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In the GRETE EU project, concepts for lyocell fibre production using novel solvents and paper grade pulp are developed. This poster presents one promising process concept based on dissolving enzymatically pre-treated eucalyptus paper grade pulp using superbase-based ionic liquid. The techno-economic feasibility of a hypothetical 50 kt/a lyocell fibre production facility is presented and compared to the reference concept, commercial NMMO-Lyocell process plant with same capacity.

The fundamental business values and opportunities for (more) digitalized engineering report ties together different aspects related to doing business with digital twins in the pulp and paper industrial engineering and processing contexts. These practical aspects have been identified, and the understanding in them has been developed during the SEED project especially in the digital twins related use case work and in related research, and in the work done related to joint offering of digital solutions.

In industrial applications, data is widely utilized to enable cost savings through optimized production. However, in a technical research organization, experimental data is often available in large quantities yet not fully utilized. The work presents a case study of the development of a digital twin for a pilot-scale fibre process research environment (SUORA), located in Jyväskylä, Finland. Using the digital twin, discrete laboratory analyses could be partially replaced with real-time quality parameter estimations. To evaluate the replicability of the approach, multiple quality parameters were studied, including dryness (former, press and web), as well as web basis weight, density and thickness. To construct the digital twin, data spanning over five years was collected, consisting of process measurements and laboratory analysis results. Representative operating periods were selected by the process operators, and the respective data converted into a single dataset. Using the dataset, feature selection was carried out for each quality parameter separately, showing the most descriptive process measurements. With the identified features, gradient boosting models were trained, showing good agreement with test data. In addition, isolation forest models were trained to assess the quality of the input data. With this approach, the operator was able to estimate also the prediction quality. The digital twin was deployed in the pilot control room (Fig. 1, left), with input data from the process control system fed to the models at a constant interval (Fig. 1, right). As the main benefit, the digital twin enables better estimation of the current process state, allowing desired steady-state conditions to be reached more easily. During the future trials with the pilot environment further model validation and end-user experience evaluation will be conducted.

Executive summaryResource efficiency, investments and focus on added value• Since launch of the first Finnish Bioeconomy strategy in 2014 the economic output of the bioeconomy has increased particularly in the forest and constructionsectors resulting from larger production volumes. In the future, however, moreemphasis should be put on value-adding investments and production.• Initially, the economic output and social welfare created by bioeconomy were emphasized. Today, also the concern about the changing climate and loss of biodiversity challenge bioeconomy, its raw material sourcing and product life cycles.• Biomass is an abundant yet constrained resource. Investing in new, resourceefficient processes holds significant potential in increasing both the overall production and the value of the existing resource use.Insights and snapshots of future products• A larger share of the forest based value chain could be in Finland when customertailored solutions are designed and produced prior to transportation. Packagingsolutions, textiles, wood construction and lignin based value added productscould be emphasised as examples.• Realising the unutilised potential in conventional agriculture to increase production efficiency and at the same time radically cut down the environmental impactand maintain safety brings significant competitive advantage. The potential canbe fully capitalised through the more efficient use of data and advanced digitalsystems in production planning and monitoring.• Emerging food production technologies such as vertical farming, aquaculturebased on water circulation, and cellular agriculture are rapidly developing. In thefuture, they can offer alternative solutions for food production when harnessedbased on solar and other renewable energy production.• Versatility in the energy system is key to increasing resilience in the energy transition currently taking place. The constrained biomass resources available for theenergy sector should be directed to the most valuable uses from the systemicperspective with special focus to industrial uses, and other hard to decarbonisesectors such as long-haul transport including marine and aviation transportation.Also the efficiency of existing biomass-based energy generation can be improvedsignificantly by reducing losses throughout the supply chain.Future services and knowhow• Nature based services are essential part of bioeconomy and offer increasingsources of health and welfare also for urban populations. Nature experiences andnew types of services (soft adventure, packaged products, guidance, products forurban users etc.) form basis for growing tourism and business.• Technology industries offering technology, services and machinery for the bioeconomy is a vital and increasing part of the Finnish bioeconomy and its export.Long traditions and investments in high level education and innovation cultureform foundation for successfully renewing technology ecosystems.

