Welcome to paperChain
Innovative new circular business models
Most of the current waste streams generated by the Pulp & Paper industry (PPI) are currently disposed to landfills or burnt for energy production. Inorganic wastes are basically used as cement raw material and to a lesser extent as soil amendment in forestry applications. These solutions have a low added value and are dependent on the existence of cement kilns and acid soils in the vicinity of the mills, reducing their potential valorisation. Although there is extensive academic research on the waste valorisation to enhance the utilization of paper mill waste streams, there is still a lack of alternatives proved at real scale under operational conditions.
Paperchain is a demonstrative project that proposes innovative applications for different underused PPI waste streams, proving their technical, economic and environmental feasibility in five circular business models through real scale pilots.The project aims at unlocking the situation that hinders the proposed solutions to reach the market, including not only technical issues, but legal, social and economic factors.
To overcome these barriers, the project has involved the whole value chain and provides transparency of their outcomes, being public awareness a priority.
paperChain at a glance
The overall objective of PAPERCHAIN is to deploy five novel circular economy models centred in the valorisation of the waste streams generated by the Pulp and Paper Industry (PPI) as secondary raw material for a number of resource intensive sectors: construction sector, mining sector and chemical industry.
The Project
The Consortium
Circular Cases
REAL SCALE DEMONSTRATORS
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News
7th GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PAPERCHAIN PROJECT – VIRTUAL MEETING
On 11 and 12 January 2021, the 7th General Assembly of the PaperChain project was held. To our regret, we had to hold it again online.By sharing this experience we can say that the pilots implemented are making our project a success in industrial symbiosis and...
Video: Circular Case 5
We share a video of how Case 5 has been implemented in Sweden during 2020.
Residual material from the forest industry could become new cover material for mining waste
Through a unique cross-industry collaboration, a new technology for covering mining waste has now been tested in demonstration scale at Boliden’s mine in Garpenberg, Sweden. The new technology involves a mixture of green liquor sludge, a residual material from the pulp industry, which can be an alternative to bentonite when improving the density of moraine.
paperChain assesses the use of industrial waste in the construction sector
Industrial prefabricated concrete pavilion and a road pavement in Aveiro are the two pioneering demonstration cases of using waste in construction. Residues from the pulp and paper industry are tested as secondary raw materials, with a circularity and industrial...