VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Forest industry. Erkki Hellén

Transcription

1 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Forest industry Erkki Hellén

2 2 VTT Group in brief Turnover 307 M (2011) Personnel 3,187 ( ) Customer sectors - Biotechnology, pharmaceutical and food industries - Electronics - Energy - ICT - Real estate and construction - Machines and vehicles - Services and logistics - Forest industry - Process industry and environment Focus areas of research - Applied materials - Bio- and chemical processes - Energy - Information and communication technologies - Industrial systems management - Microtechnologies and electronics - Services and the built environment - Business research VTT s operations - Research and Development - Strategic Research - Business Solutions - Business Development - Group Services VTT s companies - VTT Expert Services Ltd (incl. Labtium Ltd, Enas Ltd) - VTT Ventures Ltd - VTT International Ltd (incl. VTT Brasil LTDA) - VTT Memsfab Ltd

3 3 VTT s status as performer of R&D work Basic research Applied research VTT Development VTT creates business from technology

4 4 VTT s research projects 1 Commercial activities 2 Joint projects 3 Self-financed research Commercial activities performed according to direct demand from customers. Impact: Building competitiveness for VTT s customers through world-class research and innovation services Research projects jointly funded by VTT, companies, research financers (*) and/or other research parties. Impact: More efficient technology transfer Foundation for new innovations and political decision-making Technology-based strategic research projects Impact: Developing VTT s own competitiveness and acquiring knowledge and expertise to meet future customer needs (*) R&D funding possibilities for example Tekes (The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) EU projects

5 5 VTT on map Sodankylä Rovaniemi Oulu Jyväskylä Tampere Turku Espoo Finland Raahe Kajaani Kuopio Lappeenranta Rajamäki Helsinki Berkeley and Washington, USA Outokumpu São Paulo, Brazil Brussels, Belgium Saint Petersburg, Russia Seoul, South Korea Shanghai, China Tokyo, Japan

6 6 VTT is a globally unique service and innovation centre for the forest industry VTT s forest industry R&D volume ca. 40 million EUR annually 300 scientists working in this field; (up to 500 scientists possible)

7 7 Supporting infrastructure Unique set of experimental facilities from laboratory to pilot scale Development of new technologies from fibre scale phenomena into realistic process conditions

8 8 Supporting infrastructure Unique set of experimental facilities from laboratory to pilot scale Development of new functionalities from bio-based sources and with efficient processes 8

9 10 Follow us at ForestTech Invitation to ForestTech with an example of the ForestTech newsletter Dear Sir/Madam, We are proud to welcome you to ForestTech industrial platform, a new web service designed for the forest industry and the companies within its value chains. Please visit us and register at: ForestTech offers you an easy access to VTT s R&D breakthroughs and expertise in this field. ForestTech shows the different ways and areas how 500 VTT experts can help you to make business from technology. By registering to ForestTech you get an access to downloadable material, future project ideas, an events calendar and a newsletter every two months, free of charge. This is an example of our newsletter. BR, Timo Pekkarinen, Vice President

10 Foam forming at VTT Erkki Hellén VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

11 12 BACKGROUND: VISION FOR PAPER AND BOARD (~2008) Radical resource savings Bio-based materials Advanced nanomaterials Foam forming technology enables both Potential technology for packaging, tissue, nonwovens, insulation, hygienic products, composites, Water 60-80% Raw materials 20-40% Energy 50-60% Increased value through renewal New fiber-based products outside traditional value chains

12 13 FOAM FORMING - BASICS Fibers and other furnish components are mixed with foam instead of water. Foam consists of water, foaming agent and air. Typical air content 50-70%. Air bubbles prevent flocculation of fibers in the headbox.

