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1.1 Paper and Board Today

The history of paper is also the history of human culture and civilization. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans wrote on “papyrus”, a paper-like material. Today’s kind of paper was first developed and used in China. Paper was the most im­portant carrier of information in the past. It was only with increasing paper pro­duction that the transfer of knowledge, education and information to a larger por­tion of society became possible. With paper emperors were able to administrate large empires more easily. In former times paper was a valuable product, and paper making an art – an art that was often kept secret because of the outstanding advantages of the product. Today paper has changed from a rare artisan material to a commodity product, with a high practical value in communication, in educational, artistic, hygienic, sanitary, and technical applications. Nobody can imagine a world without paper. A large variety of paper grades are produced to suit the special requirements of each application: Graphic paper grades, packaging papers and board, hygienic papers, and speciality paper grades. Paper can be impregnated, coated, laminated, creped, molded etc. Paper products embellish our homes, and sanitary products made of paper ease our daily life. An easier life is also more likely with a sufficient number of banknotes in the briefcase. Packaging papers and board grades support super­market logistics and product presentations. Computer print-outs and other graphic papers such as newspapers, magazines and books accompany us through our life. Even today in our digital world paper is a reliable means of long-time documenta­tion and data preservation. The worldwide consumption of paper is increasing steadily over the years. The paper consumption in individual countries is related to their gross national prod­uct and hence the further increase in paper and board consumption will be differ­ent in different countries depending on whether economic saturation, as e. g. in the United States and Central Europe, or fast increasing demand, as in China, is prevailing. The ratio of the worldwide consumption of the different paper and board grades has changed in the past and will change in the future according to technical and social evolution and developments in the individual countries and in the world as a whole. The components used in paper and board production worldwide are given in Fig. 1.1.

Today recovered paper has become the main resource for paper and board production, followed by chemical pulp, mechanical pulp, pigments and fillers, and chemical additives. Paper is mainly based on fibers from cultured woods, and is a renewable and recyclable raw material. The special characteristic of this fiber mate­rial is that the paper strength results from the hydrogen bonding between the individual fibers. In certain cases it is enhanced by the addition of starch or wet strength additives. The hydrogen bonds are loosened by rewetting the paper which allows easy recycling. Increased paper recycling and sustained foresting help to preserve the wood resources of the earth. The paper industry has steadily improved its standards in complying with environmental demands as related to water consumption and wa­ter effluents, energy consumption, and primary (and secondary) fiber consump­tion. These standards have to be maintained and even improved in the future because of further increasing paper and board consumption and limited resources. The paper and board market is global, and so is the paper industry where an evident consolidation has occurred over the last decades: In 1980 the 150 biggest companies contributed about 45 % to the overall production, in 2000 this figure was about 70 % in a market which had nearly doubled from about 170 million tons/year to about 320 million tons/year. It seems that this concentration process has not yet come to an end. Papermaking has changed from an “art”, where all specific processes were kept secret, to an industry with high-tech production facilities and with a scientific approach. Great challenges are e. g. the huge production quantities per unit and the high quality demands placed on the paper and board properties and their uniformity. Only high quality products – at low price – satisfy the expectations of the customer and end user. Since paper is a commodity, low cost production is mandatory. As the fiber raw material is the main cost factor in paper production recovered paper has become the main fiber stock material worldwide and its proportion will increase further. Several grades, such as newsprint and many packaging and board grades, can be entirely based on recycled fibers. Today recovered fibers must be used in paper grades similar to the recovered paper grade, downgrading of recovered paper (high quality fibers for lower quality paper products) is no longer economic. In former times, with mainly virgin fibers consumption, a paper mill was lo­cated close to the wood (and the water and energy resources). This is still true for regions of Portugal, Spain and Brazil with Eucalypt plantations used mainly for copy or similar paper grades. One result of the increased use of recovered paper is that certain new “green field” paper mills are established today in the vicinity of highly populated areas to have easier access to recovered paper resources and to be closer to the market. The capital demand for a new mill is of the order of magnitude of 500 million €. In the last thirty years the investment costs (inflation-adjusted) related to the spe­cific annual production (t/a) have been approximately halved. This drop is mainly due to increased machine speeds and machine widths as well as to improved runnability. On the other hand the investment costs related to annual turnover have remained constant or even increased.