Flippr° — an industrial research project in Austria

Abstract

Flippr° (Future Lignin and Pulp Processing Research) is a cooperative research project on biorefinery issues, funded by three universities and four pulp and paper mills in Austria. Efforts focus on establishing know-how about structural chemistry of cellulose fibers and lignin for more efficient use of these two major raw materials streams. Several subprojects are related to product innovations for use of lignin, fibers, and fines inside and outside the pulp and paper sector. Research toward added-value use is based on existing industrial production processes to achieve rapid realization. In addition to technical developments, ecological and economical perspectives are addressed by respective subprojects. Preliminary results, such as the establishment of quicker fundamental lignin analysis, are the basis for further investigation on lignin use by the industry partners. The method for high throughput analysis is nearly finalized; it will allow screening of industrial lignin sources in a reasonable time. Research on fibers and fines shows that a differentiated view on technological properties opens up a wide variety of process improvements for papermaking.

Tapping the Full Potential of Infrared Spectroscopy for the Analysis of Technical Lignins

“…In cooperation with pulp manufacturers, it was even possible to draw samples at several stages along the pulping process repeatedly over the course of a year. [34] Eventually, the number of samples in the collection had grown to 248 kraft-type lignins, and 310 lignosulfonates (see Table 1); this collection can safely be expected to reflect the current variability in technical lignins of interest. With a sample set of this size, proper development and evaluation of calibration models is possible.…”

“…To this end, considerable effort went into this endeavor, gathering commercial products, samples from our research projects, from research partners and exhibitors at conferences over a timespan of more than a decade. In cooperation with pulp manufacturers, it was even possible to draw samples at several stages along the pulping process repeatedly over the course of a year [34] . Eventually, the number of samples in the collection had grown to 248 kraft‐type lignins, and 310 lignosulfonates (see Table 1); this collection can safely be expected to reflect the current variability in technical lignins of interest.…”

Practitioners’ Perceptions of Co-Product Allocation Methods in Biorefinery Development—A Case Study of the Austrian Pulp and Paper Industry

“…Experts were identified and asked to perform pairwise comparisons of the criteria with respect to the goal (four pairwise comparisons per interviewed person: cost and environmental allocation for lignin and fines) and pairwise comparisons of the two subcriteria with respect to the economic criterium (also resulting in four pairwise comparisons per interviewee). Representatives were contacted from three different Austrian pulp and paper companies that were familiar with both lignin and fines due to their participation in related research project activities [54]. Within each company, people with three different professional backgrounds were taken into consideration (research and development, production, finance and controlling).…”

Fines mobility and distribution in streaming fibre networks: experimental evidence and numerical modeling

“…Also, this almost 60 years old work was not followed up until recently when Redlinger-Pohn et al (2017ab) utilized the effect of fibre-fines segregation for efficient lengthbased fibre fractionation. The motivation behind this was the push from industry to transform pulp mills into bio-refineries (Mayr et al 2015). The advantages of Redlinger-Pohn et al's ''hydrodynamic fractionation'' concept are (1) a high selectivity, and (2) no energy loss due to fibre network agitation, i.e.…”