13 14 FOAM FORMING AT SUORA ENVIRONMENT

14 15 FOAM FORMING FROM LABORATORY TO PILOT SCALE FOAM FORMING Potential production technology for Paper, board, tissue New fiber-based products Insulation materials Hygienic products Wood fibre composites Nanomaterial applications SUORA - Technical specifications: Forming unit Press Gap/Hybrid/Fourdrinier Web speed 2500 m/min Max line load 2000 kn/m Headbox flowrate 240 l/s/m Web width 250 mm Web width 300 mm Belt width 700 mm Fabric width 500 mm

15 16 FOAM FORMING RESEARCH ENVIRONMENTS Handsheet formers Small - circulation device KISU SUORA - research environment Sample size A4 & 500*500 mm. Laboratory pressing & drying Web width 120 mm. Laboratory pressing & drying Web width 250 mm. Reeled sample & offline cylinder drying ~1000 m/min (foam) 2000 m/min (water) Web speed m/min (foam) 300 m/min (water) Amount of >Few grams > 5 kg > 300 kg fibers Layered 3 - layers (foam) Single layer (foam) products Single layer (water) 3 layers (water) Forming 1 - sided dewatering 1 - sided dewatering Fourdrinier / hybrid / gap geometry

16 18 MAIN BENEFITS OF FOAM FORMING

17 Modified Scott Bond [j/m 2 ] 18/09/ HIGH BULK Operating window for current technology and raw materials Not possible with water forming Pilot data water Foam 90 Foam+10%NFC 70 foam+20%nfc Foam forming Bulk [cm 3 /g] new raw material combinations raw material savings usage of materials impossible in water or dry laid technologies

18 22 Impact on variable costs (foam + nanocellulose) Typical machine: 1% reduction in costs provides savings ~2M per annum per machine for the same amount of m 2 produced Market volume of cartonboards, containerboards, tissue, non-wovens and insulation materials is over 150 Mrd /a.

19 23 STRENGTH PROPERTIES AS GOOD AS MILL REFERENCE Foam forming trials at VTT SUORA research environment Basis weight 40 g/m 2

20 24 BULK INCREASED MORE THAN 50%

21 Specific Beta formation [ g/m] 18/09/ SUPERIOR FORMATION INDEPENDENT OF FIBER LENGTH % % - 16 % Water % Foam Spruce-CTMP Pine 2 Birch 1 Water Foam

22 Tensile Index [Nm/g] 18/09/ STRENGTH AT LOW GRAMMAGES Water Foam Grammage [g/m 2 ] Pine pulp Bulk values at the same level

23 Dryness of the web [%] 18/09/ EASINESS OF DEWATERING % + 30% + 41% Water Foam Spruce-CTMP Pine 2 Birch 1 Values measured after forming section

24 Headbox consistency [%] 18/09/ INCREASE OF HEADBOX CONSISTENCY % + 94 % + 93 % Water Foam Spruce-CTMP Pine 2 Birch 1 Currently structures formed up to 4% consistency

25 31 Range of potential products from a wide variety of raw materials Paper, board, nonvowens, construction, packaging, insulation

26 32 FIBER BASED MOULDABLE PACKAGES VTT s mouldable fibrous material has the potential to replace plastics in all deep drawn goods which have reasonably low dimensions e.g

27 33 MATERIALS FOR CONSTRUCTION, INSULATION, PACKAGING Sample Thickness mm Grammag e g/m 3 Density kg/m 3 Bulk cm 3 /g Thermal conductivity λ 10 W/(m K) 100 CTMP 100 Pine pulp 80/20 CTMP/NFC 80/20 CTMP/PCC 50/50 CTMP/pine 80/20 CTMP/PCC 1) Styrofoam The best thermal conductivities are comparable to mineral and stone wool insulation materials

28 Absorption coefficient at 500 Hz 18/09/ FOAM FORMED SOUND ABSORBANCE MATERIALS 0,60 0,50 0,40 0,30 0,20 0,10 0, Weight, kg per cubic meter Commercial sound absorber products VTT foam formed manufacturing demonstrator Challenges under 500 Hz Sound absorption 500 Hz: 0.3 VTT s foams commercial products Encouraging results; no structural optimization was done.

