In recent In recent years, environmental problems have become more serious on a global scale with the increase in population, urbanization, and industrialization, and many companies are now working to solve social problems as part of their business activities with the SDGs.

There are four main efforts to solve environmental problems : “solving water resource problems”, “reducing waste”, “sustainable energy use” and “balancing environmental problems with advances in production technology”. In particular, “waste reduction” and “sustainable energy use” should be considered in the wastewater treatment field.

Wastewater treatment equipment is classified into organic treatment and inorganic treatment, but in response to the above customer needs, we have been working on the development of wastewater treatment technology that takes into consideration not only treatment stability but also environmental load reduction.

BIOPLANET^®SR, which is an aerobic biological treatment, is a technology that makes it possible to reduce excess sludge by utilizing the food chain mechanism while reducing COD in wastewater by microbial decomposition.

The anaerobic MBR system, which is an anaerobic biological treatment, reduces the amount of excess sludge, creates energy using methane, which is a decomposition by-product, and retains microorganisms in a high concentration in the tank in combination with membrane separation technology. This is a technology that enables direct treatment of high‒concentration SS and COD‒containing wastewater without pretreatment, SS removal, or dilution.

S. sensing^®CS is a technology that measures the turbidity between coagulant flocs and optimally controls the amount of coagulant added. Not only can the chemical cost and industrial waste amount be reduced by suppressing excessive addition, but also the deterioration of treatment performance due to insufficient addition amount can be suppressed because the amount of coagulant can be optimally controlled with respect to the raw water quality.

We have been working on the development of individual equipment technology and chemical technology for the purpose of improving the performance of water treatment technology. As the next action, we would like to establish a water treatment facility that is linked with manufacturing process information in order to truly respond to the solution of environmental problems by our customers. Finally, we would like to develop an overall solution that enables minimization of water use, minimization of water treatment costs, minimization of energy consumption, and labor saving.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals （SDGs） are set out, including the goal of “6. Ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”．

Behind this is the problem that the amount of freshwater resources available is gradually decreasing due to the increase in water usage due to population growth and water pollution in public water bodies.

For humankind to survive and achieve economic development, it is important to prevent water pollution and promote water circulation.

Water discharged through industrial activities contains various pollutants. In order to solve the above problems, when water is discharged from each factory （specific facility）, pollutants must be purified to below a certain standard.

The methods used for purification are roughly divided into three types：“physical treatment”, “chemical treatment”，and“biological treatment”，and appropriate treatment methods and combinations are adopted according to the type of pollution.

In general, “biological treatment” that can treat a large amount of water at low cost is used in many factories, but it is difficult to obtain stable and high-quality treated water only by “biological treatment”，so it is necessary. Advanced processing may be adopted depending on the situation.

One of them, the Membrane Bio Reactor （MBR）, is a relatively new technology that combines “biological treatment” with “physical treatment”．

MBR is a method that has been increasingly introduced in recent years, taking advantage of its features such as “high quality treated water” and “compact treatment equipment”．

Due to the high quality of treated water, it is expected to be one of the technologies to solve human problems.

In this presentation, we will show the mechanism, features, and merits of MBR. In addition, we will show an actual introduction example of how MBR is used for purification of factory wastewater in various industries including textile and paper processing industry, and for wastewater reuse needs that have been increasing in recent years. I will introduce it while.

Drive Unit for sludge collectors, Thickeners and Clarifiers is simple and efficiently designed structure. Because of it, easily maintenance checks and long lasting that garner immense praise.

Since the units are centrally driven prevent rail-travelling wheel slippage, which may occur for circumferentially driven types in stormy weather, so the quality of treated water will be stabilized.

In case of an overload, drive units are introduced a chain drive have a play that give a time to start the limit switch and can be stopped before damaging for gear.

The units that have a lifting device can be raised and lowered are able to reset without waste water and sludge removal.

There has always been a noise problem for the outside and in recent years there has been a growing concern about the noise of working environments. The fundamentals of acoustics in solving the problem can provide some pathway to countermeasures. I hope this paper will help.

