Japanese Pulp and Paper Industries had overcome the pollution problems mainly of air and water pollution which struck the industries on '70s.
For the pollution control, Japanese pulp and paper industries invested not only to the end pipe treatment such as waste water treatment and stack gas desulfurization but also to the reductions of pollutant by the improvements of the production process and others. Investments for the pollution control for three years from 1974 to 1976, while the largest investment were took place for the pollution control, was over 140 billion Yen.
Along with above investments, each mill placed an officially qualified “Manager in Charge of Pollution Control”, Who organizes the pollution control activities in the mill.In 1990, dioxins from the waste water of the bleaching plant of the pulp mill became a social concern, and Japanese pulp and paper industries took measures such as installation of oxygen dilignification plant, stabilization of Kappa Number and improvement of washing process to reduce the consumption of chlorine. By these measures, all the bleached kraft pulp mill cleared maximum discharge of 1.5 kg/ton of pulp, the voluntary reduction target of AOX discharge set by Japan Paper Association, at the end of 1993.
Coming 21st Century is said to be a century of the Global Environment. Problems concerning the Global Environment such as global warming. differing from the pollution problems, is not caused by the specific substances emitted by specific industrial activities, but is caused by the various activity of human being including the normal living activity, and no simple measure is available.
How we, pulp and paper industries should deal with the Global Environment Problems and maintain the Sustainable Development at the same time is discussed.

抄録全体を表示

Global warming issues lies in the rise of temperature of earth's surface brought by gradual increase of the Green House Gases (GHG_s) such as CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, etc., in the atomosphere. The problem is also called Climate Change and is expected to cause various climaticaltroubles on the earth.
Most of the GHGS are associated with energy consumption and are produced by the human activities. In case of Japan, CO₂ from fossil fuel account for 90 percent of total CO₂ emission.
The third Conferance of Parties (COP 3) is to be held in Kyoto this December and preparatory negotiations are under way among the relevant countries so that agreements may be reached at the Conferance for the reduction of CO₂ emission after the year 2000. It was agreed in the COP 2 that the new agreements should be legally binding.
However, each country has its own problems in reducing CO₂ emission and some countries have reduced fairly well while others have not.
Japan may not be able to meet the target to reduce it down to the 1990 level in the year 2000. In general, industrial emission of CO₂ is slightly on the rise whereas that of offices, stores, homes etc. are showing a sizable increase.
The Japanese pulp and paper industry has made strenuous efforts to save energy. We are recycle-oriented industry undertaking various measures from tree plantation to wastepaper utilization. Through plantation, biomass fueling and wastepaper recycling, we are greatly contributing to sequestration of carbon and CO₂ emission.

抄録全体を表示

The demands for paper and paper board are expected to increase further in Japan as well as in other parts of the world. Japan, a resource-poor country, ranks the second place in terms of paper production as it pioneered use of Japanese red pine, hardwood, waste wood from sawmills, and waste paper. Currently, 53% of paper in Japan is manufactured from waste paper and 24% from pulp produced with imported woodchip ; percentages of paper produced from these two categories have risen considerably.
Japanese pulp and paper companies established Japan Overseas Afforesting Association in 1970 in order to secure fiber resources. It established approximately 1, 400 ha of trial plantations in the tropics but was forced to close projects, except in few places, due to the global petroleum crisis in two occasions. In late 1980's, the use of waste paper for paper production in Japan exceeded 50% while high Yen, low US Dollar, and relatively low petroleum prices prevailed. Under these conditions with growing environmental awareness, overseas pulpwood plantation projects drew attention once again. By the end of 1996, Japanese paper companies have overseas pulpwood plantation projects in six countries. Total plantation area reached 92, 000 ha, and this total area is expected to increase rapidly in the next few years. These projects plant fast growing species such as eucalyptus and acacia on previously grass or shrub lands. Such plantation projects intend not only to secure fiber resources but to contribute to environmental protection by fixing CO₂.
One critical and difficult factor for overseas pulpwood plantation is to assure economic viability after many years of growing trees, processing woods, and transporting woodchip to Japan. The key for success lies in careful preexaminations of tree growth, country risk, currency risk, and natural disasters before investing a huge sum of money into long term forestry projects.

