PAPER making! g! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL ® Volume 9, Number 3 2023
by testing optimal configurations which show gains in load density up to 40%. The methodology can be easily extended to other tissue paper products as well as any low density product showing reversible deformation during packing. Multi-tier supply chain sustainability in the pulp and paper industry: a framework and evaluation methodology, Bo Feng, Xueyan Hu & Ifeyinwa Juliet Orji, International Journal of Production Research , Vol. 61(14) (2023). The pulp and paper industry has significant sustainability implications and necessarily requires a careful consideration of direct and lower-tier suppliers for effective sustainable supply chain management. This paper utilized an extensive literature review and semi-structured interviews of experts in the Chinese pulp and paper industry to unearth the factors that highly influence multi-tier supply chain sustainability. A Technological-Organizational- Environmental (TOE) and Human-Organizational-Technological (HOT-fit) based theoretical framework was employed to classify the identified factors. Then, an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) based methodology was applied to determine the relative importance of the factors. A comparison analysis of the relative importance of the factors as determined by the experts in the focal companies, Tier-1 suppliers and Tier-2 suppliers of the Chinese pulp and paper industry is presented. The results show that institutional and technological factors are most critical to actualizing multi-tier supply chain sustainability. Thus, the study outcomes present relevant theoretical and practical implications for the managers and practitioners in the pulp and paper industry on how to facilitate multi-tier supply chain sustainability for increased competitiveness. Furthermore, this study provides guidelines for other industries as well and sets the stage for subsequent theorization and exploration of multi-tier supply chain sustainability for expected performance gains. WASTE TREATMENT Reducing freshwater consumption in pulp and paper industries using pinch analysis and mathematical optimization, Ali Esmaeeli & Mohammad-Hossein Sarrafzadeh, Journal of Water Process Engineering , Vol. 53, 103646 (July 2023). The pulp and paper (P&P) industries are classified among the water-intensitive industries. In this work, implementation of the Water Closed-Loop System (WCLS) in a P&P factory to reduce water consumption and wastewater generation was reported. First, the water and steam network of the mill was synthesized, and water sinks and sources along with their flowrates were identified. The key pollutants, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and total dissolved solids (TDS), were pinpointed and acceptable levels for water sinks were acquired. In the second step, by using water pinch analysis with the direct-reuse approach, each limiting pollutant was investigated, and the maximum reduction in freshwater consumption equal to 36.9 % was obtained by considering TSS as the only pollutant. The minimum potential for reducing water consumption belonged to COD (4.0 %) and TDS (18.9 %). In the regeneration-reuse approach, the incomplete performance of the mill's treatment plant in removing COD and TDS resulted in no improvement in the results of the previous step. In the case of TSS alone, the reduction in freshwater consumption increased to 93.3 %. Mathematical optimization was used to study all limiting contaminants simultaneously. The direct-reuse approach achieved a 4.0 % reduction in water consumption, while the regeneration-reuse did not change water consumption compared to the direct-reuse approach, emphasizing the incomplete operation of the treatment plant. Finally, the output contaminants levels of a hypothetical decentralized and modified existing treatment plant were estimated using literature. In this case, the freshwater consumption of the mill declined by 93 %.
Technical Abstracts
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