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thermal energy demand, respectively, of the pulp and paper manufacturing sector, could be fulfilled in the EU. 4. Conclusions An energy-efficient solution for the paper industry, based on energy recovery from waste paper and deinking sludge, is presented in this work. The proposed solution consists of CHP generation from waste paper and deinking sludge blends through gasification in combination with an internal combustion engine. A gasification model is developed considering the experimental results on gasification of waste paper and deinking sludge blends and bamboo chips available in the literature. Sensitivity analyses were performed to predict the optimum operating conditions of temperature and equivalence ratio by assessing their effect on syngas composition, lower heating value, cold gas efficiency, carbon conversion efficiency, and net power obtained from the conversion process. Temperature raising has a positive impact on the process as it increases the syngas lower heating value, cold gas efficiency, carbon conversion efficiency, and net available power whereas the equivalence ratio has a reverse effect. Estimating CHP generation potentiality from waste paper and deinking sludge in the EU in 2019 through the proposed system allows us to highlight that: • between 25 and 28% of the electrical and between 44 and 48% of thermal energy demand in the pulp and paper manufacturing sector could be supplied; • this would allow saving between 24.8 and 28.9 Gt of CO 2 per year. Therefore, the proposed system can significantly contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions caused by the current management practices used for waste disposal in the paper recycling industry as well as by its consumption of electrical and thermal energy, which comes from fossil fuels. This, in accordance with the goals of the EU Green Deal 2021, would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the renewable energy generation in this sector [72]. In order to better analyse the environmental benefits of the proposed system, a life cycle assessment should be carried out as future development of this study. Author Contributions: Conceptualization, S.D.F. and M.R.U.; methodology, S.D.F. and M.R.U.; software, S.D.F. and M.R.U.; validation, S.D.F. and M.R.U.; formal analysis, M.R.U.; investigation, S.D.F. and M.R.U.; resources, M.R.U.; data curation, S.D.F. and M.R.U.; writing—original draft preparation, M.R.U.; writing—review and editing, S.D.F.; visualization, M.R.U.; supervision, S.D.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Funding: This research received no external funding. Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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