Chapter 1：The fundamentals of sound will be explained. The mechanisms of sound generation, physical phenomena of sound, differences in sound energy and level, and decibel synthesis are explained. This is followed by a correspondence with auditory perception.

Chapter 2：Sound attenuation by distance and the often-misunderstood phenomena of sound insulation, sound absorption and diffraction are examined using a simple model, and the phenomena of sound in relation to noise control are explained.

Chapter 3：Methods of measuring noise, including metrics for each type of noise, noise control laws, regulatory standards, and assessment locations are described.

Proper waste treatment of polychlorinated biphenyls （PCBs） has been led by the government since 2001. It is mandated for those store PCB-contained products to process them on their own or subcontract their process by 2027. Prefectural/municipal governments are carrying out an investigation targeting the companies who store PCB wastes in order to find further potential wastes that are not notified yet and to promote the completion of their process by 2027. 3. 31.

Based on our experience of processing over 40,000 low concentration PCB wastes since accreditation. During their process we found some cases where transformers contains capacitors, since both of them have different levels of PCB concentration, they cannot be processed until analysis of the levels for each component is complete. Each enterprise shall play an important role to identify the amount of such wastes and promote the process within a limited timeframe.

In Japan, The amended Food Sanitation Act was enforced on 1st. June 2020 and the Positive List （PL） system of Resin for Food Packaging was promulgated by the government. However, it needs more several years to complete PL and discussion of Paper is a future theme. This paper introduces latest global trend of Food Packaging Legislations including paper.

In the tide of targeting a circular-economy society, oil has begun to move away, and the renewable energy ratio has begun to increase. Even in the COVID-19 pandemic, the global trend toward the realization of a bio- and circular-economy is steadily accelerating without stagnation. Under these circumstances, packaging materials, packaging technology, and recycling are also at a major turning point. “Less plastics and more recycling” is to reduce the use of plastics and regard used waste as “oil resources on the ground” for maximum recycling.

“Conversion to paper as an alternative for plastics” aims to use paper/cellulose derived from forest resources, which is the largest biomass on the earth, as a substitute for plastics, and there are high expectations for paper. However, in order to realize this, technology innovations in paper and paper packaging are required. Additionally, it is necessary to build an efficient infrastructure for recycling newly developed functional paper packaging materials into raw materials for papermaking. This is a social contribution in which paper manufacturers can take leadership.

Beyond that, the pulp and paper industry itself is required to undergo a major transformation into a biomass industry.

In this paper, 1） conversion to paper from plastics in packaging, 2） paper-based multi-barrier innovations（water-based barrier and heatseal coating, combination with water-based flexographic printing），3） the establishment of proper recycling standards corresponding to the circular economy, 4） three-dimensional molding technology for paper bottles, and 5） the future prospects forward to biomass industry of the pulp and paper industry are described.

The Circular Economy （CE） is a policy that reduces the dependence on resource consumption in economic activities and promotes the following three main initiatives.

①Carefully circulate resources and products.

②Regarding products, suifting from sold-out business models, we will provide the function and convenience values of the products as service, emphasize the life cycle management of the products, and promote the extension of lifetime and the use of upgrades.

③Work on the development and implementation of a business model that promotes the above two points. The purpose of the second CE action plan is to enhance the industrial competitiveness of Europe, strengthen the power of consumers, and promote environmental protection.

The priority policy is a sustainable product policy. Its purpose is to ensure that products on the EU market have a longer lifespan and are easier to repair, upgrade, recycle and reuse.

The EUʼs new industrial strategy is as follows.

‒The two of transitions for ecology and digital are called “twin transitions” and affect every part of the economy, society, and industry. We will make investments commensurate with that and develop innovative technologies.

・ Innovative products, services and business models require new skills that many people have not yet acquired, creating new types of occupations.

‒In this strategy, enablers（people who make it possible）and regulators（administrative agencies）need to recognize the strengths and roles of the EU.

