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Sweetening and Intermediate Liquor Impacts on Evaporator Performance, TAPPICon25

Change Management in Digital Transformation: Key Strategies for Successful Implementation, TAPPICon25

Leveraging GenAI for Enhanced Plant Performance: An OEE Case Study, TAPPICon25

Support for innovation and workforce development, TAPPI Journal August 2026

Advanced manufacturing is gaining attention in developed economies due to national security issues, calls for developing domestic supply chains, and more importantly, the need for creating jobs. COVID-19 exposed vulnerabilities in the manufacturing of lifesaving and critical items such as N95 masks. Tariffs are considered one avenue to protect domestic manufacturing, but in the case of manufactured products like commodity textiles, a tariff barrier alone will not be able to bring back manufacturing. It is a beneficial move by the U.S. government to boost manufacturing through investments in research and development (R&D), enhancing the advanced manufacturing sector focusing on defense and medical items through the establishment of centers like the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America. Additionally, schemes to grow a skilled workforce both at factory and R&D levels will be valuable.

Editorial: Changing of the guard: Dr. Arthur Ragauskas assumes TAPPI Journal editor-in-chief role, TAPPI Journal January 2026

TAPPI is pleased to announce that Dr. Arthur J. Ragauskas has assumed the editor-in-chief role for TAPPI Journal. Ragauskas, who is a professor at University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville, TN, has been a member of the TAPPI Journal Editorial Board since 2011 and is a TAPPI Fellow, as well as recipient of the TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award, among his many accomplishments. As a member of the Editorial Board, Ragauskas has curated eight special issues on a range of topics, including nanocellulose, lignocellulose, lignin valorization, and the forest biorefinery.

Effects of variability of wood chip composition on recovery cycle operation, TAPPI Journal January 2026

ABSTRACT: Fluctuations in wood chip properties in kraft pulp mills, which often follow seasonal patterns, can lead to changes or disruptions in the operation of the recovery cycle whereby the root causes are not immediately obvious. In some cases, these changes are attributed to operational adjustments in the digester or brownstock washing areas resulting from the variability in wood characteristics. Varying wood chip characteristics that have the most significant impact on the recovery cycle operation include the content of non-process elements (NPEs), extractives, and properties influenced by chip storage conditions. Elevated levels of NPEs, often associated with a higher influx of wood bark into the digester, can negatively affect the entire recovery cycle. Increased levels of chlorine and potassium can lead to severe fouling and corrosion in the recovery boiler. Higher concentrations of silicon, aluminum, phosphorus, magnesium and calcium in the chips may accelerate scaling in the evaporation plant, impair dregs and lime mud settling and filtering, reduce lime mud solids content and lime availability, and increase the amounts of dregs, grits, and purged lime mud. This technical review provides an overview of the most significant effects that changes in wood chip quality can potentially exert on various processes within the kraft recovery cycle.

Image classification of the furnace bed height in recovery boilers, TAPPI Journal July 2026

ABSTRACT: The goal of this study is to develop an approach for classifying char bed height in a recovery boiler during operation. The resulting classified images form a dataset that can be used by the mill to support operational improvements. The study integrates data from the digester, evaporation plant, recovery boiler, and recausticizing plant, along with the classified image data. A convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained on bed camera images that were manually annotated to classify furnace bed height. The model was then used to generate a binary bedheight parameter over a 16-month period, and an extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model was applied to identify relationships with operating parameters across the recovery cycle. The outcomes of this research may offer deeper insights into the processes underlying bed dynamics. Ultimately, the developed system may serve as a tool for optimizing bed conditions and supporting stable combustion.

Estimating dose and interaction of X-rays with cellulose-based fibrous materials using micro-computed tomography, TAPPI Journal March 2026

ABSTRACT: Micro-computed tomography (ìCT) has a reputation as a nondestructive analysis method. Unfortunately, this leads to the common misconception that radiation damage of the sample does not play a role. With the increased use of ìCT in laboratory-based machines, more and more cellulose-based materials are studied. In this paper, we show with three examples that radiation damage is important in dry and wet paper and in viscose fibers. In an attempt to quantify radiation damage, we came up with a workflow that enables researchers to predict the X-ray dose within a laboratory-based ìCT machine. This gives researchers the possibility to quantitatively judge the influence of radiation damage on each measured sample. While one cannot extend the measured doses from one machine to another, one can still apply the work flow presented in this study to any ìCT setup. In this way, it is possible to minimize radiation damage by choosing the best parameters in a ìCT for obtaining perfect data with no or little radiation damage.

Improvements in oil and grease resistance (OGR) test methodology for waterborne barrier coatings, TAPPI Journal November 2022

ABSTRACT: Paper-based food packaging is becoming more popular due to consumer demands for sustainable packaging options. Waterborne paper coatings that provide performance properties (i.e., resistance to oil and grease) not inherent to paper and board substrates offer improved sustainability profiles over earlier paper treatment options, including fluorocarbon treatment and coating with extruded plastics. The continued development of new paper coating technologies requires re-evaluation of current test methods and development of new methods to ensure lab evaluations can serve as accurate predictors of real-world performance. This paper provides an overview of commonly used oil and grease resistance (OGR) test methods within the paper coatings industry, and then describes improvements and developments made to two key methods: the 3M Kit test and an internally developed oil breakthrough test. The combined use of these adapted methods provides a more efficient testing workflow and a more complete understanding of the OGR performance of barrier coatings.

A new method of studying the fundamental mechanisms involved in pigment liberation from recycle papers, TAPPI Journal October 2022

ABSTRACT: Deinking flotation is the most efficient and widely used method of removing ink particles from printed papers to improve the recyclability. A prerequisite for successful deinking flotation is detachment of pigments from paper fibers, a subprocess known as liberation. The degree of liberation is usually determined via hyperwashing tests, which are costly and time consuming. Furthermore, they provide no information on the fundamental mechanisms controlling liberation. In the present work, we developed a new method in which ?-potentials of the particles in a pulp are measured and analyzed. If pigments are not liberated from paper fibers, a frequency distribution plot gives a single peak, while two peaks appear when they are liberated. One can readily determine the degrees of liberation from the peak positions and peak heights. In addition, the ?-potential data can be used to construct disjoining pressure isotherms using the DLVO theory that are useful to better understand the fundamental mechanisms involved and the roles of different reagents used to improve pigment liberation.