29 37 WHY FOAM TECHNOLOGY? The only known technology, which can significantly improve the competitiveness of current products and enable the renewal of forest industry sector with new products (incl. SMEs) Rebuilding of existing manufacturing lines with low investment costs Finland has a great infrastructure for wood based business, which still has a great influence on employment Foam forming is a technology already in commercial use (specific nonwovens). We will transfer it to new product areas. VTT is building an international foam technology platform

30 38 VALUE FOR FUTURE Foam forming will lead to a new manufacturing platform for fiber based products as it Requires significantly less raw materials, water and energy than conventional manufacturing Improves many product properties Enables exploitation of new raw material combinations from nanoparticles to long fibres Offers a sustainable solution to manufacture a wide range of products such as paper, board, tissue, hygiene products, insulation materials, filters and other added value products from bio-based, long fibers Offers possibilities for both large companies and SMEs to create novel value chains Fast product and process development by using VTT s facilities from laboratory to pilot scale. 38

31 39 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sanomapaino

32 VTT as a partner for forest industry - Examples from nanotech to colouring Erkki Hellén VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

33 41 A wood-based nanomaterial: nanocellulose Zimmermann et al. Adv. Eng. Mater (2004) Unique properties Mechanical Optical Surface area Physical dimensions Diameters: ~10-100nm Lengths: ~100nm 100 m Different surface functionalities

34 42 Appearance of fibrillated NFC gels Native Native Carboxymethylation TEMPO oxidation Cationization Tiina Pöhler et al, 2010 TAPPI International Conference on Nanotechnology for the Forest Product Industry

35 9/18/ Size does matter! Fibers + PCC NFC & fiber PCC + NFC

36 9/18/

37 46 Salmela et al 2010 Krochac et al 2010

38 9/18/ Paper&board: Examples of results at pilot-scale

39 9/18/ Replacement of synthetic binders with NFC in board coating Trials at KCL pilot coater Blade coating with jet applicator, 500m/min, 10g/m2 on uncoated and coated base boards and printing at sheet fed offset Precoating: 100pph GCC, NFC 0.2pph or 2.5pph (latex+nfc 13pph) Topcoating: 80pph CC, 20pph kaolin, NFC 3pph (latex+nfc 15pph) Adding nanocellulose Causes no problems in coating process Results in a more open coating structure Decreases solids content of coating color leading to increase in drying energy Decreases gloss: 40% with latex, 20-30% with NFC Does not affect surface strength Gives a good overall print quality but with a lower print gloss Replacement of latex with NFC does not improve cost efficiency in coating H. Pajari, H. Rautkoski and P. Moilanen, VTT TAPPI International Conference on Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials

40 9/18/ Addition of 1-2% of nanocellulose to paper (machine chest chemical pulp SW/HW) Trial at VTT s SUORA environment (hybrid former, shoe press) When adding nanocellulose Reduction of wire section dewatering Dry solids 1-3%-unit higher after press section No changes in formation or retention Tensile strength increases (~8g/m 2 basis weight reduction) Elastic modulus increases strongly Bending stiffness remains the same 20-30% lower porosity Opacity ~4%-units lower Nanocellulose increases strength even at low dosages Good overall runnability Applicability: Packaging papers, board, graphic papers, layered products I. Kajanto and M. Kosonen, UPM TAPPI International Conference on Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials

41 Retention / % 9/18/ Reliable determination of nanocellulose distribution and retention at pilot conditions Wire side Top side Without the right retention system the retention of NFC can be low 35,0 Retention of water formed paper samples 30,0 25,0 20,0 15,0 10,0 5,0 32,0 27,0 0, Trial Point Solid line: Tape splitting technique Bars: X-ray microtomography X-ray micro-tomographic image of crosssectional area of paper sample. NFC is emphasized with red colour.

42 dp/dl [Pa/m] 9/18/ Approaching mill scale: pumping of MFC Loss in a pipe flow Example for one MFC % 1.50% 1.25% % 0.75% Fluidization 0.50% 0.25% Water 10 0, Flow rate [l/s] Centrifugal pump New pump type Optimized pipe dimensioning Screw pump Pumping behavior sensitive to nanocellulose type Fluidization provides a simple tool for dimensioning pumping lines

43 9/18/ Other examples of various approaches

44 9/18/ Objective Case: High filler content SC- paper Example of a SUORA trial To produce high filler content SC paper up to 50% with new type of pigment polymer hybrid filler (Omya PPH 1080) by Omya SC furnish, grammage 56 g/m 2, Filler blend Clay & Omyagloss 500 as a mixture 50 / 50 as a reference filler up to filler content 30%. Filler content was increased from 30 % 40 & 50 % with Omya PPH 1080 filler Main findings Easy to reach the high filler contents with PPH filler Machine runnability was good within the whole week Total filler retention was ~ 35 % with filler content 30%, ~ 50 % with higher filler contents, higher filler retention reached with PPH filler The evenness of the filler distribution in thickness direction was increased as a function of filler content. Higher nip load in press section increased the evenness. The dry content increased clearly as a function of filler content after former and press section. Optical properties were improved Omya PPH 1080 Contact: Terhi Saari, Key account manager terhi.saari@vtt.fi, phone

