Energies 2023 , 16 , 746
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important pulp producers. However, the data on the Finnish and Swedish mills provided a good approximation of the differences between the mill types. A required renewal rate was calculated for the European PPI within several net-zero target years to evaluate the magnitude of needed annual changes. The key assumption was that new or renovated capacity does not emit any fossil CO 2 . The renewal rate was calculated for constant production volumes. Both production volumes and CO 2 emissions were based on the 2019 levels presented in Table 1. Therefore, it was calculated how much existing capacity needed to be replaced annually in order to proceed from 2019 fossil CO 2 emission level to a PPI that did not emit direct fossil CO 2 emissions in the mills. The calculations and assumptions were rough but provided indicative insights on the magnitude of needed renewal rates. In addition to discussion on changes in business environment and needed renewal rates, this study looked at the future opportunities of the PPI. The potentials of different development paths were evaluated based on previous studies and current volume and structure of the production in the European PPI. The political environment will play a major role in the development of the PPI, and thus, the expected effects and importance of prevailing and upcoming policy measures were discussed. The study highlighted the improvement potential and outlined what should be changed from a policy point of view to enable an efficient decarbonization of the PPI. The study utilized data on the Finnish and Swedish forest industries gathered during the authors’ previous studies [21–23] as illustrative examples on the ongoing industrial development. Finland and Sweden have been forerunners in energy-efficient operation and decarbonization of the PPI, and thus, the countries provide interesting insights. However, it was not expected that the European PPI would follow the same pathways as the Finnish and Swedish ones, because the structure of the PPI varies significantly within the countries. Reduction of energy consumption was evaluated taking into account energy efficiency improvement and changes in production mix. This was estimated using production vol- umes from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) [24] and specific energy consumption (SEC) values provided by Farla et al. [25]. Although the SEC values (Table 2) were estimated already in 1997 and energy efficiency has improved since then, the values illustrate differences between pulp and paper grades and can there- fore be used for estimating changes in energy consumption caused by the changes in production mix.
Table2. Examples of the energy consumptions of different products. Data from Farla et al. [25].
Heat (GJ/t)
Heat (GJ/t)
Electricity (MWh/t)
Electricity (MWh/t)
Paper Grade
PulpGrade
Newsprint
0.39
2.5 7.0 5.0 5.0 6.0
Mechanical pulp Chemical pulp Recycled fiber input
1.47 0.69 0.39
− 2.1 10.0
Printing and writing 0.56
Packaging materials
0.42 0.42
0.4
Hygiene papers
Other papers
0.5
Opportunities for fuel switching and electrification were investigated by mapping how the PPI uses fossil fuels at the moment and how those fuels could be replaced by fossil-free energy sources. In addition to fossil fuels in energy production, PPI processes that combust fuels were discussed as well. Lime kiln is the most significant emission source in the sulphate (kraft) pulp mill. Finland and Sweden have been forerunners in fuel switching in lime kilns, and therefore, the fuel use in the lime kilns in Finland was studied by collecting data from environmental reports and permits [26] mapping how mills have succeeded in fuel switching. Opportunities to provide additional CO 2 savings were considered looking at increased renewable electricity production and novel opportunities. A literature survey was con- ducted to improve understanding of the opportunities. A simplified mass and energy
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