Research to improve cost-efficiently the performance of paper in end-use applications
Production costs of paper are increasing. One approach to tackle the increasing costs is to reduce the amount of fibres and increase the amount of cheaper filler materials. But, how to keep the strength performance of the paper same with the reduced number of fibres and fibre-fibre bonds?The project PowerBonds is seeking answers to this question.
PowerBonds (Enhancement of Fiber and Bond Strength Properties for Creating Added Value in Paper Products) is a European project with a consortium of 15 partners from industry and science. This three-year project is funded by the ERA-NET WoodWisdom-Net 2 Research Programme. The project started in 2012 and is coordinated by Tampere University of Technology, Finland.
Reducing the grammage of paper and board products offers a considerable potential to save material and energy consumption in the production and transportation. However, a lower grammage means that the product is weaker due to lower number of fibres and interfibre bonds. The project PowerBonds aims to improve the fibre strength and bonding capabilities using novel mechanical and chemical fibre modifications and by developing new models and characterization tools. Understanding the interactions on the fibre and bond level is increased by developing and using modern experimental microscopy and mechanical characterization techniques.
Understanding the interactions on the fibre and bond level will enable to bridge the fibre level results to larger scale phenomena in a paper web, in other words, to perform truly multi-scale analysis. By taking this multi-scale approach, it is possible optimize the material use, reduce costs and enhance desirable properties of paper products needed in specific applications, such as printing paper and packaging.
Project partners (in an alphabetical order):
Graz University of Technology, Austria
Grenoble INP-LGP2 (INP), France
Innowep GmbH, Germany
Munksjö Arches SAS, France
OFFIS Institute for Information Technology, Germany
Papeteries Emin Leydier, France
Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS), Germany
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden
Sappi Finland Oy, Finland
Stora Enso AB, Sweden
Stora Enso Deutschland GmbH, Germany
Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Finland
UPM-Kymmene, Finland
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Finland
Åbo Akademi University (ÅA), Finland
The project is supported by WoodWisdom-Net 2 under the European Commission’s FP7 ERA-NET scheme and funded by the national financing agencies:
Finland:
- Tekes, The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation
-
Academy of Finland (AKA)
France:
- Ministere de l'Agriculture de l'Alimentation de la Peche et de la Ruralité - Direction Générale des Politiques Agricole, Agroalimentaire et des Territoires, MAAP/DGPAAT
Germany:
-
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
Sweden:
- VINNOVA – Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems
Further information:
Professor Pasi Kallio (coordinator)
Tampere University of Technology
Phone: +358-500-525546, email: pasi.kallio@tut.fi
http://www.wwnet-powerbonds.eu/