Fig. 10 - Normalized chord-length distributions from Fig. 9. Each distribution is normalized by the largest value in the distribution.
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reasonable candidates for dominating mechanisms during precipitation at the conditions studied. As mentioned earlier, it should be stressed that attrition or breakage may also exert an influence. The experimental results obtained do not provide a further detailed description of the particle formation process, although the explanation given here is in line with previous studies [3,5]. Furthermore, the analysis performed in this work motivates continued studies that will aim to develop a modelling approach that investigates these mechanisms more rigorously and captures most of the behaviour observed in the data in quantitative form. CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained in this work indicate that the solubility of Kraft lignin is strongly dependent on both pH and Na+ concentration. Moreover, the existence of particles before acidification results in a shift in the onset pH, thereby indicating the existence of a metastable regime if no particles are present in solution. The previous existence of particles also influences precipitation kinetics. The evolution of the chord-length distribution of particles larger than 1 µm indicates that simultaneous nucleation, particle growth, and/or agglomeration are reasonable candidates for dominating mechanisms during the precipitation experiments undertaken in this investigation. However, the changes observed in the distribution during the precipitation phase indicate that attrition and/or breakage probably occur as well.
Fig. 11 - Time scale of precipitation vs. total initial count (#/s) at the first time point in each dataset. The numbers above the marks are the differences in pH between the precipitation onset pH and the pH after an additional time corresponding to the time scale of precipitation, as shown in Fig. 3.
REFERENCES 1.
2.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation is gratefully acknowledged for financial support.
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3.
Wallmo, H., Richards, T., Theliander, H., “An Investigation of Process Parameters during Lignin Precipitation from Kraft Black Liquors: A Step towards an Optimised Precipitation Operation”, Nordic Pulp and Paper Research Journal 24(2):J158–164 (2009). Zhu, W., Westman, G., Theliander, H. “Lignin Separation from Kraft Black Liquor by Combined Ultrafiltration and Precipitation: A Study of Solubility of Lignin with Different Molecular Properties”, Nordic Pulp & Paper Research Journal, 31(2):J270–278 (2016). Norgren, M., Edlund, H., Wågberg, L., “Aggregation of Lignin Derivatives under Alkaline Conditions: Kinetics
4.
5.
6.
and Aggregate Structure”, Langmuir, 18(7):J2859–2865 (2002). Durruty, J., Mattsson, T., Theliander, H., “Local and Average Filtration Properties of Kraft Softwood Lignin”, Nordic Pulp and Paper Research Journal, 30(1):J132– 140 (2015). Kannangara, M., Marinova, M., Fradette, L., Paris, J., “Effect of Mixing Hydrodynamics on the Particle and Filtration Properties of Precipitated Lignin”, Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 105:J94–J106 (2016). Mettler Toledo, http://www.mt.com/ dam/product_organizations/autochem/G400-A404.pdf, retrieved 26 March 2017.
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LEAGILE STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION FOR SUPPLYING FOREST RAW MATERIALS TO THE BIOECONOMY ABSTRACT
SHUVA GAUTAM*, LUC LEBEL This study proposes to use a leagile strategy in wood procurement systems (WPS) to improve their capacity to deliver raw materials to a diverse set of manufacturers in the bioeconomy. Leagile is a hybrid of two approaches, lean and agile, that entails strategically locating decoupling points based on the demand volatility of the product. The focus upstream of the decoupling point is on efficiency, whereas the downstream emphasis is on responsiveness. However, implementing a leagile strategy is a challenge in WPS because they are characterized by divergent flows. Large volumes of co-products and by-products are generated at multiple locations along the supply chain, making it difficult to implement a specific strategy. A potential method to alleviate this problem is by permitting flexibility in silvicultural decisions that dictate the mix of assortments produced in the forest. Subsequently, implementing a leagile strategy would enable the WPS to satisfy demand efficiently. The objective of this study was to quantify the WPS performance improvement attainable through (i) implementing a leagile approach and (ii) permitting flexibility in silvicultural decisions. An optimization model was developed to support preparation of monthly plans that satisfy demands from a diverse set of customers in the bioeconomy. Implementation of the model in a case study demonstrated a 3.4% increase in profit attributable to the leagile strategy. Permitting silvicultural flexibility further increased profit by another 3.8%.
