Pulp and paper industry – trends for the future - Biomass as Energy Source: Resources, Systems and Applications - page 229

the world” according to the CEO Dan Fulton (Weyerhaeuser, 2011). Real estate business is one
business area of major importance, which is integrating the timber forwards in the value chain.
International paper (2011), one of the biggest pulp and paper companies globally, is focusing on
uncoated papers and industrial and consumer packaging, complemented by xpedx. This was just
some examples.
From a biomass perspective it is interesting to note that the major commercial use of biomass
was for pulp and paper only some 20 years ago, while today the demand for use of wood for
energy use is increasing especially in Northern Europe in countries like Germany, Sweden and
Finland and in e.g. Brazil for production of Ethanol but then from sugar cane. Generally, we
can foresee that the competition for fibers will increase. This will on the other hand drive the
development of new wood and crop species and use of waste for both pulp and paper and many
other applications. Biorefineries have already been mentioned in several chapters of this topic,
but in the future we probably will see many new applications where wood and crops replace oil
as the raw material. This will build new conglomerates where pulp and paper will be one product
among many different products. Production of chemicals for production of plastics, all kind of
chemicals, fuels for vehicles as well as production of electricity and heat for district heating will
be complements to the paper.
Christer Segersteen, president for Södra P&P corporation, says that although Sweden is using
105TWh/y from forests there is a potential to increase the energy outtake with at least another
20TWh/y by taking out roots, branches and similar. There also must come more energy forests
by having hybrid poplar, hybrid aspen, fast growing larch and pine and others. Södra, owned by
the forest owners and farmers, see this as a very interesting business for the future. During the
last 20 years the share of earnings from energy has increased from a few % to more than 20% for
Södra, and the potential to grow further is very high (Krögerström, 2010).
The chemical company Perstorp in Southern Sweden is today replacing almost all fossil raw
materials with wood or crop based materials. From this, they produce among others methanol
and paints (Perstorp, 2011).
There is also a new trend towards rather smaller paper machines - approximately 6 meters
wide - for copy paper and wood free paper. This is happening at the same time as Voith's CEO
Hans Peter Sollinger (Voith, 2011) predicts 500 million tonnes of paper to be produced in 2015.
He also says that shortage of energy, water and fibers will drive the business. Voiths R&D
manager Thomas Wurster believes recycle fiber will be used much more as total energy will be
reduced by 40% and electricity by 20%. This will mean some 100 million tonne more recycle
fibers produced until 2025. Many paper qualities will have 100% recycle fibers he believes
(SPCI, 2010)
In Sweden there is a strong push to save energy and in a program (SPCI, 2009) a few years
ago 0.67TWh el /y in a 5-year program (from 30TWh/y electricity ) was achieved. It may sound little,
and there is a much larger potential with more efficient processes. In China, there was a program
in 2008 to reduce the energy utilization by 20% before the end of 2010 for the 1000 highest
consuming companies in China. This included several pulp and paper mills.
On the other hand - some companies only focus on high capacity of paper, and don't care
much about the quality, while others focus more on high quality products. Today they will mostly
not compete directly with each other. Some products like tissue also are not suitable for long
transportation as they lose their properties then. Thus, tissue is often produced in smaller machines
close to the customers.
In 2009, Ernest and Young presented a report “Global Trends in the Pulp and Paper industry”
(Ernst andYoung, 2009). In this, we have a historical development of paper and board from 1990
and predictions until 2020. In 1990 the total consumption was approximately 240 million tonnes
per year, 2000 325 million tonnes, 2010 430 million tonnes and predicted 2020 550 million tonnes
per year. The biggest increase will be in Asia, while it will be stagnant or even slightly reduced in
Western Europe and North America. Eucalyptus and akazia grown in South East Asia and South
America is used mostly on these new markets in China and India, where fiber is a limiting source.
E&Y has made an overview of the situation in the local regions as follows: China - high growth,