45 54 Thin functional layers with foam coating Uncoated paper Coated with NFC Element maps- inorganic nanoparticles Close the surface with nanocellulose despite of the high viscosity Functionality with any inorganic nanoparticles or chemicals

46 55 Increasing value with foam coating, enhanced sizing etc. IR-dryers KCL pilot coater The foam generator The foam applicator

47 9/18/ Coloring through dyeing of chemical pulps Dyeing of chemical pulps with Sirius Blau- colour using textile colouring method Excess of colour will be washed from the dyed pulp Original RGB-image Amount of dyed fibre: 1 % Recognized fibres Examples: 1%, 5 % & 10 % of dyed fibres on the chemical pulp suspension, can easily be detected by image analysis Coloured viscose paper samples with 2 % and 5 % of dyed chemical softwood fibres on the pulp suspension Amount of dyed fibre: 5 % Amount of dyed fibre: 10 % Contact: Terhi Saari, Key account manager terhi.saari@vtt.fi, phone

48 58 Bright appearance without printing Offers mass-produced sustainable light scattering and functional flexible films for paper and plastic based products Competitive advantage: No need of inks, metals or laminations Based on technology developed by VTT Scalable R2R mass production

49 9/18/ Interested in using enzymes in pulp and paper making applications? VTT offers: Unique expertise in biotechnology as well as pulp and papermaking Paper making research environment Modeling and simulation tools Extensive set of analytics Research services from lab scale trials to assistance in mill trials VTT can help you to: Evaluate the potential of enzyme usage at your mill Choose product and dosing strategy Carry out refining or bleaching trials Analyse enzyme effect on pulp and paper properties Evaluate benefits and challenges related to enzyme implementation Plan mill trials Additional information: Terhi Hakala Tel Terhi Saari

50 60 Opportunities to improve PM efficiency by stratification and enhanced chemical dosing strategies VTT has studied new possibilities to improve wet web runnability with chemicals. Selective additions of polymers Polymer layering Spray addition for uncharged polymers VTT has developed tools to evaluate chemical performance in laboratory, pilot, and mill scale Effect of chemicals on adhesion and cohesion with a same measurement Effect of chemicals on draws and relaxation Objective of the co-operation could be To improve wet web strength and web tension after relaxation How different polymers affect end product quality in different moistures and with different draws. *Improved retention *Improved dry strength * No effect on formation * Improved wet web strength * No effect on dewatering * No effect on end product bulk

51 61 Better runnability with systematic testing at VTT s web break pilot Kurki 2004 In the web break pilot, the strength distribution is determined with over 100 breaks using two-parameter Weibull fit. Wide distribution indicates more higher number of weak spots in the web and consequently more web breaks at lower tensions. Industry uses the device in PM benchmarkings and product development processes, e.g. for testing of lower cost furnishes. Dry strength distributions for six commercial printing papers tested at VTT web break pilot. Paper with wide strength distribution has more web breaks although the average strength is at the same level with most of the other papers.

52 62 Impact of VTT s projects 91% of the respondents to VTT s customer survey reported that their knowledge base and expertise had improved. 74% had already commercially utilised the results of their VTT project or expect to do so within the next three years 28% said that it wasn't even their goal. 67% believed that a VTT project had speeded up or otherwise improved research and development work. 66% confirmed that new products, services or processes were created. 55% thought that a VTT project had promoted networking. 55% believed that a VTT project had contributed positively towards the opening up of new business opportunities. 49% reported that their competitiveness had improved. 48% said that a VTT project had promoted their marketing. 28% reported that a whole new technology was adopted. 17% said that a new business concept or a new earnings model was created. Taloustutkimus Oy, VTT customer survey, 2011

53 63 VTT creates business from technology