INTRODUCTION
The emerging bioeconomy provides the forest products industry with an opportunity to improve its competitiveness in the global marketplace [1]. The industry holds a strategic advantage because wood fibre is one of the primary raw materials fuelling the bioeconomy. The bioeconomy provides an opportunity for the industry to diversify without impacting supply to its existing manufacturing facilities. Harvesting a forest for a specific type of raw material generally yields an array of coproducts and by-products. These co-products and by-products could be directed towards value-added production in the bioeconomy to complement commodity production. In fact, in certain situations, procuring the targeted product is financially infeasible without generating value from the by-products [2]. Nevertheless, managing logistics to deliver raw material to different manufacturing plants is a challenge for wood procurement systems (WPS). It is particularly challenging for
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WPS to supply to both commodity and value-added producers simultaneously [3]. Commodities and value-added products are vastly different in terms of their business attributes. The primary focus must be on cost reduction when delivering raw material to commodity manufacturers. On the other hand, value-added products are characterized by greater demand volatility and a shorter time window in which to respond to demand [4]. Hence, raw material availability and delivery timing are of greater importance for value-added producers. Given the distinct attributes of commodity and value-added manufacturers, wood procurement systems must develop operating strategies accordingly. A lean strategy enables the WPS to supply raw material to commodity producers at low cost. The lean concept was popularized by the Toyota production system (TPS). Lean production emphasizes reduction of waste or muda [5]; as such, it is related to
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LUC LEBEL
Faculté de foresterie, de géographie, et de géomatique, Pavillon AbitibiPrice, Université Laval, Qc, Canada
SHUVA GAUTAM
Faculté de foresterie, de géographie, et de géomatique, Pavillon AbitibiPrice, Université Laval, Qc, Canada *Contact: shuva-hari.gautam.1@ulaval.ca
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zero inventory and the just-in-time approach. An agile strategy is more effective in supplying to value-added producers where the priority is on service. Agility as a business concept was popularized through publication of the 21st Century Manufacturing Enterprise strategy by the Iacocca institute of Lehigh University in 1991 [6,7]. In the WPS context, agility has been defined as “the ability of wood procurement systems to respond promptly and effectively to unexpected short-term fluctuations in demand” [8]. “Cost” is the market winner in the lean paradigm, whereas it is “availability” for agility. However, strictly implementing one or the other strategy is often ineffective, meaning that a hybrid strategy is required [9]. This hybrid strategy has been called the leagile strategy [10]. For both product types, there is uncertainty associated with demand. Uncertainty generally increases upstream in the supply chain and decreases downstream [11]. To overcome the issue of uncertainty, manufacturing and stocking of inventory is postponed to a point along the supply chain where demand uncertainty is deemed acceptably low. This point in the supply chain is referred to as the decoupling point [12]. According to the leagile strategy, a lean approach should be adopted up to the decoupling point, focussing on production efficiency to minimize costs [10]. Subsequently, downstream of the decoupling point, an agile strategy should be implemented to respond to changing demand. Furthermore, because the degree of demand uncertainty along the supply chain differs for value-added and commodity products, their decoupling points should be placed accordingly. This approach partitions the supply chain to take advantage of both lean and agile strategies. Originally developed by Naylor et al. (1999) [13], the leagile strategy has been applied in numerous contexts. Herer et al. (2002) [14] presented a case for the role of transshipments in achieving leagility. Towill & Christopher (2002) [15] presented various strategies for operationalizing the concept. The strategies include separating