The overall aim of the project was to systematically evaluate the suitability of softwood tannins for wood resin and hot melt applications including the development of adhesive formulations for both applications. Furthermore the aim is to improve the process economy. Therefore, optimizing the extraction step and improving the extraction yield of tannins and the stability of tannins in liquids were project objectives.In the project, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. (coordinator), the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk) have evaluated technologies for an industrial production method of tannin from softwood bark and performed application tests.The project delivered a realistic estimate of the yield for crude tannin in an industrial set-up. The yield of solubilized material in pilot extractions were up to 14 w% from finely ground spruce bark in a batch process in VTT’s pilot extraction, 10 w% in a batch process with flow through in Luke’s pilot extraction and up to 7 w% in the newly developed continuous extraction using 8% consistency at Xamk. The lower yield compared to up to 20% in the literature, can be partly explained by the fact that bark stream in pulp and saw mills contain substantial amounts of wood. In project samples from a saw mill, 20 % and 30% wood content were estimated for bark from spruce and bine bark, respectively. The yield of crude tannin from pine bark remained lower in pilot extraction trials with 7.8 w% yield. In agreement with earlier findings, the most potential crude tannin extracts from spruce bark contained ~45% phenolic compounds, ~40% carbohydrates and ~5% ash for batch extractions at 90 or 110 °C.An approach to produce a purified tannin product enriched in phenolic compounds was developed. The performed steps were liberation of monosaccharides from the crude tannin by enzymatic hydrolysis of carbohydrates followed by nanofiltration in order to remove the liberated monosaccharides. In total, 50% of carbohydrates were liberated with an enzyme dosage of 10 mg/g DM. The fractionation with a nanofiltration membrane enabled 9-fold concentration of the enzymatically treated crude spruce bark tannin in pilot scale with successful removal of the liberated carbohydrates, resulting in enriched phenolic fraction. However, also the permeate contained some phenols. Thus, both monosaccharides and low molecular weight phenols can pass through NFG membrane, enlarging the average molecular weight of the fraction.In a shelf life study, it was observed that aqueous crude tannin products can be stored at +4°C for a period of 7 months preserving the reactivity against formaldehyde and without notable microbiological growth.The tannins from softwood bark were tested as phenol replacement in phenol-formaldehyde resins (thermosets) for plywood gluing and at a replacement level of 30%, crude pine tannin, the resins showed comparable adhesive bond strength as commercial wood resins in laboratory testing. Even 50% replacement level gave reasonable bond strength. Future work should be directed towards formulation to ensure water resistance. It could be demonstrated that a mixture of tannin and poly(DL-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) is a potential hot melt adhesive. The copolymer can be used as a hot melt adhesive by itself, but the processability and adhesion towards uncoated boxboard increased with tannins.

Biological CO2 capture by microalgae is seen as a promising technology and has the advantage of producing biofuel/biomass simultaneously. The combination of biofuel/biomass production, CO2 fixation and bio-treatment of wastewater underscore the prospect and potential of microalgae. This work concerns the optimal use of microalgal biomass, focusing on carbon capture and economic feasibility. Microalgal products are briefly reviewed as well as the carbon capture from industrial flue gas. Conceptual level techno-economic analysis is erformedfor four concepts that produce lipids, biofuels and/or fertilizer. The evaluated processes include open pond cultivation with industrial flue gas, harvesting, rying, cell wall disruption, extraction of lipids and anaerobic digestion. Process parameter and economic evaluation data, such as prices, specific power consumptions and the yields of unit operations, have been obtained mainly from literature. The results of this study indicate that microalgae-based production of selected products would be unprofitable with the assumptions used. Sectorial literature shows similar performance. The most significant factors affecting the profitability were high investment costs and other fixed costs, as well as the cost of heat in concepts where biomass was dried.

Use of microalgae as a biofuel source has many advantages, as is acknowledged worldwide. Many countries are eager to offset carbon dioxide emission and develop indigenous and sustainable energy sources, especially countries which are dependent on imported energy. The relatively high growth rate and ability of microalgae to sequester carbon dioxide are main factors driving the development of future algal based biofuels. Microalgae also have potential to be a more sustainable source of energy, compared to other crops such as rapeseed or oil palm and lignocellulose. This results partly from the fact that algae can be cultivated on wasteland and the cultivation does not need fresh water but instead lower-quality water such as saline or wastewater can be used. This also leads to the possibility of wastewater bioremediation, since microalgae are able to utilize nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater and absorb some heavy metals. Rising energy prices and increasing global energy demand are key driving forces for alternative energy solutions. Algal-based energy is one of the options being considered, but at the moment the production costs are significantly higher than the market price of energy. However, there are many ways to narrow this gap. Developing more efficient production technology is one way to achieve this goal. Integrated solutions, for example obtaining essential, expensive nutrients from wastewater, is another. Furthermore, if algae can be used to produce some high-value products or by-products as well, the operation could already be profitable. To support the development of algal energy, government subsidies are in place, however market-driven development of the industry is important. Currently microalgae are not cultivated at commercial scale for energy purposes only. There are however many companies and research institutes developing solutions to all of the main challenges. This report presents the findings of a roadmap work carried out in 2013 based on interviews with Indian experts and VTT expert workshops. The roadmap target is the potential role of Finnish SMEs in algae-based energy system in India.

The paper analyses a lock-in type of innovation management problem: how to renew a traditional regional industry that has been locally oriented, based on quite low technological level, and is currently faced with global competition that challenges the industry to its core. The paper discusses a project to renew the cellulosic fibre value chain through strategic technology roadmapping in the region of Green Triangle, South Australia. The project created a systematic approach for building locally grounded transformation pathways in the context of global industry transition. The project was realised in two stages. The first stage focused on the analysis of present situation in the regional forest industry. The stage two aimed at constructing strategic technology roadmaps and recommendations to catalyse industrial transformation in the region.

