Considering their widespread usage in various fi elds, such as food packaging, clothes, shelter, communication, transportation, construction, health care, and the leisure industries, plastics are very important materials. Currently used plastics are mostly produced from petrochemical products. However, there is a growing demand for eco-friendly plastics, namely “Biomass Plastics”, which are produced from renewable resources, and “Biodegradable Plastics”, which degrade in the environment, to establish a more sustainable society and to solve global environmental and waste management problems. In this paper, I will introduce the processing of strong and porous fi bers, mechanical properties, molecular and highly ordered structure, enzymatic and environmental degradation of microbial polyesters synthesized from sugar and plant oils. Recently, our group succeeded to synthesize new thermoplastics from polysaccharides such as curdlan, paramylon, pullulan, etc. by esterifi cation and found interesting thermal, mechanical, and optical properties. Highly transparent fi lms, injection molding, and melt-spun fi bers were prepared from ester derivatives and their physical properties and structures were investigated. Furthermore, unnatural-type polysaccharide,α-1,3-glucan, can be achieved by in vitro enzymatic polymerization with glucosyltransferase from sucrose via one-pot water-based reaction.

Biomass Plastics and biodegradable plastics are thus intensively studied, and their current uses as well as future prospects are discussed in this paper.

Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.（ NPI）manages Eucalyptus plantation forests in Brazil, Chile, Australia and South Africa as part of its sustainable resources procurement policy “Tree Farm Initiative”. Among them, Amapa Florestal e Celulose S.A.（AMCEL）located in Amapa state in northern Brazil owns the largest plantable area, planting Eucalyptus species in plantations and producing wood chips to export to overseas.

AMCEL enjoys flat, large and consolidated plantable areas, a favorable position of the chip mill and port relatively close to plantations, and a strategic location adjacent to the northern hemisphere for easier access to major markets. Since NPI joined AMCEL’s management in 2006, we have focused on development of elite commercial clones through, in particular, introduction of species and families well adaptive to AMCEL environment, establishment of near-infrared technique for wood property analysis, and modification of the conventional clone development process. As a result of continuous improvement in our principal breeding targets including tree volume, basic density and kraft pulp yield, we recently developed a new superior commercial clone which largely exceeds our current commercial ones.

In this presentation, we would like to discuss the latest situation and future direction of our breeding and clone development program for AMCEL plantation forest.

Phosphorylated Cellulose nanofi bers（P–CNFs）with uniform width of 3–4 nm can be obtained via phosphate esterification of wood pulp, followed by simple mechanical disintegration process. The preparation method was simple and time–saving. Wood pulp was soaked in an aqueous solution of urea and ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, and was dried and cured in hot air for a few minutes. During the reaction, anionic dibasic phosphate groups were introduced on the surface of cellulose nanofi bers, X–ray diff raction measurement indicated that crystallinity index and crystal size of phosphorylated pulp almost didnʼt change after phosphate esterifi cation. Due to osmotic pressure of water and electrostatic repulsion by phosphate groups, the P–CNFs can easily be nanodispersed in water with less energy consumption. P–CNFs can be used in dispersion，sheet and powder form. The aqueous P–CNF dispersion was highly transparent and had much higher viscosity than conventional thickeners. The transparent P–CNF sheet had low coeffi cient of linear thermal expansion, excellent mechanical properties such as high Youngʼs modulus and high tensile strength, foldability and organic solvent resistance. Furthermore，we investigated the hydrophobized CNF and its powder whether to disperse in various organic solvents, P–CNFs can be applied to a variety of fi elds such as thickener, fi ller materials, display materials and fl exible substrates.

6 paper mills in Rengo group had produced container board, however, we consolidated it into 5 paper mills to increase earning capacity by Rengoʼs reconstitution strategy of paper board production system. Although PM2 at Kanazu mill had produced only corrugating medium since 1969, it was modifi ed to produce both liner board and corrugating medium with this policy.

PM2 started commercial run in October 1^st 2017 and have continuously optimized its operation and reached 1,000 tons daily production, which represent an increase of 30％ from the before modifi cation, in June 2018.

This report describes general information for this project and operating experiences of PM2.

Recently, corrugated cardboard tends to become thin （reducing weight） due to environmental problems such as carbon dioxide reduction and resource saving. Since thin paper reduces the strength of the paper, it is well know that a method of compensating the strength by applying a paper strengthening agent. Generally, inexpensive starch is applied to the surface, and with starch it is difficult to reach the compressive strength of the intended paper. There is also concern that coating unevenness may occur by using a high viscosity starch solution. Furthermore, if corrugated cardboard coated with a large amount of starch is used, problems are pointed out such as poor adhesion when corrugated cardboard is assembled. On the other hand, Polyacrylamide（PAM） is used instead of starch. There is a problem that PAM is more expensive than starch. Paper surface strengthening agent developed in the past failed to achieve the target cost performance because it was not able to penetrate the paper sufficiently.

