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Abstract Pulp and paper manufacturing sector constitutes one of the largest industry segments in the world in terms of water and energy usage as well as of significant use and release of chemicals and combustion products. Since its chief feedstock –wood fiber– is renewable, this industry can play an important role in sustainable development, becoming an example of how a resource can be managed to provide a sustained supply to meet society's current and future needs. This calls for a thorough assessment of environmental costs and impacts associated to pulp and paper operations, including both direct and indirect inputs supporting the whole papermaking process as well as the main outputs, co-products and by-products. By means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, this paper aims at assessing the environmental sustainability of the pulp and paper production so as to identify those phases across the whole supply chain that entail the highest environmental loads, thus requiring improvements. To determine the environmental impacts as accurately as possible, the manufacturing stages performed in the pulp and paper mill complex of Stora Enso Oyj Veitsiluoto Mills at Kemi, Northern Finland, were taken as a model and assessed by means of the SimaPro 8 LCA software, utilizing ReCiPe Midpoint (H) method for the impact assessment. As expected, most of the resulting impacts are caused by the industrial production phase. The production processes of pulp and paper jointly affect all the investigated impact categories with the highest shares, ranging from 50% of generated impacts on water depletion up to 88% on freshwater eutrophication. Generally, the main contributions to environmental loads come from the electricity and heat requirements and, only at a minor extent, from the use of chemicals such as the sodium hydroxide and sodium chlorate. In particular, pulp production process generates the main loads on global warming (46% of the total impacts), ozone depletion (39%), freshwater eutrophication (55%), human toxicity (46%), metal depletion (42%) and fossil depletion (46%). In the remaining investigated impact categories, namely terrestrial acidification, photochemical oxidant formation and terrestrial ecotoxicity, most of impacts derive from the use of optical brighteners and fillers in the final steps of paper production and from the intensive consumption of water in the recycling step of end-of-life affecting water depletion. Moreover, the implementation of measures for material and energy efficiency in the assessed system, such as the use of renewable energy generated in situ from black liquor and residual biomass to support the requirements of the integrated pulp and paper mills and the waste paper recycling, resulted to be crucial in lowering the environmental burdens. In particular, the partial fulfillment of electricity and heat requirements by means of a circular use of residues within the system leads to a noteworthy reduction of impacts in all the investigated impact categories, up to more than 70% in global warming and fossil depletion potentials, thus contributing to higher process sustainability compared with other averaged European systems for paper production. The obtained research results are a valuable source of management information for the decision makers, at both company and national levels, with the aim to improve the environmental performance of pulp and paper industry. Highlights • A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of papermaking in Finland was performed. • The main environmental hotspots in each process step were identified and discussed. • Energy and material efficiency solutions leads to a noteworthy reduction of impacts. • Pulp and paper industry is a benchmark model to transition towards a circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, a large amount of water required for paper production and various chemicals has been identified in effluents, which is produced at different steps of paper making in paper mills. The pulp and paper industry is typically related to pollution difficulties related to high biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), colour, suspended solids, lignin and chlorinated compounds. Several studies have been made on eliminate these difficulties of pulp and paper effluents, the problem still continues. Although the physical and chemical methods are on the track of treatment, they are not on par with biological treatment because of cost ineffectiveness and residual effects. The biological treatment is known to be effective in reducing the organic load and toxic effects of paper mill effluents. Some microorganisms including bacteria and fungi have been involved in degrading the chemicals present in pulp and paper mill effluent. This article is an overview of the attempts made by several researchers worldwide to use biotechnological methods for degradation of the toxic compounds present in pulp and paper mill effluents by using fungi, bacteria, algae and enzymes. The current study clearly shows that application of native dominant bacterial and fungal isolates may be used forthe treatment of large pulp and paper mills effluents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research and refinement of papermaking wastewater treatment and reuse technology are important measures for energy conservation and emission reduction in the papermaking industry. This paper studied the process of biofilm formation and dissolved oxygen mass transfer of biofilms cultivated under different aeration intensities and attempted to enhance the biofilm reactor performance. The removal efficiencies of the chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, and ammonia nitrogen through biofilm treatment in two parallel biofilm reactors were higher under the larger aeration intensity (8 L/min) than under the smaller intensity (4 L/min). Macroscopically, this reflected the effect of dissolved oxygen on nitrogen removal. Microscopically, in terms of the dissolved oxygen profiles inside of the biofilms determined using a microelectrode probe, both aerobic and anaerobic layers occurred inside the biofilms, which suggested that simultaneous nitrification and denitrification occurred. The different aeration intensities led to differences in the internal and external dissolved oxygen concentrations in the biofilms, which affected the biofilm growth. This led to different micro-structures, and so the internal metabolism and wastewater treatment performance of the biofilms were not identical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with suitable attributes is important for its successful application. Green methods of synthesis have many advantages as compared to commonly used chemical and physical methods. Biopolymers provide a suitable condition for the synthesis, growth, and stability of nanoparticles. A biopolymer which does not put pressure on resources, biocompatible obtained as waste and easily available has the potential for application in the synthesis of AgNP. Biopolymer which is a waste from paper manufacturing process has been employed to synthesize AgNP, and the synthesis has been confirmed by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The role of the biopolymer in the synthesis of stable AgNP has been confirmed by FTIR and TEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A coagulation/Fenton process was used for the advanced treatment of papermaking wastewater. Optimal reaction conditions were