PAPER making! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL ® FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TEC Volume 12, Number 1, 2026
Plant-level carbon accounting of China's pulp and paper industry via multimodal fusion SONG HU 1 , HUAQING QI 1 , ZIFEI WANG 1 , XIAOYU WU 2 , YULIN HAN 1 & YI MAN 1 Plant-scale industrial carbon accounting is critical for developing targeted emission-reduction policies. However, most assessments of carbon-intensive sectors rely on aggregate statistics, which obscure significant heterogeneity among individual plants. China's pulp and paper industry (PPI), the largest globally, encompasses diverse production processes, raw material inputs, and emission sources. Existing accounting frameworks rely on statistical data and average emission factors within poorly defined system boundaries, which prevents differentiation at the individual plant level. Here, we propose a multimodal data fusion framework that integrates high-resolution remote-sensing imagery with plant textual data to capture structural and operational characteristics undetectable by any single data modality. Applied to 720 pulping and papermaking plants across China, the framework achieves R 2 values of up to 0.96 across five plant types and estimates total sectoral carbon emissions at 163.6 million tonnes of CO 2 in 2022, with pronounced regional disparities concentrated in eastern coastal provinces. Analysis of functional-zone contributions further reveals that wastewater treatment areas are a consistent cross-category emission driver, and that just 5% of high-emission plants account for approximately 43% of sectoral emissions—a skewed structure that demands differentiated regulatory intervention. Incorporating regional solar radiation data, rooftop photovoltaic deployment is projected to reduce annual PPI emissions by up to 10.3%, with primary-fiber pulp plants offering the greatest mitigation leverage. Beyond China's PPI, this scalable, data-driven approach provides a transferable blueprint for granular, plant-level carbon accounting in other heterogeneous heavy industries. Contact Details: 1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Papermaking and Paper-Based Materials, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China. 2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, Volume 30, March 2026, 100682
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100682 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
The Paper Industry Technical Association (PITA) is an independent organisation which operates for the general benefit of its members – both individual and corporate – dedicated to promoting and improving the technical and scientific knowledge of those working in the UK pulp and paper industry. Formed in 1960, it serves the Industry, both manufacturers and suppliers, by providing a forum for members to meet and network; it organises visits, conferences and training seminars that cover all aspects of papermaking science. It also publishes the prestigious journal Paper Technology International ® and the PITA Annual Review , both sent free to members, and a range of other technical publications which include conference proceedings and the acclaimed Essential Guide to Aqueous Coating .
Article 8 – Sustainability
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