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“base” and “surge” demand, “segregating agile and lean products”, and “variety at reasonable cost”. Applications of these strategies were demonstrated in three case studies. Winker and Rudber (2005) [16] expanded the application of the concept outside the production environment to incorporate the product engineering phase. Goldsby et al. (2006) [17] used simulation methods to operationalize lean, agile, and leagile strategies in the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) industry. Simulation results demonstrated that the leagile strategy could achieve lower enterprise-wide inventory. Krishnamurthy and Yauch (2007) [18] applied the concept in a corporate setting where a decoupling point separates the sales and services departments from the production department. Gaudenzi and Christopher (2016) [19] applied the concept to a case study of a global telecommunications company and deduced that the leagile strategy reduced overall costs while improving responsiveness. To the authors’ knowledge, the leagile strategy has not been studied in the context of the forest products supply chain. Implementing a leagile strategy is particularly challenging in this supply chain, which is characterized by divergent processes, with large volumes of co-products and by-products being generated at multiple points along the supply chain [20]. Furthermore, the array of assortments produced from forest units depends on silvicultural decisions, which are made before market demand is known [21]. As a result, co-products and by-products are generated, making it difficult for WPS managers to execute a specific operating strategy. Flexibility in the choice of silvi-
cultural treatment at the operating level would give WPS managers greater control over the assortments produced in the forest [22]. Hence, it can be hypothesized that implementing a leagile strategy in addition to permitting silvicultural flexibility at the operating level will improve WPS performance. The objective of this study is to quantify the improvement in supply-chain performance obtained by (i) implementing a leagile approach and (ii) permitting flexibility in silvicultural decisions. Method
This research was carried out from the perspective of a WPS that is responsible for supplying raw materials to a number of forest companies. It was assumed that the WPS is a subdivision of one of the larger forest companies. Due to the heterogeneity of the forest, the company does not have demand for all the assortments produced by the WPS. Hence, the WPS seeks to maximize profit by supplying raw materials to other manufacturers in the region. This situation can be characterized as a multi-product, multi-industry problem with divergent flow. Although some of the companies can be characterized as commodity manufacturers, others fall into the category of value-added producers, each with a demand for raw materials of different specifications. It was assumed that the WPS had a contract in place with certain companies to deliver specific volumes of wood over a time horizon. The business model in these circumstances can be termed vendor-managed inventory. Demand from other manufacturers was assumed to emerge sporadically in the spot market. Figure 1 illustrates the pathways
Fig. 1 - Material flow pathways of the wood procurement system considered in this study.
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through which the raw material flows. On the supply side, a number of cutblocks are available for harvest in the forest. A cutblock is a unit of forest area for which a harvesting and regeneration treatment is prescribed. Each cutblock will produce a different mix of raw material assortments depending on the silvicultural treatment applied to it. On the demand side, the various mills demand one or several of the assortments produced. The WPS must satisfy as much demand as possible to maximize profit. Given the uncertainty in demand, there is an imbalance in the production and consumption of raw materials. Hence, the WPS must also make a decision on the inventory of raw material assortments to be stored along the supply chain. There are two potential locations for storing inventory: (i) at the roadside next to cutblocks, or (ii) at a mill yard next to manufacturing mills. A mathematical model was developed to help the WPS make these decisions; a detailed description of the model is provided in the next section.
TABLE 2 Notation Vhsa Pam C B Dhi Ehi Fa L G J K Ni H Otm L Otm Qh Qi Ym
Description of parameters used in the mathematical model.