This report introduces a bottom-up global pulp and paper model with a focus on energy consumption and carbon emissions in the sector. It is a year by year recursive simulation behavioural model running till 2030, incorporating rich technological details and in depth market structures of the industry for 47 world regions. The long time horizon and the detailed modular structure enable the model users to assess the impacts of long term climatic scenarios. In addition to the Business as Usual developments of the sector, climate commitment scenarios are also presented, where the responses of the sector together with the main driving forces are identified. The scenarios reveal a significant carbon reduction potential in the pulp and paper making, and also point to a number of unique features of the sector in reacting to a carbon constraint.

A simple and economic alkali-O2 oxidation (LigniOx) process has been developed for the production of concrete plasticizers and versatile dispersants from technical lignins. Previously, soda and kraft lignin based LigniOx lignins have been shown to have great potential to serve the traditional lignosulfonate markets, and to compete even with more expensive synthetic products. Here, the latest results of successful use of kraft, organosolv and hydrolysis lignin based LigniOx solutions for mortar plasticization in comparison to several commercial lignosulfonates and synthetic superplasticizers are presented. To widen the range of applications of LigniOx lignins, high performance for dispersing of special carbon black into aqueous solutions, used e.g. in paints, inks and various coatings is demonstrated.

The 8th edition of the Conference, and this book of proceedings, continue the tradition of NWBC on building the foundation of a sustainable bio-economy. This requires that the many aspects of the foundation are systematically considered, including for example societal issues, design and consumer needs, technological performance and economics of production. Furthermore, findings both from industrial experiences from all linked sectors in implementation and R&D and academic research needs to be communicated to close the loop. The organizers hope that the selected scientific contributions, industrial viewpoints and the conference format are able to contribute to building yet another layer on this foundation.

VTT has developed totally bio-based and compostable PLA – wood fibre com-posite material to be utilised in industrial applications. The usability of the mate-rial has been demonstrated in several processing methods and products. A large-scale injection moulding chair demo was carried out together with a de-sign company KO-HO to demonstrate the usability of the material in industrial scale. Adhesion between PLA and wood-based fibres was improved with bio-based additives and chemo-mechanical treatments providing improved ductility, tensile strength and stiffness. Especially epoxy functional polyunsaturated vege-table oils was shown to act as a combined reactive plasticiser-coupling agent in bleached softwood kraft pulp reinforced PLA composites. The material was also shown to be applicable for novel light-weight structures, contributing towards decreased ecological footprint with savings in materials, energy and costs. In thermoplastic extrusion foaming process, wood fibre reinforced PLA was demonstrated to provide a promising alternative in formation of a closed-cell structure with low density. Furthermore, the material was shown to be suitable for production of thermoformable sheets produced by film extrusion. The ex-truded sheets can be utilised e.g. in light-weight honeycomb structures. The developments can open new business opportunities together with contribution to more sustainable world.

These proceedings highlight the latest advances in the wood-based biorefining related R&D&I and form a "snapshot" of the state of the art today. The most discussed topics include lignin based products and sugars; wood fractionation, enzymatic hydrolysis, filtration, and extraction processes; Kraft pulping process integration; and lignin separation from spent cooking liquors.

Water post-hydrolysis of birch Kraft pulps in a flow-through reactor allows their conversion to viscose-grade pulps while recoverying the extracted sugars as xylooligosaccharides (XOS). Up to 240 ºC, increasing extraction temperature favors the removal of xylan over the degradation of cellulose. Beyond 240 ºC, increasing temperature has negligible effects on the selectivity of xylan removal. The recovery of XOS from the hydrolysates increases with flow rate due to limited formation of sugar degradation products.

The production of electrical insulation components with cellulose as the raw material is based on an established technology. However, there is room for improvement in the current manufacturing as it is manual, and thus labour-intensive and slow. In addition, utilization of raw materials and energy are not optimal. These challenges will be tackled in a recently started EU-funded NOVUM project, aiming at development of pilot line based on novel manufacturing technologies for cellulose-based electrical insulation components. The new pilot line will target at rapid, automated and design-driven production of the components as well as significant efficiency improvement, higher productivity and flexibility, while achieving lower operational costs compared to the current technology. In addition, increased resource efficiency is expected, including reduction in labour time, waste generation and energy consumption. Besides technical feasibility, the end user requirements as well as economic, social and environmental impacts, including circular economy considerations will be taken into account.NOVUM focuses on three technologies for processing of cellulose-based materials: 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, foam forming and thermoforming. Cellulose material development will take place simultaneously to the process development to take into account the requirements of the different processing technologies, such as the thermoplastic features needed for 3D printing, as well as the operational requirements for electrical insulation components. In this presentation, the idea behind NOVUM will be discussed. Progress to-date will also be outlined, the first actions focusing on cellulose material and process development and finding out the end user requirements.

High-purity cellulosic pulps with cellulose contents above 98% were produced from bleached softwood paper-grade pulp by applying an enzymatic treatment followed by caustic-borate extraction. In acetylation experiments, the extracted pulp samples having the lowest amounts of residual hemicelluloses resulted in very low yellowness, even as low as 0.18. However, those samples also showed a low transmittance of the triacetate dope, which is undesirable as regards the production of an acetate-grade pulp. This decrease in transmittance is believed to be due to the formation of Cellulose II and its hornification upon removing the water from the pulp.