抄録全体を表示

The paper industry is very friendly to global environment as follows, compared to other industries manufacturing basic materials.
1. Wood, which is one of main raw materials along with waste paper, can be regenerated perpetually with suitable plantation and forest management.
2. Plantation absorbs carbon dioxide, which is a major contributor to global warming.
3. One third of the energy consumed by the industry is originated from biomass.
Then, the author evaluates the significance of waste paper recycling from following view points.
1. Carbon dioxide generation in the process
2. Fossil fuel consumption in the process
3. Conservation of forest
4. Solid waste handling
Imbalance between the supply and the demand has been a problem. The author analyzes it and proposes how to cope with it.
It is concluded that generating power from waste paper should be envisioned if the imbalance will continue.

抄録全体を表示

Non-wood fiber plants have been used as raw materials for the hand made paper in the Western Europe, which made from rags, and for the Japanese paper (Washi) since the old days. Thereafter, the fiber and other cells of the hemp kind, bamboo, sugar cane bagasse and cereal straw have been used as raw materials for the paper around the various Asian countries, Latin America and so on. The utilization of kenaf, sugar cane bagasse and bamboo for the pulp and paper is being extended further in accordance with the demand for the substitutes for wood and the need of the preservation of the earth environment.
Non-wood fiber plants mainly signify dicotyledon with bast fiber, the grass kind and true grasses. They have slender fiber cells and offer paper strength and characteristic functions. Those characteristics including large hemi-cellulose and ash contents, however, become an obstacle to pulping and manufacturing the high quality paper as well as mixing large vessel element with the thin cell wall and little parenchymatous cell of non-wood fiber plants causes the lower quality of paper.
They estimate that the quantity of non-wood fibers on the earth to be 2.5 billion tonnes, but only 20 million tonnes of them in terms of pulp are utilized for paper manufacturing. In general its raw material ratio of the pulp and paper manufacturing is low in the advanced countries and further increase of using non-wood fibers is expected. Although there are several subjects to be discussed such as overall influences on the environment of the earth including cultivation of rivalry crops and influences on the soil and materials, non-wood fiber plants including kenaf grow annually with a very large amount and good effects can be expected which are the fixation of carbon dioxide, the effective use of the solar energy, the conservation of forest, and afforestation.
Varieties of paper have been manufactured from kenaf, sugar cane bagasse, bamboo, and cotton, and those papers offer good printability and other strong points which wood paper does not have. The usage of non-wood fibers will be expanded in the future if making the most of their strong points with reference to the influences on the environment of the earth.

抄録全体を表示

This paper introduces the reduction of oil consumption in KP mill analyzing energy balance. Enargy sources of pulp and paper mills in Japan are 66.3% of purchased energy and 33.7% of supplied energy by own mill, where the black liquor percentage is 96.4%. In case of kraft pulp and paper mills energy sources are 15.8% of purchased energy and 84.2% of black liquor.
Analyzing energy balance, we could operate the KP mill using black liquor only, if we save the energy by 6.6%.
Case studies of save the energy which we are trying now, shows as follows ;
(1) Making higher black liquor consistency.
(2) Much more usage of cheaper electric power during the night time.
(3) Aiming higher boiler efficiency.
(4) Saving steam and electricity of process stages.
(5) Aiming high efficiency of power generation.

抄録全体を表示

The enterprises, which are intending to establish Environmental Management System (EMS) and to be certified by the third party on the system, should at first clarify the necessity for, and the merit of, EMS. Obtaining a certificate itself should not be a single objective.
Following points can be considered as one of the objectives depending on the present status, current position, scale and/or sectors of the enterprises.
(1) World tide to global environmental protection ;
(2) Facilitating deregulation : demonstrating stance of the enterprises to environment and its environmental performance to obtain public trust and reliance ;
(3) Reducing cost along with contributing to environment by energy and resource saving, recycling, waste reduction etc. ;
(4) Reducing environmental accidents and accordingly risks and increasing management efficiency of the enterprise ;
(5) Business chance through environment ;
ISO 14001 has been completed as a tool to achieve above objectives by experts from all over the world. Emphasis is placed in this standard on establishing system for materializing environmental policy and continual improvement of environment. It comprises of, starting analysis of environmental impacts and aspects (the causes of the impacts within the enterprise), planning, implementation and operation, checking and corrective action and management review process to reduce these environmental impacts. After the management review, top management sets new policy and the enterprise initiates new actions completing PDCA cycle.
Strong leadership of top management is especially important and environmental improvement compatible with economy is emphasized. New concept of environmental management as a part of corporate management, rather than former environmental control at production site to comply with regulations, should be respected.
Background, development and progress, and contents and details of ISO 14001 are reviewed in this paper. In addition, practical methods of establishing EMS's in enterprises as well as their third party assessments are described.

