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Ecopulping is an innovative process using the surplus of wheat or other types of straws or other agri-residues, often burnt, to produce paper pulp as an alternative to wood pulp.
About
Ecopulping is an innovative process using the surplus of wheat or other types of straws or other agri-residues, often burnt, to produce paper pulp as an alternative to wood pulp. Ecopulping uses agri-residues even with high moisture content, in a low heat, no pressure, closed loop process to produce paper pulp and valuable co-products. Different types of pulp grades can be produced : - semi-cleaned pulp to be used for packaging paper such as fluting paper - Unbleached cleaned pulp - bleached pulp The production plants can be designed at low or large capacities, the lowest usually starting at 100t of straw processed per day. A first pilot plant was built in the UK in 2014 and a first semi-commercial plant in China last year. The process is patented and the pulp already tested by the packaging industry at large scale production. The pulp has been cleaned and technical specifications are also available. Usually wheat straw pulp has a good tensile strength. Other raw materials have also been tested: miscanthus, corn stover, reed, rice straw, oat straw, barley straw, and recently date palm leaves. Our business model is to licence our technology and continue with R&D on other types of agri-residues. We are starting to work with partners to deliver the projects on a turnkey basis. As the quality of the mixed paper is decreasing, we have more and more demand from paper/packaging mills, in Europe or China, to test the wheat straw pulp to increase the quality of their end product. You can see one example of a Chinese paper mill (for fluting paper) on the video which link is attached. The pulp has also been tested for construction production such as boards, or moulded products with very good results. We are interested in having a European partner from the paper or packaging industry involved in our project as we know we would benefit from such a partnership. We have several projects in the pipeline, but we are also seeking equity funding to accelerate our growth as first commercial projects (UK, China) are taking more time than scheduled. We will be happy to give more details about our current status.
Key Benefits
The Ecopulping process has the following advantages: - The process uses a liquid heated at low temperature, not steam, so no pressure and no high temperature is used - energy usage is 62% lower than traditional processes (Ref: third party – Poyry’s report comparing with traditional straw to pulp processes) - the equipment is simpler than the equipment used in traditional processes (biotanks instead of digesters) - closed loop process: the liquid can be filtered and re-used - the problem of black liquid is resolved - it's possible to use agri-residues even with high moisture content: they are cheaper to buy, more available even where the straw with low moisture content is used (power stations) and no indoor storage is needed - the by-product from the filtration of cleaning process have different applications - the lower capital expenditure and lower operational costs make the process financially viable even at small scale production
Applications
The list can be long as fibres can be used in many products. But here are some applications: - paper - packaging paper - moulded products (paper or other types of moulded products) - construction boards or other types of construction products