Mapping Bio-CO2 and Wind Resources for Decarbonized Steel, E-Methanol and District Heat Production in the Bothnian Bay

Hydrogen is a versatile feedstock for various chemical and industrial processes, as well as an energy carrier. Dedicated hydrogen infrastructure is envisioned to conceptualize in hydrogen valleys, which link together the suppliers and consumers of hydrogen, heat, oxygen, and electricity. One potential hydrogen valley is the Bay of Bothnia, located in the northern part of the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden. The region is characterized as having excellent wind power potential, a strong forest cluster with numerous pulp and paper mills, and significant iron ore and steel production. The study investigates the hydrogen-related opportunities in the region, focusing on infrastructural requirements, flexibility, and co-operation of different sectors. The study found that local wind power capacity is rapidly increasing and will eventually enable the decarbonization of the steel sector in the area, along with moderate Power-to-X implementation. In such case, the heat obtained as a by-product from the electrolysis of hydrogen would greatly exceed the combined district heat demand of the major cities in the area. To completely fulfil its district heat demand, the city of Oulu was simulated to require 0.5–1.2 GW of electrolyser capacity, supported by heat pumps and optionally with heat storages.

The role of anthropogenic factors in forest transformation in Southern Sakhalin

The article analyzes the forests changes in the south part of Sakhalin Island from the original, natural state as a result of its habitation and economic development. The most essential disturbances of forest cover occurred in the first half of the last century when 9 pulp-and-paper mills were built by Japanese in southern island. All acceptable and more productive dark coniferous forests for providing these mills were cut down. Moreover, significant share of the forests was destroyed because of repeated and large-scale fires, creating agricultural lands and habitable territories, construction of roads, power lines, oil-and-gas pipelines, etc. The most considerable forests transformation was on the territory of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and also in Korsakovsky, Dolinsky, Anivsky, Kholmsky and Nevelsky districts.

Valuation slagging factors and greenhouse gases emissions of paper mill reject and coal

There are quite a lot of paper mill rejects (PMR) as a by-product of paper mills and have not been utilized, currently. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of paper mill reject (PMR) to coal and natural biomass and estimate the greenhouse (GHG) emissions of PMR and coal. Coal and PMR taken from five paper mills were analyzed for the content of moisture, proximate parameter (ash, volatile matter, fixed carbon), sulfur (S), gross calorific value (GCV), ash mineral and ash fusion temperature (AFT). The slagging factors of materials were calculated and evaluated. The resulting greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions was also estimated. The results show that with the high calorific value, low ash and sulfur content of PMR, it has the potential to be used as a coal mixture for boiler fuel. It is very beneficial for the environment due to the low SO2 emissions. PMR has the characteristics of a low slagging index (SI), high fouling index (FI) and Slag Viscosity Index (SVI) which is almost similar with biomass, empty fruit bunches (EFB) and rice husk. The use of PMR as a coal mixture in paper mills in the amount of 10,285 ton/year can reduce greenhouse gases of 63.5 tons CO2-equivalent/year.

Barriers to and Drivers of Energy Management in Swedish SMEs

The energy efficiency gap is known as the difference between optimal level of energy efficiency and the actual level of achieved energy efficiency. Energy management has proven to further close the energy efficiency gap. Energy management may differ depending on whether it concerns a large, energy-intensive company or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are of high interest since they form a large share of the economy today. For SMEs, a lighter form of energy management, in the form of energy efficiency network participation, has proven to deliver sound energy efficiency impact, while for larger, energy-intensive firms, a certified energy management system may be more suitable. However, various barriers inhibit adoption of energy efficiency measures. While there is an array of research on barriers to and driving forces for energy efficiency in general, research on barriers to, and driving forces for, energy management is rare, one exception being a study of energy-intensive pulp and paper mills. This holds even more so for industrial SMEs. This paper aims to identify the barriers to, and drivers for, energy management in manufacturing SMEs. Results of this explorative study show that the top four barriers to energy management are lack of time/other priorities, non-energy-related working tasks are prioritized higher, slim organization, and lack of internal expert competences, i.e., mainly organizational barriers. The top four drivers for energy management are to reduce production waste, participation in energy efficiency networks, cost reduction from lower energy use, and commitment from top management. Furthermore, results show that energy management among the studied SMEs seems to not be as mature, even though the companies participated in an energy management capacity building program in the form of energy efficiency networks, which, in turn, shows a still largely untapped potential in the societal aim to reduce the energy efficiency and management gaps. The main contribution of this paper is a first novel attempt to explore barriers to, and drivers for, energy management among SMEs.