抄録全体を表示

The summary of statistics in 1995 reviewed as follows ;
1. The total amount of industrial wastes in Japanese paper mills corresponds to 6% against their paper production (bone dried base) which is similar to the former survey in 1994.
2. The utilization rate of industrial wastes is 53.8%, in which remains on the same level as the former survey in 1994, in spite of an increase in the amount of utilization.
3. The reasons of an obstruction for utilization are mainly that the cost of utilization is higher than land filling, and that unsuitable for quality demand.

抄録全体を表示

In recent years, not only the mass media and environmental conscious parties but public in general are getting interested in environmental issues, such as global warming and acid rain in the world, and waste disposalproblems in domestic.
Following the instruction by Basic Environment Plan, which was devised on Environment Basic Law, the Japanese government has been very active for revising present laws and helping to conserve environment.
The paper industry in Japan has been responding to these government activities, which are introduced in this paper as follows.
1. The 4 th version of Areawide Water Pollutant Emission Regulation System.
2. The revision of Water Pollution Control Law and the enactment of Environmental Quality Standard on groundwater, which are for maintaining groundwater quality.
3. The revision of the Air Pollution Control Law, the definition of the self control plan for hazardous air pollutants and the environment standards for HAPs, which aim to control atmospheric air quality.
4. Japan Paper Association's efforts for the self control plan for HAPs, the revision of the waste disposal law, dioxin problems and the pollutant release and transfer registers.

抄録全体を表示

本年のTAPPI国際環境会議は, ミネアポリス市のコンベンションセンターで5月4日より3日間にわたり開催された。ミネアポリス市中心部の広さは, ダウンタウンの南の端から街の北側を流れるミシシッピー河に架かるヘネピン橋の南詰までは歩いても30分程度と手頃な感じであった.東側にはセントポール市があって合わせてッインシティーと呼ばれている。特徴的なのは, 中心部の主要な建物とホテルがスカイウェーという通路で結ばれていて, 天候に左右されずに通行できる構造になっていることで, 滞在したホテルから会場のコンベンションセンターへもスカイウェーで往復した。コンベンションセンターは, 会議室部分は2階建てであるが幅の広い廊下と広々した受付け用のスペースが用意されている。3か所に吹き抜けの展示場があり, 複数のコンベンションが同時進行できる施設になっていた。
会議は5セッション並行で行われ, 展示会は例年通り昼食時間帯と夕方にだけ開場する形式であった。夏時間を採用しているので, 会議終了後7時すぎ迄展示を見ても明るいうちにホテルに戻ることが出来た。
以下に会議の概要は報告する。

抄録全体を表示

ライフサイクルアセスメント (LCA) に関する表記のガイドブックをフィンランド大使館の御厚意で入手できたので, その概要を紹介する。
ブインランド, ノルウェー, スウェーデンのノルディック3国は, 森林工業産品のライフサイクルアセスメントを同じ手法で実施して相互の比較を可能にし, 国際的な議論の場でも十分通用するものにすべく, データの収集・処理・報告について共通の方法論を開発し文書化する為の共同作業を進めてきた。検討対象は, 運搬やリサイクルを含む樹木伐採から紙の生産に至る全段階に亘っており, 方法論についてもLCAに関するノルディック諸国共通の指針を参考にし, 3ケ国間の調和を図っている。又, ライフサイクル解析項目の内容を詳細なものにするSEATAC-Europeのワーキンググループの最近の成果も取入れたものになっている。
LC A に関する調査研究は, 当初, KCLとPFIの支援の下, 主にSTFIとチャルマース工業技術院によって行われ, 今回, STFI, チャルマース工業技術院, KC L によって, ライフサイクル解析に必要な項目の内, 最も重要と考えられる下記の4項目についての指針がまとめられた。
即ち, ●パラメーターの選択とその単位●データの質●システムの境界●配分について焦点を当て統一見解を公開した。

