Optimising performance and sustainability – in tandem

Organisations throughout the pulp and paper sector sit at the forefront of addressing the Dual Challenge –meeting increasing demand from a growing population but in a sustainable way.

On the one hand, availability, performance and quality are essential for the profitable production of pulp and paper mills. On the other, the need for cost-effective and sustainable production continues to be a priority for businesses across the sector.

Every pulp or paper mill today is certainly fully focused on the need to increase production. It is a common challenge for firms. Since the pandemic triggered increased demand for pulp and paper products such as toilet paper and paper towels, producers throughout the industry have been under increased pressure to be more agile. Improved reliability, safety, and sustainability are the other key strategic initiatives pulp and paper companies are pursuing to ensure they have the capacity to operate at maximum potential.

The drive to digitalisation

While pulp and paper manufacturers could potentially revamp their equipment to operate at a higher capacity, taking this approach would require a huge investment of time and money. Instead, forwardlooking companies are investing in technology and embarking on digitalisation journeys to improve efficiencies of their people, processes and equipment. Historically, pulp and paper mills have focused primarily on leveraging digital technologies to look at four essential impact areas.

● Raw materials control: Plants must closely monitor the quality of incoming raw materials, such as the wood that will go into the digester. With different grades of wood (hard and soft) and varying specifications within each grade, this is a key area for managing costs

● Process and quality control: Minimising off-grade production and maximising efficiency is essential to maintaining a competitive stance in this industry

● Process monitoring: Mills must continually assess their performance, compare themselves against other facilities and measure progress toward their goals. In some cases, it’s valuable to benchmark against competitors with a goal to boost competitive advantage

● Monetary control: Operators need to pinpoint high-cost areas, establish cost breakdowns, and identify the monetary basis for consideration of alternative proposals for production processes.

Putting solutions in place

Today, there are a range of digital technologies available that can bring pulp and paper mills significant benefits across all these areas. In terms of process monitoring, predictive and prescriptive maintenance has a key role to play in improving the reliability and availability of physical assets while minimising risks and managing costs. Prescriptive analytics can give back time to production across the pulp and paper industries, extend equipment life, and safeguard people, equipment, and the environment.

The story of Veracel Celulose, a Brazil-based agro-industrial company that produces an average of more than a million tons of pulp each year, is a case in point. Veracel turned to the Aspen Mtell, a prescriptive maintenance offering from AspenTech, to keep maintenance costs under control, increase availability and run assets with greater confidence in order to achieve higher throughput.

Using both process and mechanical data, Aspen Mtell successfully detected impending failures up to 59 days in advance, providing financial benefit and reducing wastage through the avoidance of production losses. Early warnings enabled better maintenance planning, reduced maintenance costs and increased output to meet market demand.

Emissions control

Today’s pulp and paper facilities must effectively manage their fibre losses, waste discharge and emissions. While Predictive Analytics can help when it comes to this key impact area rapidly emerging across the pulp and paper industry – there is a need here for a more multifaceted approach.

These industries are after all significant emitters. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the pulp and paper sector was responsible for about 190 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2021, about 2 per cent of all emissions from industry and a historic high.

As production is projected to continue increasing, the emissions intensity of paper production must decline significantly to get on track with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario, which sees emissions intensity fall by about 4 per cent annually between 2021 and 2030. This will require considerable effort, as emissions intensity has been roughly flat since 2018. From leveraging

The Veracel Celulose mill in Brazil, which produces more than a million tons of pulp each year, used Aspen Mtell, a prescriptive maintenance offering from AspenTech, to keep maintenance costs under control, increase availability and run assets with more confidence alternate or renewable sources of energy to deploying innovative technologies that improve process efficiency, there are multiple steps that manufacturers can take to reduce emissions.

While prescriptive maintenance solutions can help reduce the incidence of equipment breakdowns and the associated environmental impacts, decarbonisation, and the technology that supports it, will be key to efforts here.

We are seeing a growing number of plans in place worldwide that are designed to help decarbonise the sector. Japan, for instance, released a decarbonisation plan for its pulp and paper industry in early 2022, including new decarbonisation targets and steps for achieving them.

Digital technologies will certainly have a crucial role to play in this context. Examples of recent innovations that are delivering results today in the pulp and paper sectors include systemslevel risk-modelling technology that ranks the most practical and economically feasible options for carbon reduction, capture, storage and re-use.

More generally, the latest carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) tools are likely to play a critical role, having significant relevance across many assetintensive industries including the pulp and paper sector. These industries need closedloop systems for recycling their waste streams through carbon sequestration. That’s why we are seeing a rapid expansion of carbon capture projects worldwide, many driven by significant government investment.

Other technology solutions and industries play into this focus on CCUS. Process simulation software already has a strong track record of helping companies reduce emissions. This same software is even more crucial in CCUS, enabling organisations to improve carbon capture and storage. Approaching the pursuit of effective solutions below ground, industry leaders are using subsurface geophysical and geological modelling software to quickly determine the best reservoir targets for reliable, longterm carbon storage.

Digital grid management software is another effective solution, optimising the use of distributed energy sources. Separately, these digital solution areas impact CCS and CCU projects; combined in a more holistic, collaborative approach, the possibilities are even greater. The powerful combination of breakthroughs in process simulation, subsurface geophysical and geological modelling, AI-powered hybrid modelling, AI-powered prescriptive maintenance, process optimisation software and digital grid management can deliver results at scale –both economically and at an accelerated pace to meet the requirements of industrial carbon mitigation.

Beyond technology

Moving forward, the pulp and paper industries will be focused on continuing to digitalise to meet the demands of the dual challenge and drive-up performance levels. In managing this challenge, tools that support digitalisation from prescriptive maintenance to CCUS solutions will certainly be key as this article has shown. But technology can only part of the way towards solving the problems of the pulp and paper sector. A collaborative and problem-solving mindset will be equally key. For firms to reach their net zero targets, innovation in the approach to digitalisation and the adoption of the latest solutions need to advance quickly. Leading companies like Lighthouse and Frontrunner need to work towards optimising both the strategy and the technologies that support it. After all, regardless of where companies are in their net zero journey, it is important that they adopt an innovative, problemsolving mindset and are prepared to partner with peers and other technology leaders with the expertise to help meet the Dual Challenge and achieve critical sustainability goals while driving operational excellence.

*Pratibha Pillalamarri is Senior Product Marketing Manager at AspenTech. More information from AspenTech.com

About AspenTech

Based in Bedford, Massachusetts, and with 30 sites worldwide, Aspen Technology is a software leader that helps industries meet the dual challenge of using resources to support a growing global population in a profitable and sustainable manner. AspenTech addresses complex environments where it is critical to optimise the asset design, operation and maintenance lifecycle.