Description Volume of assortment a available in cutblock h under silvicultural treatment s (m³) Price paid by mill m for assortment a ($∙m-³) Harvest cost per cubic meter ($∙m-³) Harvest capacity per period (m³) Distance between cutblock h and mill yard i (km) Travelling speed between cutblock h and mill yard i (km∙hr-1) Stumpage fee charged by the government for assortment a ($∙m-³) Cost to load logs to trucks ($∙m-³) Hourly cost charged by trucks to transport logs ($∙hr-1) Maximum transportation capacity of trucks per trip (m³) Fixed cost incurred to harvest a cutblock ($) Inventory capacity in mill yard i (m³) Maximum demand of mill m in period t (m³) Minimum demand of mill m in period t (m³) Cost to store inventory in cutblock h ($∙m-³) Cost to store inventory in mill yard i ($∙m-³) Proportion of log converted to sawdust by mill m
Maximize profit =
(1) Constraints (2)
Mathematical Model
The mathematical model aims to maximize profit by fulfilling demand from the mills. Tables 1 and 2 respectively present a description of the datasets and parameters used in the model, and Table 3 describes the decisions supported by the model. The objective of the model is to maximize profit (Eq. (1)). The first element of the objective function represents the revenue generated through fulfilling demand. The remaining elements represent the various costs incurred in fulfilling demand. These include the fixed cost to access cutblocks, harvesting cost, inventory cost, transportation cost, and stumpage fees paid to landowners.
(3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
TABLE 1 Notation T A H S I M
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Description of sets used in the mathematical model. Description Set of time periods t Set of assortments a Set of cutblocks h Set of silvicultural treatments s Set of mill yards i Set of mills m
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TABLE 3 Notation xths uthai utiam rtha rtia wtm ztmi
Decision variables of the mathematical model.
Description 1 if cutblock h is harvested using silvicultural treatment s in period t, 0 otherwise Flow of assortment a from cutblock h to mill yard i in period t (m³) Flow of assortment a from mill yard i to mill m in period t (m³) Inventory of assortment a in cutblock h in period t (m³) Inventory of assortment a in mill yard i in period t (m³) Residue generated in mill m in period t (m³) Flow of residue from mill m to mill yard i in period t (m³)
Equations (2) through (12) represent the constraints imposed on the model. Equation (2) states that the total volume extracted from each cutblock cannot exceed the volume available. Equations (3) and (4) represent flow conservation constraints for cutblocks and mill yards respectively. Equation (5) ensures that the inventory kept in each of the mill yards does not exceed the maximum storage capacity in any period. The volume harvested per period is kept at or below the maximum harvest capacity by Eq. (6). The flow of raw materials is constrained to be within the maximum (Eq. (7)) and minimum value (Eq. (8)) demanded by each mill. Equation (9) limits the silvicultural prescription to one treatment per cutblock. The flow of residues produced in the manufacturing processes is regulated by Eq. (10). Finally, Eqs. (11) and (12) assign binary restrictions and non-negativity constraints to the respective variables. Experiment
An experiment was carried out to assess the potential benefits of implementing the leagile strategy and providing flexibility in silvicultural decision-making. A number of scenarios were developed to represent the various strategies for managing a wood procurement system. The model presented above was implemented in each scenario. The scenarios were hypothetical, developed based on data received from a forest products company operating in the boreal mixed-wood forest region of Quebec, Canada. The planning horizon in the experiment was one year, with 12 one-month periods. Plans were executed according to a rolling planning horizon. At the start of each period, a plan was developed for the entire horizon using knowledge of demand for the upcoming period
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and forecasts for the remaining periods. Only the plan developed for the upcoming period was executed. Subsequently, a new plan was developed using updated demand and forecast information at the start of the next period. This process was continued until the end of the planning horizon. The following sub-sections provide further information on the data and scenarios used in the experiment. Case study parameters
Fifty cutblocks were generated for the experiment, each with different proportions of the following raw material assortments: (i) spruce, pine, and fir (SPF) suitable for lumber as well as pulp and paper production, (ii) deciduous species with demand from OSB mills, (iii) high-grade pine suitable for producing superior-grade lumber with aesthetic requirements, (iv) high-grade hardwood suitable for manufacturing premium-quality furniture, and (v) biomass representing treetops and branches and suitable for bioenergy production. Five silTABLE 4 Silvicultural Treatment Default Treatment 1 Treatment 2 Treatment 3 Treatment 4
Total volume of wood (m³) available in the forest by product assortment and silvicultural treatment.
