Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Bleached kraft pulps derived from Canadian northern softwood lead the world in terms of fibre length, strength, fineness and uniformity. However, progress in paper manufacturing technology has narrowed the advantage of NBSK pulps, increasing price-performance pressure on Canadian suppliers. To remain competitive, the Canadian pulp industry must innovate, developing new processes and process-control strategies that yield pulps of higher quality and lower cost, with reduced use of energy and impact on the environment. The chemical and material properties of a pulp determine the physical properties of the fibre network it produces, and with adequate process monitoring and intervention, the opportunity exists for manufacturing to target pulp and end-use paper specifications. However, for process control to succeed, producers must measure continuously and react quickly. Unrecognized variation in a pulp stream wastes resources by yielding a product that fails to meet specifications, while continuous process monitoring can ensure optimum output quality, certified by a contemporaneous record. Here we propose research that will bring new, laser-spectroscopic analytical tools to the production line. Our approach will combine miniaturized instrumentation, focussed sampling protocols, refined multivariate calibration and integrated analysis to enable real-time process control targeted to physical and mechanical properties of fibre network products. Template oriented genetic algorithm (TOGA) feature selection will link chemical markers in pulp-stream Raman spectra to monitor conformance with such end-use mechanical specifications as tensile strength, burst, tear, and pulp viscosity. TOGA features will signal chemical changes that correlate with biometric parameters, calling for process remedies and/or end-product reallocation. Off-line measurements will fuse chemical information with sub-micron spatial measures of fibre system morphology to increase fundamental understanding of network strength and softness. Finally, field research will apply these same chemical and morphological classification tools to map the progress of in-use electronic-materials fibre systems to failure.