Challenges and Opportunities in Pulp and Paper Process Control

Many of the process technologies and products of today's pulp and paper industry have been established some 50 years ago. As noted by several authors, there seems to be a 50 year cycle in industrial growth and innovation. If that is true, then the pulp and paper industry is ripe for technological changes. Recent developments seem to indicate that it is the case. Headboxes allowing the formation of multilayered sheets are starting to appear. The new impulse drying method will revolutionise the paper machine, reducing its length by half. New pulping processes, that combine chemical and mechanical actions are appearing. The bleaching operation will probably be based on entirely new concepts and chemicals. Because these new processes will involve less mixing, recycling and retention than today's, they will also be less forgiving in terms of control. Together with the need for tighter quality control, this means that the control of the future pulp and paper mill will be more demanding. At the same time there is a formidable push to develop sensors to measure on-line properties of pulp and paper products, thus creating new opportunities for control. These new sensors and advances in computer hardware, control theory and artificial intelligence will give the control engineering community the opportunity to meet this challenge.