Spruce, Pine, and Fir 348,528 139,413 104,560 186,313 138,973
TABLE 5
vicultural treatments were made available for each of the cutblocks; the volumes of raw material assortments available in the different cutblocks were a function of the silvicultural treatment prescribed (Table 4). The volumes in the cutblocks ranged from 810 m³ to 31,737 m³, with an average of approximately 9,500 m³. The total cost to fell, forward to roadside, and load the products into the trucks for transportation was assumed to be $11.2∙m-³. It was assumed that trucking companies charged an hourly rate of $125∙hr-1 for transportation. The total transportation cost was a function of the distances between mills and cutblocks. The average round-trip distance from a mill to a cutblock was 80 km. Stumpage cost charged by the provincial government varied based on product type as follows: (i) SPF - $15∙m-³, (ii) deciduous - $6∙m-³, (iii) high-grade pine - $30∙m-³, (iv) high-grade hardwood - $30∙m-³, and (v) biomass grade - $0.5∙m-³. For each of the raw material assortments described in the previous section, there was demand from at least one of the six manufacturing plants, as shown in the first column of Table 5. Precise information on the raw material assortments accepted and the prices paid by mills is provided in the second column. The prices are an estimate based on values published in [23]. The third column shows the volatility in the monthly demand
Deciduous 215,013 86,007 64,505 68,889 163,570
High-Grade Pine 1,669 668 506 1,669 1,669
High-Grade Hardwood 27,361 10,937 8,207 27,361 27,361
Biomass
Total
23,734 9,478 7,103 11,855 11,855
592,571 237,025 177,778 284,232 331,573
Raw material specifications demanded by different manufacturers.
Type of mill Sawmill
Products accepted & price paid ($) - SPF ($60∙m-³) - High-grade pine ($60∙m-³) Pulp and paper mill - SPF ($30∙m-³) - High-grade pine ($30∙m-³) OSB plant - Deciduous species ($43∙m-³) - High-grade hardwood ($43∙m-³) Bioenergy producer - All products as well as residue from sawmills ($25∙m-³) High-grade lumber producer - High-grade pine ($120∙m-³) Furniture manufacturer - High-grade hardwood ($120∙m-³)
Demand volatility N/A N/A 40%* 30%* 50%* 60%*
*Demand is assumed to be randomly distributed with a standard deviation that is a percentage of the forecasted volume.
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expressed by each of the mills. The values were estimates based on data published in [24–26]. For mills with no demand volatility, it was assumed that the WPS had a contract in place to deliver a minimum and a maximum volume. For mills without a contract, the WPS attempted to fulfill as much of the fluctuating demand as possible to maximize profit. Scenario development
Four scenarios were developed to simulate the various strategies by which a wood procurement system can be managed (Table 6). The scenarios were developed based on two factors: i) silvicultural flexibility and ii) leagile strategy. The four scenarios make it possible to isolate the benefits associated with each of the factors. Silvicultural flexibility implies that decisions on treatments can be reconsidered at the operating level once demand is known. Leagile strategy means using different pipelines to supply products with dissimilar characteristics. The distinguishing feature between the different pipelines is the location of the decoupling point, which is influenced by the characteristics of the products being supplied. This means that in scenarios using the leagile strategy, different inventory policies are devised based on assortment types. More specifically, the decision to store inventory of a particular assortment along the supply chain is a function of its demand volatility. Details on the inventory policies adopted in scenarios with and without the leagile strategy are provided in the next section. Inventory policy
Inventory could be stored at two locations: (i) at the roadside, next to the cutblocks, or (ii) in log yards adjacent to the consuming mills. It was assumed that the inventory capacity at the roadside of each cutblock was greater than the volume available in TABLE 6
Summary of the scenarios developed for the experiment.
Scenario 1 2 3 4
Silvicultural flexibility No No Yes Yes
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Leagile strategy No Yes No Yes
TABLE 7
Inventory rules followed to implement the leagile strategy.