・ Entrepreneurship and ability to act are important for the new strategy. In that way, every player in the value chain could do so with a new focus and choice towards the industrial ecosystem.

・ The new industrial strategy shows the vision to be achieved by 2030 and the basis for reaching it.

Additionally, the author will explain the European digital strategy and the movement to seek a new economic form after the covid-19.

Our company is currently developing various business such as boilers, water treatment equipment, food equipment, marine equipment, sterilizers, water treatment chemicals, etc. The small once-through boiler ZP type released in 1959, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2019, has been recognized as the “Mechanical Heritage” of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers 2015.

The business has spread to the world, and the number of employees is more than 5,500 in the group, of which 1,500 overseas. As the “best partner of heat, water and environment”, we support your life in various fields, and this time we will introduce the latest technology in that field.

In cohesion handling of drainage, the appropriate adjustment of the inorganic flocculant depending on drainage load is important in planning stabilization of the processing quality of the water and optimization of a drug and the grime outbreak quantity. The tendency of many kinds is remarkable, and the drainage class drained from a production process does not rarely fluctuate from mass production in small quantities in the recent shop floor during one day.

Two ways of methods usually are almost taken in management of the waste water treatment equipment while it looks like it. It is a method that one assays inorganic flocculant to the drainage of the peak load and injects. When drainage load is low, inorganic flocculant becomes the excessive infusion, and a problem in this method is that the consumption of the neutralizer, the quantity of grime outbreak increase with this. It is the method that a manager adjusts quantity of addition of the inorganic flocculant to depending on the change of the change and cohesion state of the drainage class, and another method is that the problem in this method needs serious personnel expenses. It becomes the understaffed problem more serious today.

For these problems, a technique, the system which automatically controlled appropriate adjustment of the inorganic flocculant depending on drainage load have been bought.

This announcement introduces the industrial waste reduction by the IoT application to waste water treatment equipment, labor saving.

In the process of conquering the pandemic Covid-19, particular attentions are focused on “Digital transformation（DX）” as powerful tools. Newly emerged this tool has potentiality of improving business as well as national administrative areas, and intended to lead finally to “paperless society”. To what extent this trend will prevail is the major significant concern among stakeholders and researchers in the paper-related areas.

The eighth article of this series is intended to analyze the influence of “Digital transformation” on the wide range of paper-related areas. The overall contents are described as below.

1.Introduction

2.Pandemic Covid-19 and Digital Transformation

3.Paperless trends created by removal of imprinting in business and administration documents

4.Flow-type information and Stock-type information

5.In search for optimal forms of journals

6.Necessity of paper-based journals for deep understanding of the contents

7.In search for specific and optimum forms for future Japan TAPPI journal

8.Epilogue

We propose to use a carbon dioxide laser to cut the paper which provides two benefits. The blade of the cutting system will not wear without a mechanical cutter and the cut surface can be smoothened by choosing the optimal irradiation of the laser which prevent accidental cutting of the human skin. In the experiment to demonstrate these benefits, a CO₂ laser, a condenser lens, a rotating table, and a silicone rubber that simulates the human skin were used. The thresholds that can cut all the papers used in the experiment with a CO₂ laser was obtained. Simulation experiments using a silicone rubber to characterize the damage caused by the abrasion of the paper edge suggested that the paper edge cut by use of a CO₂ laser was gentler to the skin than the edge cut by use of scissors.

We have produced CNF-reinforced composites in demonstration facility on the basis of knowledge gained from NEDO project. The manufacturing process is composed of two parts； hydrophobization of pulp and compounding it with thermoplastics by kneading. It was revealed that undesired large increase of hydrophobicity （the degree of acetyl substitution；DS（Ac）） could be suppressed when a certain amount of water was added into the reactor before evaporation of reagents. On the other hand, it was also shown that the flexural strength of CNF-reinforced PA6 decreased as the DS（Ac） increased in a range of 0.5-0.8. In conclusion, we succeeded in the control of DS（Ac） of pulp and revealed that DS（Ac） has an important effect on physical properties of CNF-reinforced composites.