In order to solve these problems, we have newly developed the “high penetrating surface paper strengthening agent of PAM type”. The feature of high penetrating type agent is：⑴ it has excellent penetrability in the Z-axis direction of the paperboard；⑵ it interacts with the ion component in the paper to make it pseudo-high molecular weight. Compared with the conventional surface paper strengthening agent, it has a higher compressive strength, improves the strength of corrugated cardboard products, and has the advantage of less adverse influence on adhesion property during molding of corrugated cardboard.

On the papermaking system of linerboard, it has become more difficult to achieve an effect of internal ad ditives due to increase of waste paper which contains high calcium carbonate, highly-closed water system and increase of machine speed. Also, reduction of chemical cost has been strongly demanded, and thus more and more cost-effective chemicals is in need.

Alum is one of the most cost-effective fixing agent as well as it has the effect of deposit control and fixing internal additives. Although it is very important of anionic sizing system, excessive usage of alum could cause problems such as scale issue of calcium sulfate and increase of conductivity which bring negative impact on the other additives. For these reason, it is necessary to reduce alum to optimize wet-end chemical system, but this is obviously disadvantage for anionic rosin sizing agents. On the other hand, neutral sizing agent such as AKD and ASA can maintain good sizing even under low alum condition because of low dependence on alum dosage. However, rosin sizing is considered to be much better in terms of paper runnability and paper quality because these sizing agents may cause slipping and de posit trouble.

To solve these problems, we developed “Co-mingle^®”, new sizing system, and “Harsize CES series” which can maximize efficiency on this system. This technology is based on our experience as a leading rosin sizing supplier. Co-mingle^® can perform even low alum condition on paper board production in contrast to conven tional system. In this report, we give a detail of Co-mingle^® and Harsize CES series. And we would like to in troduce our new total wet-end chemical system for low alum condition.

A Forming Fabric is necessary and integral for modern papermaking machines,  performing three main functions：1）draining pulp slurry；2）forming the sheet；and 3）transporting the sheet to the press sec tion. Adequate sheet formation is one of the greatest concerns of papermakers, because it affects most of the sheet qualities. Recently, high quality and high productivity have both become top requirements of paper makers. Paper machines have evolved, increasing in size and speed. To meet the current demands of paper makers and the latest machines, forming fabrics have evolved as well.

The global boom of internet shopping （and shipping） has increased paperboard demand as packing and wrapping demand have increased. One consequence of the increased demand is that furnish quality can be inconsistent, thus affecting board machine operation.

Paperboard makers seek “trouble–free” wire to improve operation and production efficiency due to to dayʼs market demands and increased machine speeds. To meet the latest demand of the board making indus try FILCON engineers have developed a new wire structure for paperboard machines called “N–CRAFT”. N CRAFT is a new warp–self–binding design that has the same excellent internal–wear resistance as the SAKURA and FUJI series.

The most significant N–CRAFT improvement comes from redesigning the wireʼs machine–side struc ture, and using different diameters yarns for the upper and lower layers of the wire. With N–CRAFTʼs ad vanced structural design we expect the following benefits：1）Improvement of operability（high dewater ability, reduction of fiber accumulation around the machine, improvement of wire life；）2）Reduction of drive load（wire elongation improvement under high tension, reduction of bottom weft yarn friction；） 3）Improve ment of paper quality（ improved formation and reduction of wire marks）.

In this report, we introduce the features of N–CRAFT.

Studies on the synthesis and characterization of a hybrid fiber （HF） consisting of precipitated calcium carbonate （PCC） and cellulose fiber were conducted. The PCC–HF has been prepared by modifying the car bon dioxide （CO₂） method for PCC synthesis under high–pressure fl uid–jet cavitation in hardwood bleached kraft pulp （HBKP） slurry. Scanning electron microscopy （SEM） observations of the HF showed that almost all fiber surfaces were covered with nano–size PCC particles. By using this PCC–HF as raw materials, the handsheet containing more than 50％ PCC by weight with a high first–pass ash retention （greater than 80％）. Unlike ordinary paper such as printing paper, the sheet showed remarkable physical properties, such as high fl exibility without crumbling despite extreme high ash content. The SEM images from a cross section of the sheet containing 74％ PCC revealed that a very little number of fibers embedded in PCC layer. This implied that the bonding mechanism of HF sheet was diff erent from ordinary paper. In order to clarify the mechanism, the slurry of PCC–HF for handsheet making was separated into two fractions, long fibers and fines, by using the Dynamic Drainage Analyzer （DDA）. It was found that the nano–size PCC was attached onto not only the surfaces of the long fibers but also those of fiber fines. Thus, the PCC–hybrid fiber fines contributed sheet properties and high ash retention.