Bio-Insight

"Projects like these are an example of how our Government's targeted investments are helping transform Canada's forest sector," said Mr. Allen. "By supporting clean energy production and improved environmental performance, we are laying the groundwork for a more prosperous future for Canada's pulp and paper sector and its workers."

AV Nackawic Inc. is one of 24 pulp and paper companies across Canada that qualified for credits under the $1-billion program based on their 2009 production levels of black liquor, a liquid by-product of the pulping process used to generate heat and power.

This funding will support upgrades that will reduce the mill's water and energy consumption by recycling filtrate within the bleach plant process. As a result, the mill will reduce the amount of chemicals used in the pulping process and decrease the amount of water consumed.

The second project consists of the installation of equipment that will grind wood pieces for more efficient combustion. The ability to process more wood, along with upgrades to the power boiler's combustion system, will increase the mill's annual production of renewable energy by 12,039 gigajoules per year. By generating more renewable energy, the mill will displace a portion of the fossil fuel it currently uses to generate steam and lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 6,254 tonnes per year, as well as reduce its consumption of fresh water.

"Energy consumption and cost have been key focus areas for AV Nackawic for a number of years," said Mr. Shankar Ray, President and CEO of AV Nackawic Inc. "With smart investment programs such as the Pulp and Paper Green Transformation we are able to finance projects that will decrease our production cost and our environmental footprint."

The Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program complements initiatives that are being delivered under Canada's Economic Action Plan to sustain and transform the forest industry in Canada. Budget 2010: Leading the Way on Jobs and Growth is delivering a further $100 million over four years to support the development, commercialization and implementation of advanced technologies in the forest sector - helping create a world-class industry able to compete in the clean energy economy of tomorrow.

In addition, the Government of Canada has committed $170 million to assist the development of next-generation forest products and expand global markets for Canadian forest products. This funding includes $40 million to develop pilot-scale demonstrations under the Transformative Technologies Program.

The new process water heating made the already existing multi-stage heat recovery system of the PM 9 even more efficient. A good portion of the steam application required up to now can be saved by the new system. Now, the waste air of the dryer section is being used by another permanent consumer.

The expense for re-fitting was relatively low in comparison with the saving potential. "For us, the process water heat recovery payed off within the shortest time", so Stefan Probst, Project Manager at Sappi.

The project demonstrates how modern heat recovery systems contribute to an economical system operation and reduction of the CO₂emission by saving steam.

Voith Paper Air Systems is the specialist in the application of air systems and dryer technology within Voith Paper.

CPM solutions make production data and other plant information easily available and present it in an understandable format. Managers gain a much better view of the factors that influence productivity and profitability, and they get easy access to the right information for their day-to-day decision-making and strategic planning. CPM systems include efficient tools to measure, track and optimize processes, and can deliver in-depth insights into the various process flows. They therefore provide the tools needed to maximize the performance of entire production units.

The CPM system was implemented in all three of Pratt’s US mills

Complete package

The solution chosen by Pratt Industries, ABB's cpmPlus for pulp and paper, consists of integrated software modules providing a full range of CPM functionality. The modules can all be used on a stand-alone basis, but the biggest benefits are realized when they are implemented together to form a comprehensive CPM system encompassing order data, production information, process variables, quality data, run-time parameters, etc. This provides a reliable basis for the calculation of true performance metrics and a solid platform for efficient use of sophisticated algorithms developed by ABB to optimize production scheduling, trim and load planning.

The cpmPlus system supplied to Pratt Industries consists of production tracking and quality management functions that are implemented at all three of Pratt Industries' US paper mills, which are located in Shreveport, LA, Conyers, GA, and Staten Island, NY. The system also includes box plant functionality covering 10 box plants in the US, integration with the company's global business system, centralized sales order entry, invoicing and distribution as well as multi-mill planning functions, which are used in Pratt's head office in Conyers.

The new system gives Pratt a “strategic backbone” that will allow Pratt’s mills worldwide to share ideas and best practices

Efficient rollout and commissioning

Both ABB and Pratt Industries realized that the ambitious scale of the project presented special challenges, and an initial implementation schedule of 18 months was agreed. Implementation of the new CPM system was started at the greenfield mill in Shreveport, to ensure that the new mill would benefit from Pratt Industries' best practices right from the start.

The installation of the CPM system at Shreveport proved immediately successful, giving the project team the confidence to perform an ‘on-the-fly' roll-out of the system at the other two mills within an accelerated timeframe. The team was able to roll out the system efficiently, with very fast commissioning. In the end the entire project was completed within 12 months, six months ahead of the original schedule.

Matti Värtinen, ABB's project manager, says that ABB has a strong working relationship with Pratt Industries: "This made it easy to get the buy-in from the end users. The new system is intuitive and easy to use and the roll-outs went very smoothly."

True partnership

The new CPM system provides Pratt Industries with better production and quality data visibility, centrally managed multi-mill planning and optimization, real-time integration of the paper mills and box plants, enhanced shop floor interfaces and modern information technology system architecture.

"Working together in a true partnership has enabled this project to be so successful. The combination of the full scope of supply and the flexibility to match the way Pratt wants to run their business, has greatly accelerated the sustainable return that Pratt Industries has achieved." states Dennis Fleming, Senior IT Director from Pratt Industries.

Strategic backbone

The overall aim for the new CPM system is to provide Pratt Industries with a strategic backbone, which will globally enable common best practices in operations as well as uniform metrics to measure and report results across the continents. Mills worldwide can cost-efficiently share ideas and initiatives as well as know-how, resources and commonly available training and support over different time zones.

The mills also realize savings by sharing ideas for further enhancing their operations, as well as the related costs. Whatever is designed and developed at one location is immediately available to all the others through the ABB CPM template and efficient roll-out tools. The same modular template structure also enables the mills to benefit from version upgrades provided by ABB to ensure that the systems can be kept up-to-date on a cost-effective basis.

Robust product architecture and extensive functionality ensure that ABB's CPM solutions can be used in even the most complex production processes. these CPM solutions are currently in use at more than 100 pulp and paper mills worldwide.