抄録全体を表示

There is a myth that all organochlorine compounds are equally undesirable and it sometimes leads to moves to ban totally the use of chlorine and chlorine compounds in pulp bleaching. It has been found necessary to assess organochlorines in terms of the three important factors, that is, stability, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. Organochlorines used as pesticides often have high chlorine contents with no oxygen. In contrast, the compounds which constitute AOX in ECF pulp bleaching effluents contain no more than 1 to 3% chlorine but have high oxygen contents, do not bioaccumulate in human body, and thus are quite different from highly chlorinated pesticides in this respect.
USA is going to issue Cluster Rule as a means of environmental regulation. As of the date of this presentation, two Options are being considered. Option A recommends ECF only while Option B calls ECF coupled with oxygen or extended delignification. In Canada, the correlation between AOX and its toxicity is about to be reexamined.
The production of ECF pulp is growing rapidly and will amount to 50% of the total bleached pulp in 1996. TCF is applied to a part of sulfite pulp in Scandinavia but its production ceased growing lately.

抄録全体を表示

MFOs (mixed function oxygenases) are a family of enzymes induced when organisms are exposed to a variety of xenobiotics. MFO assay has been utilized to evaluate the toxic potency of mill effluents. It has also been demonstrated that, particularly, pulp and paper mill effluents induce MFOs of various organisms.
We have recently developed a method to detect the induction of MFOs using chick embryos as a test organism. In this report, we describe the effect of total effluents of pulp and paper mills in Japan on the MFOs induction. The mill effluents were directly injected into chick embryos. The chick embryos were incubated for 48 hours, after which microsomal fractions of liver were prepared for the EROD (7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase) assay.
Pulp and paper mill effluents induced the MFOs up to 1.6-fold compared with control embryos. Similarly, approximately 1.7-fold induction was observed for the EROD activity in carps exposed to effluents at mill sites. These values are significantly lower than those obtained in other countries, suggesting that the pulp and paper mill effluents in Japan may not contain a significant amount of toxic chemicals or the inducers for the MFOs.

抄録全体を表示

Acid-insoluble lignin can be hardly analyzed by spectroscopy because of the insoluble character in all organic solvents, and hence its chemical characteristics are not sufficiently clarified. To know the lignin content and the carbohydrate composition in pulps and woods, standard methods : JIS, Japan TAPPI, and TAPPI methods have been used, but different conditions for acid hydrolysis are chosen in these methods. It is required that conditions for acid hydrolysis are modified to shorten the time for determining the lignin content and the carbohydrate composition in many samples. To characterize the acid-insoluble residues prepared under various acid-hydrolysis conditions, pyrolysis-gaschromatography (Py-GC) is expected to be effective. In this paper, chemical characteristics of acid-insoluble lignins were discussed using Py-GC in order to find an improved method for determining the lignin content and the carbohydrate composition.
The treatment period of the primary acid hydrolysis with 72% sulfuric acid should be at least 2.5 hours for analyzing lignin and carbohydrate composition in pulps and wood meals. If it is less than 1 hour, acid hydrolysis of cellulose is not sufficient, and in this case, it is in dictated by the pyrogram of the acid-insoluble residue that there are some peaks originating from holocellulose. This pyrogram also shows that the guaiacol peak is higher than the 4-methylguaiacol peak and is quite different from that of the acid insoluble lignin given by the Klason lignin method (the JIS method). Therefore, the J. TAPPI and TAPPI methods for determining the carbohydrate composition should be modified in their periods, which should be at least 2.5 hours. The modified method for carbohydrate composition, the Klason lignin method (the JIS method), and the modified Klason lignin method by Yoshihara give similar results on lignin contents and on pyrograms of the lignin residues in the case of akamatsu (Pinus densiflora) wood meals. In the case of akamatsu pulps, the yield of acid insoluble residue by the modified method for carbohydrate composition is slightly lower than the lignin content by the Klason lignin method (the JIS method), but the two methods show similar pyrograms of the lignin residues. It is concluded by the Py-GC results that the modified method for carbohydrate composition can be used for determining the lignin content in many wood and pulp samples.

抄録全体を表示