Pitch Solutions! A Sustainable Chemical Approach to Improving Productivity, Quality and Working Environment in Household Paper Mills

Abstract

In recent years, paper production has been declining due to the progress of information digitization and the establishment of telecommuting and web conferencing due to the new coronavirus, but demand for household paper has remained strong due to increased demand for towel paper and other hygiene paper as people become more hygiene-conscious due to the coronavirus. However, the weak yen and increased exports to foreign countries have made it difficult to procure high‒quality recovered paper, and there are concerns about a decline in the quality of recovered paper materials.

In addition, the increased use of plantation trees such as Acacia has increased the amount of resin pitch in the raw materials, which has led to an increase in pitch problems. The pitch problem has become one of the most troublesome issues for papermaking engineers who aim for stable operation and quality improvement.

In this paper, we describe our proposed NISSIN-Pitch Control Method（NISSIN‒PCM）for improving productivity, quality, and the work environment at a household paper mill.