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Editorial: The road to sustainable packaging: New research on aqueous barrier coating, TAPPI Journal November 2022
Authors: Joel C. Panek and Peter W. Hart | ABSTRACT: This TAPPI Journal Special Coating Issue looks at hot topic research being done in coatings for paper and paperboard. We can feel the “earth shifting” in paper and paper-board packaging due to the strong call by consumers and brand owners for more sustainable and environmentally friendly options. This is the first TAPPI Journal Special Coating Issue to highlight efforts within the paper coating community to produce more sustainable packaging.
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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.
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Editorial: Ravi Challa brings tissue, nonwovens, and operational expertise to TJ Editorial Board, TAPPI Journal September 2022
ABSTRACT: TAPPI and the TAPPI JOURNAL (TJ) editorial staff would like to welcome a new member to the TJ Editorial Board, Ravi Challa, Ph.D., who is Research & Development (R&D) manager for Suominen Corporation at the company’s Bethune, SC, facility. There, his primary focus is new product development on wetlaid nonwovens paper machines, from maintaining mature technologies and innovation to discovering patterns in paper machine shutdowns and executing nonwovens product development trials.
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Development of reinforced paper and mitigation of the challenges of raw material availability by utilizing Areca nut leaf, TAPPI Journal September 2022
ABSTRACT: Paper industries are facing a raw material crisis and searching for alternate raw materials that may be able to help mitigate the issue. Many industries use agro-waste as a raw material, irrespective of it having low bleachability and poor mechanical strength. Areca nut leaf (ANL) is a nonwood-based material that may be acceptable as an alternate source of raw material that contains 61.5% holocellulose and 13.6% lignin, which is comparable to other agro-wastes and hardwood pulps. Kraft anthraquinone pulping with 20% active alkali as sodium oxide (Na2O), 25% sulfidity, and 0.05% anthraquinone produced 15 kappa pulps with about 38.5% pulping yield. The bleachability of ANL pulp was good, and 83.5% ISO brightness could be achieved using the D0(EOP)D1 bleaching sequence. The ANL fiber has 33.8% better tensile, 54.5% better tear, and 15.2% better burst index than hardwood fiber. Similarly, 60.4% better tensile, 56.5% better tear, and 21.7% better burst index were observed in ANL than in wheat straw. Thus, the study revealed that Areca nut leaf can be used as an alternative raw material for papermaking, as well as to improve the physical property of paper products by blending it with inferior quality pulp.
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Economic and competitive potential of lignin-based thermoplastics using a multicriteria decision-making method, TAPPI Journal September 2022
ABSTRACT: As a result of new lignin extraction plants hatching and increasing volumes of technical lignin becoming available, a variety of lignin derivatives, including phenolic resins and polyurethane (PU) foams, are reaching the marketplace or being used as intermediate products in many industrial applications. In the spectrum of possible lignin derivatives, thermoplastics appear particularly attractive due to a symbiosis of market, policy, and technology drivers. To assess the preferredness for lignin-based thermoplastics, this paper adapted a risk-oriented methodology formerly applied to assess lignin usage in various applications (phenol-formaldehyde [PF] resins, PU foams, and carbon fiber applications) to the case of lignin-based thermoplastics using hydroxypropylated lignin (HPL) and miscible blends of lignin and polyethylene oxide (PEO). The HPL is considered for garbage bags and agricultural films applications, while lignin-PEO blends are used as replacement for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) in applications such as automotive parts. In the methodology, two phased-implementation strategies were defined for each thermoplastic derivative, considering perspectives for profit maximization (90 metric tons/day integrated units) and revenue growth (350 metric tons/day overall capacity), which were considered for implementation within a softwood kraft pulping mill. A set of six criteria representative of the main economic and market competitiveness issues were employed, and their respective importance weights were obtained in a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) panel.Early-stage techno-economic estimates were done as a basis for the calculation of decision criteria. Compared to product derivatives previously assessed, capital investment for thermoplastic strategies appeared marginally higher due to the required lignin modification steps (on average 30% higher at similar capacity, and 6% for higher-scale revenue diversification strategies). Higher operating costs were also observed due to increased chemical expenses for all thermoplastic strategies, which are ultimately balanced by revenues associated with targeted thermoplastic products, leading to greater annual margins and cash flow generation over the project lifetime for thermoplastic strategies compared to other product applications (58% to 66% higher on average, at similar scale). Benefits of improved economics were reflected in economic criteria, internal rate of return (IRR), and cash flow on capital employed (CFCE), as well as in the price competitiveness criterion, CPC. Overall, the combination of relatively high lignin content in the plastic formulation and the less costly modification method contributed to lignin-PEO strategies, gaining the top two rankings. Based on their overall scores, both strategies defined for HPL would also integrate the group of “preferred” strategies, but are outranked by strategies that consider lignin positioning on PU foam applications.