Raw material assortment Biomass Deciduous High-Grade Pine High-Grade Hardwood
Percentage of base monthly demand in inventory (%) Minimum Maximum 50 25 60 50 20 10 10 5
the cutblock. However, for mill log yards, a maximum inventory holding capacity was assumed. A WPS manager must decide on the actual inventory that should be maintained along the supply chain. To determine these levels in the experiment, the model was run 10 times under different demand scenarios without a constraint on inventory levels; the physical inventory holding capacity constraints of the mill yards were in place. The results from these runs helped determine the range of inventory levels needed to achieve an optimal solution. Based on the results obtained, minimum and maximum inventory levels were determined. In all scenarios, the inventory had to be between these minimum and maximum values. The following paragraphs describe in greater detail the differences between non-leagile and leagile strategies. In scenarios where a leagile strategy is implemented, the inventory policy varies based on demand volatility. In general, for assortments with low demand volatility, larger inventory quantities were maintained, and the inventory was placed closer to the manufacturing mills. Hence, the decoupling point was closer to the consumer. For assortments with higher demand volatility, less inventory was kept, and the decoupling point was placed further away from the manufacturing mills. For assortments with extremely volatile demand (high-grade pine and hardwood), the strategy adopted was essentially maketo-order. The first step in developing a policy was to determine the quantity of each assortment to place in inventory. The subsequent steps entailed determining how the quantity should be spread across the supply chain. Table 7 shows the rules that were adopted; the second and third
Inventory location (% of total inventory) Roadside Mill yard 0 100 40 60 90 10 100 0
columns show the minimum and maximum quantity of each assortment to place in inventory per period. The fourth and fifth columns show the quantities placed at different locations along the supply chain. In scenarios without a leagile strategy, constraints on inventory were not explicit in terms of the assortment types. Demand volatility levels of the different assortments were not taken into consideration. Nevertheless, constraints were in place to ensure that the total inventory both at roadside and mill yards remained between the minimum and maximum values discussed earlier. Hence, the total volume of inventory in the supply chain under the scenarios with and without a leagile strategy had to be within the same range. The only difference was that, under the leagile strategy, constraints were made more explicit to define in more detail how much inventory of certain assortments should be placed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The mathematical model was coded in the AMPL modelling language and solved by CPLEX 12.5 in a 3.07-GHz PC with 12 GB RAM. One iteration of the case study contained 17,292 linear variables, 2,500 binary variables, and 3,550 constraints. Figures 2 and 3 show the profits obtained in each period under the various scenarios. Average profit under scenarios with neither a leagile approach nor silvicultural flexibility was $783,337 per period. Actual profit is likely to vary based on road construction costs as well as on the schedules prepared to harvest the cutblocks. Nevertheless, given that the cost structure remained consistent in all cases, the
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experiment does provide a sound basis for comparing the different scenarios. Adoption of the leagile approach contributed to an increase in profit by an average of 3.4% (Fig. 2). Allowing silvicultural flexibility increased profit by an average of 3.8% (Fig. 3). Hence, the combination of the leagile approach and silvicultural flexibility increased profit by an average of 7.2%. Demand fulfillment rates were 100% in all scenarios. Approximately 386,000 m³ of wood was delivered to various mills over the 10-month horizon. As stated earlier, only about 45% of this volume was subject to volatility; it is expected that profit increases would be greater if this percentage were higher. A further assumption was made that all cutblocks could be accessed at any time period. The validity of the assumption for a given scenario will depend on the status of the access roads as well as on management practices. It is important to incorporate such intricacies during realworld implementation. Incorporating this enhancement would be straightforward using the model as presented. Figure 4 illustrates the total inventory volume per period under each scenario. The minimum and maximum inventory volumes permitted under each of the scenarios were 6,625 m³ and 9,253 m³ respectively. Differences in average inventory levels between the scenarios were minimal; the average inventory volume per period in all scenarios was approximately 7,000 m³. This raises the important question of precisely what contributed to the profit increase observed in the scenarios with the leagile approach. The only difference among the scenarios was the assortment mix of the inventory kept at different points along the supply chain. Under the leagile approach, the decision on the assortment mix was based on demand volatility in the marketplace. Not incorporating demand volatility information during inventory decision-making would have led to two situations that would have reduced profit. The first is that inventories of certain assortments would have been kept in the system, but did not serve to fulfill volatile demand, thus adding cost without generating revenue. The second is that
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overlap to a large extent, which means that the net rates of formation of particles of all measurable size classes are approximately the same.
