Coming together to create the sustainable paper mill of the future

How Sappi is collaborating with other stakeholders and the latest science to reinvent paper making for the 21st century

The German paper industry has set itself an ambitious goal in its bid to create a sustainable future for paper manufacturing that supports both the goals of the European Green Deal and national climate protection targets in Germany: to cut energy use in papermaking by 80% come 2045.

The initiative is being driven by non-profit research organisation Modellfabrik Papier (MFP). Sappi is one of the founding members and has joined 23 other stakeholders – including paper manufacturers, machine and plant manufacturers, suppliers as well technology providers – along with seven scientific partners in a unique collaboration that's rethinking how paper can and should be made.

"We are all called upon to make our processes more sustainable to protect our livelihoods," says Sappi Ehingen Mill Director Maik Willig, who serves on MFP's shareholders committee. "For us as energy-intensive companies, tackling this task is both a social obligation and an economic necessity."

The need to decarbonise

The numbers show why change is needed. Currently, paper manufacturing in Germany uses 2,798 kWh per ton of production, with the drying section alone consuming 60% of total energy.

The industry has already made strides by reducing emissions per ton of paper by 45% compared to 1995, but the use of existing technologies gives limited capacity for further savings. That means radical manufacturing solutions are required to make additional, far-reaching changes.

"There is still potential to decrease the CO2 footprint through different optimisation steps and implementation of state-of-the-art technology," says Steffen Wurdinger, VP Manufacturing & Technology at Sappi Europe. "I hope the MFP will develop and define those technologies. But we also need a totally different approach – I call it a revolution in paper making – to come as close as possible to climate-neutral paper production."

Creating an innovation network

The initiative traces its roots to the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, which prompted paper industry leaders to discuss future challenges and ways to transform paper production. In 2018, paper manufacturers, suppliers and scientists proposed the idea of an innovation network to aggressively tackle energy savings that would move beyond small-step efficiency improvements.

Though the initiative is driven by the paper industry, it also relies on funding from the German government. In practice, MFP’s operational model fosters close cooperation between its participant groups of shareholders, scientific partners and government funders. The result is what MFP managing director Peter Bekaert describes as “one of the most ambitious joint projects in the paper industry in Germany”.

A new research building, equipped with lab facilities and pilot machines for testing technologies, is currently under construction in Düren. The location, in Germany's Rhenish Mining Area, puts it close to key universities in Aachen and Jülich, as well as at the heart of a region with deep roots in the paper industry.

MFP takes a two-pronged approach to its research programmes. The first, Forschungscluster Modellfabrik Papier (FOMOP), focuses on developing new technologies. These include the modifying of raw materials so that they require less energy to be processed, as well as “disruptive” innovations such as dry paper laying that uses little to no water.

The second programme, Framework for Resource, Energy, Sustainability Treatment in Paper Production (FOREST), aims to track energy, material and carbon flows in the manufacturing process down to sub-process and sub-product levels. The goal is to create a tool that can gauge the CO2 footprint of any intermediate or end product so that the production process can be optimised to target carbon reduction.

Our central Sappi role

As one of MFP's founding members, Sappi plays an active role through the shareholders' committee, helping to shape the project's direction and to bridge research and real-world use. "We interact closely with the scientific personnel to assure that the new ideas generated in the MFP can be implemented in the industry," Willig explains. When called upon, Sappi's German mills are ready and available to support production trials and tests.

The stakes for the project are high, but so is the ambition – and commitment. “Achieving far-reaching change requires a long-term approach and resources that enable out-of-the-box thinking,” says Bekaert. Through its focused collaboration, MFP is forging the path toward climate-neutral paper production, creating blueprints for tomorrow's fully sustainable mills