Fall 2023 Forum | Boston, Massachusetts
The Forum kicked off with a keynote presentation from Mark Daniel, Vice President SBS Mills, Graphic Packaging International, with a powerful message on the company's success factors for achieving innovation and sustainability. Mr. Daniel's opening remarks were followed by an award presentation by BDC as it honored both ThermoChem Recovery International (TRI) with its Outstanding Innovation Award and The Abell Foundation with BDC’s Public-Private Partnership Award for their substantial financial commitment to advancing TRI’s gasification technology to full-scale commercial. Daniel Burciaga, President and CEO, TRI received the both awards on behalf of TRI and The Abell Foundation.
The Fall program featured the commercial status of new processes, as well as several commercial projects being commissioned or very near to being commissioned. The Forum agenda was split into four Panels which were dedicated to updates on these projects.
Panel 1 included AFRY, RISE, and Valmet and is focused on the state of the forest products industry and how it is evolving to become more viable and more sustainable. Presenters in this panel discussed the outlook and new processes that add value to the industry in the US, with a flavor of the activity in Scandinavia, as the industry strives to get the most value from the tree and to learn more about the strategies the industry is taking and can take to add value through new revenue producing products and cost reduction.
In the second panel, Via Separations and International Paper provided updates and progress toward their commercial technology installation at the International Paper mill in Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada. The panel also included NRCAN’s discussion of the IFIT program that provides significant funding for a variety of investments in the forest products industry in Canada and finished with an update by Head Engineering on the BLiSS soap separation commercial system running at the Green Bay Packaging plant in Morrilton, AR, which was the first installation of its kind in North America, the centrifugal separator-by Head Engineering and Alfa Laval will add more soap recovery capacity ahead of the Morrilton mills' existing tall oil plant.
After lunch in Panel 3, presenters provided their commercial progress beginning with the Origin Materials startup their OM1 plant in Sarnia, Canada, which utilizes their platform to convert C-6 cellulose into chloromethyl furfural (CMF) and hydrothermal carbon (HTC). Ensyn discussed significant updates and initiatives for the company, and the panel concluded with a presentation by Lignin Industries, a Swedish company, who will discuss an innovative thermopastic lignin process and its application for the industry.
Andritz lead off the final panel with information on their latest developments of lignin recovery and production technologies. FineCell discussed applications of an innovative way to produce dry dispersible nanocellulose material and the panel concluded with a presentation by CAAFI, who discussed the offtake challenges and solutions regarding the sustainable aviation fuel sector. The evening concluded with an after-dinner presentation by Valmet, who discussed lignin progress, including their joint efforts with Stora Enso in order to convert lignin into hard carbon anode material for lithium-ion batteries.
On Wednesday, September 27, delegates toured the Via Separations facility in Watertown, MA. Via Separations is pioneering commercial scale advanced filtration technology used in the Pulp & Paper space. Their technology is being used to concentrate black liquor, improve efficiency in brown stock washing, treat effluent streams, lower GHG emissions, and increase production. Via is expected to deploy its black liquor concentration system at IP’s Grande Prairie mill in Alberta, to reduce emissions, improve throughput, and increase production of valuable coproducts. The industry continues to work toward more efficient processes for black liquor concentration, and now Via’s technology is pilot-proven and available commercially.
2023 Fall Forum Agenda
Fall 2023 Attendee List
TRI Outstanding Innovation Award and The Abell Foundation Public-Private Partnership Award
Presentations
Mark Daniel
GPI Keynote – Public-Private Partnerships, Key to Achieving Innovation & Sustainability
Soile Kilpi
AFRY – Outlook for the Forest Products Industry
Per Tomani
RISE – Bioeconomy Arena
Randy Stern and Mark DeAndrea
Valmet, Centrisys Renewable, ReneMat – Reduced Risk Integrated Lignin Solution
Brent Keller and Tom Macher
Via Separations and International Paper – Delivering on the Promise of Membranes for Black Liquor Concentration in Alberta, Canada
Jean-François Levasseur
Natural Resources Canada – IFIT Innovation Program
Marc Sabourin
Head Engineering – BliSS Soap Separation and TOPP Oil Plant Commercial Progress
Roman Wolff
Origin Materials – Start-Up in Sarnia, Canada
Dr. Robert Graham
Ensyn – Updates and Initiatives
Christopher Carrick
Lignin Industries – Thermoplastic Lignin Process Application
Jarmo Kaila
Andritz – Latest Developments in Lignin Recovery and Production Technologies
Peter Axegard
FineCell – A New Way to Produce Dry Dispersible Nanocellulose
Steve Csonka
CAAFI – SAF Offtake Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions
Lars Erlandsson
Valmet – Driving the Electrical Revolution Batteries from Lignin