proposed based on the removal efficiency and the operating costs. The overall removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) reached 86.5% for polyaluminium chloride and polyacrylamide concentrations of 120 and 1 mg/L, H2O2dosage of 4 mmol/L, and [H2O2]/[Fe2+] molar ratio of 1. The distribution and transformation of the polarity and molecular weight of the organic matter in raw wastewater, in the coagulation process effluent, and in the Fenton process effluent were also studied. The coagulation process efficiently removed the hydrophobic fraction, which comprised 60% of the fractions in the raw wastewater. The decrease in COD during the coagulation process reduced the required H2O2dosage in the subsequent Fenton process. The cost of the coagulation/Fenton process amounted to 0.78 RMB/m3, which was lower than that of the classic Fenton process alone (1.39 RMB/m3). Thus, this study offered an efficient and cost-effective method for the advanced treatment of papermaking wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The allylation of European beech wood organosolv lignin (OL) with diallyl carbonate (DAC) in the presence of base catalysts is shown to be an efficient, non-toxic, and sustainable modification technique. Comparative studies of different bases and temperatures were performed to optimize the solvent-free allylation of OL. Up to 90% of the aromatic and aliphatic hydroxyl groups in OL were converted to the respective allyl ethers or allyl carbonates using tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) as recyclable base. The demonstrated strategy allows the introduction of functional groups into the structure of lignin, which will enable further modification. Detailed structural analytics by 31P, 1H, and 13C NMR, as well as IR spectroscopy and detailed mass analysis using SEC–ESI–MS verified the functionalization and delivered insights into the structure of lignin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lime mud from papermaking process (LMP) is a solid waste originated from the causticization process. Due to fine particle size and high alkalinity of LMP, its recovery is expensive and adverse effect is still uncertain. This review presents several current techniques proposed for LMP utilization in order to minimize its toxic effect on the environment. Conventional uses such as soil amendments, landfill and building materials are continually conducted. Recently, novel utilization of LMP to immobilize and remove pollutants in different phases (liquid, solid and gas) has provided new opportunities for efficient removal of dye, organics, heavy metals, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Moreover, as an additive summarized in this review, LMP can enhance the performance of biological process for treating organic waste, and its available value would be potentially improved further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papermaking is once again under consideration as a new market for waste textiles in the UK. Whereas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the driver was to provide a convenient and cheap form of cetlutose, now the need is to create markets for waste textiles that are disposed of to incineration or landfill, or which go to declining recycling markets such as wipers or mattress filings. Technical and economic issues are substantial and it may be that the end product of the papermaking process will not resemble the original product of 200 years ago. This article will consider the technical challenges and theoretical understanding of this re-innovation process. It will explore how the changing costs of environmental regulation compliance, and changing consumer preferences are leading to the revisiting of processes in the UK that were previously abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Biofilm formation in papermaking processes could inflict financial loss by interrupting paper machine operation and pose a potential health hazard. A mixed microbial culture obtained from paper machine slime and a Pseudomonas strain (identified as Pseudomonas putida HB45) which is tolerant to the alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (quaternary ammonium chloride, QAC) were used to investigate the interplay between disinfectants and glucose on bacterial growth and biofilm formation. QAC and 2,2-dibromo-3-nitrilopropionamide (DBNPA) were found to be effective at concentration lower than isothiazolone in both standardized Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) tests. Crystal violet staining technique demonstrated that biofilm formation of P. putida HB45 and the mixed culture could be controlled by modest dosage of DBNPA and QAC; however, they could be barely eliminated due to high MBC to MIC ratios. In simulated papermaking processing water, glucose was shown to increase the average biofilm formation rates during stationary phase for both P. putida HB45 and the mixed culture under the presence of biocides. Complexity and population diversity of biofilm of the paper machine slime was observed by in-situ cryo-scanning electron microscopy. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CSLM) was employed to show qualitative and partial quantitative biofilm formation under various circumstances. The results of this study could assist improving strategy for controlling biofilm formation in papermaking processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Wt% of aragonite, a CaCO3 polymorph, increased with higher hydraulic activity (°C) of limestone in precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) from the lime-soda process (Ca(OH)2-NaOH-Na2CO3). Only calcite, the most stable polymorph, was crystallized at hydraulic activity under 10 °C, whereas aragonite also started to crystallize over 10 °C. The crystallization of PCC is more dependent on the hydraulic activity of limestone than CaO content, a factor commonly used to classify limestone ores according to quality. The results could be effectively applied to the determination of polymorphs in synthetic PCC for eco-friendly paper manufacture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study describing the use of online sample enrichment followed by atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (APCI-MS) in monitoring the concentration levels of common resin and fatty acids in papermaking process waters. The materials used and the procedure of the study is offered. it notes that the method can be used to provide useful information about the concentration levels of these acids in different stages of the process.

It is not uncommon to find literacy figured as "toxic" in discussions of its power to regulate and discipline social behavior. The author's aim in this article is to move from metaphor to material as he explores the toxicity inherent in the manufacturing processes that make print available for mass consumption. He argues that over the past century, the demand for print in certain regions of the United States, primarily the North and West, spurred the growth of commercial papermaking--and the spread of devastating mill pollution--in the South, where demand for print has historically lagged. He suggests that one result of this pollution has been the weakening of social institutions that typically promote and value normative forms of literate activity. With the industries that enable the mass circulation of print now going global, this pattern of uneven and unjust literacy development may well be repeated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]