ENergy efficient PAPer production of wood containing paper for next generation printing presses (ENPAP)

The purpose of the project is to obtain more sustainable and more profitable paper production by developing a process for producing high quality wood-containing printing paper, more efficiently with respect to energy consumption. The pulp and paper indust ry must address its impact on climate change and lower the energy use globally. In addition, the energy consumption is and will be even more crucial for the profitability of the paper mill as the electricity prices are increasing. The project aims at de veloping a new innovative process for producing wood-containing printing paper using 10% less steam energy for drying. The drying section is by far the highest consumer of steam in a paper mill, but still the steam consumption for drying has not been a ma jor subject in paper science. The lack of developments is due to a major focus on the wet-end of the paper forming process as well as the lack of laboratory tools for studying effects on energy consumption in the drying or effects of relevant drying condi tions on paper quality. The project aims at establishing such tools and design a fibre furnish which reduces the energy consumption for drying. The main challenge will be to design a fiber furnish with superior dryability while meeting the print quality and runnability demands set by modern printing presses. The next generation printing presses are larger and faster than todays printing presses and set even higher requirements for the printing paper. For the Norwegian Norske Skog mills 10% less steam en ergy consumption for drying corresponds to 0.23 TWh/year. At a relatively low energy cost of 0.22 NOK/kWh such an energy reduction results in annual savings of 50 MNOK. As Norske Skog operates globally, the energy reduction potential is even higher on a g lobal basis.