# name
Application of circular economy principles to a paper manufacturing process

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Treballs Finals de Màster d'Enginyeria Química, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2022-2023. Tutora: Maria Alicia Cardete

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
This work is based on the importance of water consumption by paper industries. It has been known by media and physical results which can be observed that it is present a water-stressed in our country. Physically it can be seen that some river levels have reduced their capacity over the last years and MITECO (2022) provides information to quantify the capacity of the global Spanish water reserve which is about an 39,2%. Therefore, it has been studied the water consumption and wastewater that is removed from a wrapping manufacturing process, presented as a case study.
Hence, the objective of this work is to apply novel technologies to a wrapping paper manufacturing process in order to reduce the water consumption by the implementation of circular economy principals. This objective will be accomplished by four milestones. First a paper manufacturing process will be defined and represented, secondly water consumers, quantities and qualities will be identified, thirdly wastewater streams, quantities and qualities will be identified and finally it will be presented a wastewater treatment and regeneration operations which the goal of reuse this kind of water in the paper process.
The selected wrapping manufacturing process is based on three processes, which are: recycle pulp, wood pulp and papermaking processes. The raw material to produce paper is pulp which will be conform by a 70% or recycled pulp, being the rest from wood. Water is required to different points of the case study presented as demineralized water with high quality, the amount is approximately 12,2m3 of water per paper tonne produced. The principal characteristic of demineralized water is the lower presence of minerals and salts dissolved thus, TDS and TSS should have reduced levels (Vogelzang, 2007 % Real Decreto 1960/2700) in order to have a conductivity less than 1μs/cm (The Distillate Water Company), and the principal bacteria escherichia coli should not be present (Real Decreto 1960/2700. While wastewater represents 10,7m3 per paper tonne being collected from the papermaking process. This kind of water has high amount of organic matter, being the main source wood fibres and/or lignin derivates and hemicelluloses, which is measured by COD and BOD while it has lower impurities of TDS and TSS (Dagar, 2022).
Therefore, wastewater is the major concern in this case study in order to have a circular process. Thus, it has been suggested a process to obtain demineralized water from wastewater for a recirculation system. To reach the mentioned process demineralized water treatment will be studied having as input the raw water, supplied by a river Wastewater treatment follows the three phases of a typical WWTP, it will be treated by a clarifier, then by a novel technology, the MBBR system followed by the MF and finally a chlorination. While the demineralized treatment has more operations starting from the chlorination, sand filtration, MF and RO, membrane degasification and finally the mixed bed resin. The RO is a system that can remove a 98% of major contaminants (Advanced Water Filters) mentioned while the MBBR system can remove with a high efficiency the biological matter (Veolia, 2022). The MF system is presented in both treatments allowing to optimize the whole water process. This is possible because it has been found that once the treated water leaves the MBBR system will have lower levels of TSS, COD and BOD, being suitable for the MF system of the demineralized treatment. Furthermore, the residual chlorine will remove the biological matter from the wastewater treatment. By the other side, the wastewater produced in the mixed bed resin in the demineralized treatment is introduced into the MBBR system of the wastewater treatment as the TDS and TSS is assumed to be lower at that point, allowing to avoid the clarifier of the wastewater treatment.
Thus, as the main process of paper is based on a recycled one, the wastewater volume will be less than a conventional process. Moreover, the exact number of the reused water has not been possible to know as the information of suppliers and industries is highly confidential. Because of that this work is based on a conceptual manner. Furthermore, the suggested water process can be applied to any paper industry because the main processes are always present, with some variations, and also it can be applied to other non-paper industries that consumes high volumes of water.

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Application of circular economy principles to a paper manufacturing process

# metadata.dc.title.alternative[].value
Aplicación de los principios de economía circular a un proceso de fabricación de papel