scholarly journals Innovative Circular Economy Models for the European Pulp and Paper Industry: A Reference Framework for a Resource Recovery Scenario

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10285
Author(s):  
Amaia Sopelana ◽  
Camille Auriault ◽  
Anurag Bansal ◽  
Karmen Fifer ◽  
Helena Paiva ◽  
...  

According to recent literature in the field of sustainability, the circular economy (CE) appears to be a thriving opportunity for creating new businesses, although less attention has been paid to the form in which its principles fit into a comprehensive framework that enables companies to design it in a practical way. This paper presents the methodology that has been adopted to pave the way to a coherent reference framework for circular business model innovation and its outstanding design and implementation, taking into consideration the entire value and supply chain. A unique analysis of recent innovations in circular economy models is provided herein, together with an exhaustive analysis of those elements that enable or hinder their implementation. The main interactions among all those critical elements influencing how organisations innovate and operate cooperatively within a CE ecosystem are also evaluated. In addition, a study of five industrial cases in the pulp and paper industry allowed searching for industrial insights and empirical evidence of the relevance of those elements, including observation, document analysis, and interviews. Lastly, the main outcomes of this research are illustrated using the CE reference framework designed when applied to the aforementioned industrial cases, and relevant insights into future improvements are also provided.

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Tero Leppänen ◽  
Erno Mustonen ◽  
Henri Saarela ◽  
Matti Kuokkanen ◽  
Pekka Tervonen

The increasing pressure on natural resources and the climate has been noted by businesses and governments worldwide, who now face the difficult task of integrating paths of environmental sustainability and economic growth. One promising approach to sustainable development, reducing the pressure on natural resources and solving waste problems is circular economy. From different ways of implementing circular economy, this study focuses on the productization of industrial side streams, which carry a great deal of underutilized potential. In this article, the productization of pulp and paper industry side stream, fiber sludge, for commercial use as a dust-binding agent is studied via a descriptive, in-depth case study. Apart from inconsistent quality, fluctuating supply, cost of storage and logistics, what makes industrial side stream utilization challenging is the lack of knowledge that stakeholders have about side streams and their utilization and the lack of new value chain development for their commercial use. Therefore, it is essential for all parties involved to have a clearer vision of what is being sold for what purposes, through productization. This study found that the productization of side streams follows the same steps as the productization of any other traditional product, and the productized side streams can be added to the company’s product portfolio as by-products.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 11617
Author(s):  
Fábio Simões ◽  
Francisco-Javier Rios-Davila ◽  
Helena Paiva ◽  
Hamid Maljaee ◽  
Miguel Morais ◽  
...  

Waste valorisation as secondary or alternative raw materials in several sectors products and processes has been an important way to implement a more sustainable and circular way to manage the efficient use of natural resources. This action contributes not only to save natural resources but also to prevent sending large amounts of wastes, some of them dangerous, to landfill disposal, creating a major environmental, economic and social impact. To promote circular economy, this work attempts to demonstrate the environmental gains in a competitive way, by bringing together in an industrial symbiosis action, two large producing sectors (the pulp and paper industry and concrete construction sector), which are also able to consume significant amounts of resources and to generate large amounts of wastes. A sustainability evaluation based on a life cycle and circular approach is presented and discussed using a simple case study performed at real industrial scale. The lime ash waste from the pulp and paper industry is used to replace 100% of the natural filler used in precast concrete production and the impacts and benefits from the technical, environmental, economic and social level were assessed. It was demonstrated that this simple action causes positive impacts in the evaluated dimensions of sustainability without causing any changes in production time and causes no degradation on relevant concrete properties.


TAPPI Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
TROY RUNGE ◽  
CHUNHUI ZHANG

Agricultural residues and energy crops are promising resources that can be utilized in the pulp and paper industry. This study examines the potential of co-cooking nonwood materials with hardwoods as means to incorporate nonwood material into a paper furnish. Specifically, miscanthus, switchgrass, and corn stover were substituted for poplar hardwood chips in the amounts of 10 wt %, 20 wt %, and 30 wt %, and the blends were subjected to kraft pulping experiments. The pulps were then bleached with an OD(EP)D sequence and then refined and formed into handsheets to characterize their physical properties. Surprisingly, all three co-cooked pulps showed improved strength properties (up to 35%). Sugar measurement of the pulps by high-performance liquid chromatography suggested that the strength increase correlated with enriched xylan content.


1999 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 1334-1338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiya Kuide ◽  
Kazuyoshi Yamamoto

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