Following from the discussion regarding Figs. 5–7, the normalized distribution can be expected to shift with time towards larger particles as growth proceeds.
Fig. 2 - Profit comparison in scenarios with and without leagile strategy.
Fig. 3 - Profit comparison in scenarios with and without silvicultural flexibility.
Fig. 4 - Inventory levels maintained by the wood procurement system under different scenarios.
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demand for a certain assortment might have materialized, in a case where the assortment was not stored in inventory, forcing the WPS to satisfy demand directly from the forest. In the forest, however, a particular assortment cannot be selectively procured; the entire cutblock must be harvested. This forces the WPS to carry an inventory of assortments that are not immediately demanded in the market, consequently accruing cost. This impact was alleviated in scenarios with silvicultural flexibility, as demonstrated by the profit increase of 3.8%. Silvicultural flexibility permits the WPS to achieve a better alignment of assortments harvested in the forest with products demanded in the market [22]. The results of the experiment corroborate the advantages of the leagile approach as discussed in Naylor et al. (1999) [10] and Mason-Jones et al. (2000) [4]. The leagile strategy will prove to be essential for the WPS as it positions itself to serve the various sectors in the emerging bioeconomy. The profit increases associated with the leagile strategy will likely increase further when lead times are taken into consideration [27,28]. The experiment in this study assumed that orders could be placed and fulfilled in the same period; however, the actual lead times in a WPS will vary based on a number of factors. The element of lead time brings into question the choice of the placement of decoupling points in the experiment. It could be argued that for value-added products requiring shorter lead times, the decoupling point needs to be closer to the market. However, from a cash-flow perspective, making investment early in high-volatility products can erode profit margins. Each phase of harvesting, felling, processing, storage, and transportation incurs significant cost. Hence, adopting a make-to-order strategy for value-added products and a make-tostock strategy for commodities increases the probability that inventory contributes to increased revenue [29]. Nevertheless, lead time for value-added products must still be kept at an acceptable level. This can be achieved through integrated planning, collaboration, use of information technol-
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ogy, flexibility in supply, and access to a wide range of logistics options to harvest and transport raw materials to manufacturers [8]. The inventory policies developed in the experiment represent only one of many potential arrangements. Additional decoupling points should be considered by decision-makers, particularly to deal with seasonality. The industry is generally also exposed to uncertainty and seasonality on the supply side [30]. A satellite yard can help the WPS overcome the impacts of seasonality [31], but the main concern with incorporating a satellite yard is the cost it adds to the supply chain [32]. However, the added cost could be offset by using more efficient transportation systems, which is logistically possible through access to a satellite yard [33]. In the same context, there is growing interest in establishing centralized merchandizing yards to improve WPS capacity to supply raw materials to a diverse set of manufacturers [34,35]. A centralized merchandizing yard would essentially equate to having one decoupling point in the supply chain. The experimental results reported here suggest that it may be more profitable to place inventory at different points along the supply chain to take advantage of the leagile approach. The utility of a merchandizing yard must therefore be further assessed in light of the results obtained in this study. CONCLUSIONS
This research was carried out to quantify the benefits of the leagile strategy for wood procurement systems. The leagile strategy has not been studied in the forest industry context, despite the fact that forest product supply chains are characterized by divergent processes yielding large volumes of co-products and by-products. Nevertheless, the strategy will be essential as the industry strives to supply raw material to a diverse set of manufacturers in the bioeconomy. The experiment conducted in this study demonstrated significant improvement in performance that was attributable to the leagile approach and to silvicultural flexibility. Furthermore, the
performance improvement observed did not require additional capital investment. Its implementation in practice will, however, require greater managerial attention and investment in information technology to keep track of inventory spread across the supply chain. Further research should be carried out to determine the managerial and organizational capacities required to implement a leagile strategy in the WPS context. The inventory policies developed in the experiment were based on a generalization of leagile theory. In-depth market analysis of various products should be conducted to devise effective inventory policies that maximize benefits. Subsequently, experiments should be conducted to determine the level of flexibility that managers have to deviate from the policies and still attain the reported gains. REFERENCES 1.