Potential for Negative Emissions by Carbon Capture and Storage From a Novel Electric Plasma Calcination Process for Pulp and Paper Mills

The pulp and paper industry has a high potential to contribute to negative emissions through carbon capture and storage (CCS) applied to existing processes. However, there is a need to investigate how CCS solutions also can be combined with implementation of other emerging technologies in pulp and paper mills. This paper investigates the integration of a novel calcination process in two kraft mills and evaluates its potential combination with capture and storage of CO2 from the calcination plant. The alternative calcination process uses electric gas-plasma technology combined with steam slaking and allows replacing the conventional fuel-driven lime kilns with a process driven by electricity. The novel calcination process generates a pure, biogenic, CO2 stream, which provides an opportunity to achieve negative emissions at relatively lower costs. The potential reduction of greenhouse gas emissions when replacing the lime kiln with the plasma calcination concept depends strongly on the emissions intensity of grid electricity, and on whether fossil fuel or biomass was used as a fuel in the lime kiln. If fossil fuel is replaced and electricity is associated with very low emissions, avoided CO2 emissions reach ~50 kt/a for the smaller mill investigated in the paper (ca 400 kt pulp per year) and almost 100 kt/a for the larger mill (ca 700 kt pulp per year). Further emission reductions could then be achieved through CCS from the electrified calcination process, with capture potentials for the two mills of 95 and 164 kt/a, respectively, and capture and storage costs estimated to 36–60 EUR/tCO2.

Fake science for sale? – How Endocrine Connections is tackling paper mills

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Water Quality Assessment of Paper Mills Effluent Discharge Areas

The study attempted to assess the water quality around paper mill effluents discharge areas. Several physicochemical parameters and the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Water Quality Index (WQI) were considered to determine the pollution level of surface and groundwater in the selected paper mills areas located in Saidpur, Gobindaganj, and Dupchanchia Upazilas of Bangladesh. Physicochemical characterization of the surface water around the paper mills areas showed that the concentration of EC, TSS, BOD5, COD, phenols, NO3−-N, and K+were exceeded the surface water standard, whereas the DO level ranged from 1.63 to 3.5 were found below the Environmental Conservation Rules (ECR), 1997 standard. Besides, the BOD, COD, and Mn ion concentrations of groundwater exceeded the drinking water standard. In most sampling sites, the WQI of the surface water showed ‘marginal’ category, and the groundwater quality showed 'fair' category. The study observed that the toxic effluents discharged from the paper mills caused harm to the aquatic ecosystem.

Mengukur Potensi Bahaya dan Resiko Kecelakaan Kerja dengan Metode Hazard and Operabillity Study pada Aktivitas Maintenance

Work accidents are things that must be avoided, so that's not inflicted loss on the company and the workers. However, several workers still not pay attention to occupational health and safety regulations and in the work area still found several potential hazards. The research is conducted at PT Pindo Deli Pulp and Paper Mills Indonesia in Karawang Regency and focuses on preventive and corrective maintenance activities that prevent paper machine breakdown. The purpose of this study is to measure how big the potential hazard and impact by using Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP) method. This method is a systematic study, which aims to find the factors that causing work accidents and find out how big the potential accidents and their impacts. The data is collected by distributing questionnaires to the employee. The results show that hazards caused by the work area and the workers themselves are 18% and 82%, respectively. Based on the severity, the number of extreme, high, medium and low risk hazards are 1, 8, 1 and 1, respectively.