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Fiber-based characterization of pulp refining, TAPPI Journal September 2022
ABSTRACT: Fiber development in pulp refining can be characterized by three parameters: number of impacts on pulp, N; energy per impact, I, and bar force on fibers, F. These parameters enable comparisons of radically different refining conditions; determination of intensity for hardwoods and softwoods; assessment of effect of bar width on fiber shortening; and predictions of tensile strength increases.
Magazine articles
Corrosion in lower furnace of kraft recovery boilersâ??in-situ characterization of corrosive environments, Solutions! & TAPPI JOURNAL, February 2004, Vol. 3(2) (179KB)
Corrosion in lower furnace of kraft recovery boilers–in-situ characterization of corrosive environments, Solutions! & TAPPI JOURNAL, February 2004, Vol. 3(2) (179KB)
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Editorial: TAPPI Journal 2024 Best Research Paper focuses on realistic potential for using nonwood residues in sustainable packaging, TAPPI Journal April 2025
ABSTRACT: Each year, the TAPPI Journal Editorial Board honors outstanding content by nominating and voting for the Best Research Paper published the previous year based on scientific merit, innovation, creativity, and clarity. TAPPI and the TAPPI Journal Editorial Board would like to congratulate the authors of the 2024 TAPPI Journal Best Research Paper: Antonio Suarez, Ashok Ghosh, Fritz Paulsen, and Peter W. Hart of Smurfit Westrock (formerly WestRock). The winning paper, “Life cycle carbon analysis of packaging products containing nonwood residues: A case study on linerboard and corrugating medium,” was published in the March 2024 issue.
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Optimizing OCC refining with defloccing, TAPPI Journal April 2025
ABSTRACT: Subjecting pulp to a high shear zone immediately after refining results in more efficient refining. This phenomenon was originally observed to benefit softwood pulp refining. It was attributed to floc reduction based on floc measurements in mill refiners and the observation of reduced headbox plugging. Hence, this phenomenon has been termed “defloccing.” The present work shows this technology also benefits refining of North American old corrugated containers (OCC). The combined results of several mill trials with OCC defloccing demonstrate the interactions between OCC refining intensity, defloccing technology, and other state-of-the-art refining improvements. At the same refining intensity, defloccing OCC on 100% recycled machines increases OCC refining efficiency by 15%, with greater efficiency improvement on machines that use softwood as well as OCC. Furthermore, it is shown that the benefits of defloccing are additive to refining improvements made in the refining zone of a refiner plate. Most OCC refiner plate designs can therefore benefit from the addition of a defloccing feature.
Journal articles
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Dynamic compression characteristics of fiber-reinforced shoe press belts, TAPPI Journal April 2025
ABSTRACT: Shoe press belts contribute significantly to the overall dewatering performance in the press section of a paper machine. Within the shoe press nip, the press belt faces a dynamic and multidimensional load that mainly leads to a compression of the structure. As this will cause a loss in void volume, knowledge of the dynamic compression characteristics of shoe press belts is crucial for optimized dewatering. A novel method was developed to examine the dynamic compression characteristics of grooved polyurethane press belts. Therefore, an experimental setup allowing realistic boundary conditions to test specimens was placed in a servo-hydraulic testing machine. Press belt specimens with different matrix material formulations and groove patterns were tested under varying load rates equivalent to different paper machine operational speeds. The results showed an evident sensitivity of the dynamic compression stiffness to the operational speed of the paper machine. This behavior was seen to be more sensitive to changes in the matrix material formulation than to adaptions of the groove pattern. As a result, the compression of the press belt within a shoe press nip is not only influenced by the peak pressure within the shoe press nip but also depends on the operational speed of the paper machine.