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27, 57–80 (Blackwell, 2006). 18. Krishnamurthy, R. and Yauch, C.A., “Leagile Manufacturing: A Proposed Corporate Infrastructure,” Int. J. Oper. Prod. Manag. 27, 588–604 (Emerald Group, 2007). 19. Gaudenzi, B. and Christopher, M., “Achieving Supply Chain ‘Leagility’ through a Project Management Orientation,” Int. J. Logist. Res. Appl. 19, 3–18 (Taylor & Francis, 2016). 20. Haartveit, E., Kozak, R., and Maness, T., “Supply Chain Management Mapping for the Forest Products Industry: Three Cases from Western Canada,” J. For. Prod. Bus. Res. 1, 1–30 (2004). 21. Gunn, E., “Some Perspectives on Strategic Forest Management Models and the Forest Products Supply Chain,” INFOR Inf. Syst. Oper. Res. 47, 261–272 (2009). 22. Gautam, S., LeBel, L., and Beaudoin, D., “Value-Adding through Silvicultural Flexibility: An Operational Level Simulation Study,” Forestry 88, 213–223 (2014). 23. SPFRQ, “Syndicat de Propriétaires Forestiers de la Région de Québec,” 2015. 24. Childerhouse, P. and Towill, D., “Engineering Supply Chains to Match Customer Requirements,” Logist. Inf. Manag. 13, 337–346 (MCB UP, 2000). 25. Zhang, C. and Zhang, C., “Design and Simulation of Demand Information Sharing in a Supply Chain,” Simul. Model. Pract. Theory 15, 32–46 (2007). 26. United Nations, “Forest Products Annual Market Review 2012–2013,” 2013. 27. Droge, C., Jayaram, J., and Vickery, S.K., “The Effects of Internal versus External Integration Practices on Time-Based
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JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FOR FOREST PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES
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BUILDING FOR THE NEW PULP & PAPER COMMUNITY
J-FOR
Journal of Science & Technology for Forest Products and Processes A PAPTAC JOURNAL
J-FOR is PAPTAC's preeminent flagship journal, and publishes peer-reviewed high-quality articles that
address technological and scientific issues that are critical to the forest industry.
J-FOR emphasizes a unique balance between papers that address traditional technology areas, as well as emerging technology areas as our industry transforms to new business models.
These target areas are supported by a distinguished and international Editorial Board comprised of leading experts in the field. Authors are welcome to submit their papers to J-FOR Traditional Technology and Scientific Target Areas: • Pulping, bleaching and papermaking fundamentals, processes and technologies • Energy and chemical recovery fundamentals, processes and technologies • Recycled fibre and recycling technology • Development of sensors, analytical methods and process control logics • Mill water and energy usages and optimization • Environmental concerns and their mitigation
Emerging Technology and Scientific Target Areas: • Emerging forest-based products and their chains of added value • Fundamentals of converting forest-based biomass into biofuels and other bioproducts • Nanotechnology and other high added-value processes • Development of chemical, biochemical and thermochemical processes for the forestry industry • Integrating emerging and sustainable processes into the pulp and paper industry • Harvesting and procurement of forest and other biomass feedstocks Published by:
J-FOR is published on a bi-monthly basis and distributed in printed format to corporate subscribers and libraries in over 30 countries. J-FOR is also available on-line in an open access publication format to maximize author impact and visibility. For further information, please visit www.paptac.ca or contact PAPTAC at 514-392-0265/tech@paptac.ca.
Publishing establishes ownerships of ideas, enhances professional reputation and opens networking opportunities with colleagues.
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