(405d) Fundamental Research in the Pulp & Paper Sector – Appti’s Impact on Consortium-Based Research

The Pulp & Paper Sector has not been known for significant R&D spending as a percentage of sales. Lower profit margins and high capital intensity have driven a more conservative route to spending. However, there have been successes in funding high-risk consortium-based efforts in fundamental research. My topic will be to expand upon these areas and recent successes in bringing forth breakthrough technology to a higher TRL level.

The benefits of consortium research is multi-fold: lowering the risk of early TRL research that may not succeed; sharing the expenditure among many players rather than a single company; sharing the fruits of the labor. The other side of this is to be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with fierce competitors on a topic. The gray line of what is pre-competitive versus too competitive must be balanced.

One area of recent promotion is the planned commercialization of graphene oxide membranes for the concentration of black liquor solids in a kraft pulp mill chemical recovery loop. This effort began over 12 years ago with seed money, consortium interest, PhD fellowship funding, and DOE money to progress through the various milestones. Now we see announcements to the First and Second commercial installations by a publicly traded pulp manufacturer. A success of a potentially great ROI for modest industry funding. The APPTI organization is very proud of this progression and declares “Mission Success”.