Board Converting News, March 31, 2025

TAPPI Journal Awards (CONT’D FROM PAGE 20)

ucts containing nonwood residues: A case study on liner- board and corrugating medium.” Authored by Antonio Suarez, Ashok Ghosh, Fritz Paulsen and Peter W. Hart of the Smurfit Westrock (for- merly WestRock) research team, the sustainability paper appeared in the March 2024 issue and is now available for free download at imisrise.tappi.org . Suarez is a senior R&D scientist, Ghosh is R&D man- ager, and Paulsen is senior director of Research. Hart, who organized the March special issue featuring peer-re- viewed content from the 2023 TAPPI PEERS/IBBC confer- ence, was a Research Fellow for Smurfit WestRock before he passed away in May 2024. “Suarez’s team’s research examined pulp from non- woods like wheat straw and sugarcane bagasse using a holistic life cycle analysis approach to project environ- mental performance in packaging products,” said TJ Ed- itor-in-Chief Douglas Coffin. “The results can help mills make decisions about which fibers ensure a low carbon footprint.” Suarez will also receive TJ’s Honghi Tran Prize. The $3,000 cash prize is endowed by Professor Emeritus Honghi Tran of the University of Toronto, the author and co-author of more than 80 papers published in TJ. Tran es- tablished the award in 2019 as a $2,000 prize to encour- age and reward the publication of high-quality research in TJ. It was recently increased to $3,000. The Best Research Paper Award and Honghi Tran Prize will be presented at TAPPICon, May 4-7 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 2024 runner-up to Best Research Paper was “Alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) sized paper reversion due to oxida- tive photodegradation,” authored by Yao Ntifafa, senior re- search scientist at Smurfit Westrock, with co-authors Yun Ji and Peter W. Hart. Ji is professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of North Dakota. The runner-up paper was part of a special Papermak- ing Additives issue organized by Editorial Board Member Scott Rosencrance of Kemira and Guest Editor Anthony J. Petty II of Solenis. “Even though AKD has been used for years, this work nicely demonstrates the impact of light and oxygen on AKD sizing performance related to the impact of unwanted photodegradation processes.” said Rosencrance. “This work can be used to inform end users of AKD sized paper of these dynamics as well as to inform de- velopmental teams of possible ways to reduce AKD size reversion by creating new formulas and application strate- gies.” For more information, visit tappi.org .

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March 31, 2025

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