Programme details

The European paper industry is the world leader for this technology, but it must face the major challenges: on one hand, it must reinforce its competitive position in order to cope with greater international competition, and on the other, industrialists must reduce the negative effects of paper production on the environment. This is the specific objective of Ecotarget, an integrated project of the Sixth European Framework Research Programme, coordinated by the STFI Institute in Stockholm.
Ecotarget it includes 31 partners from Sweden, Spain, Germany, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland and Austria.

Ecotarget

Ecotarget is based on the "more from less" concept. The objective is tol create more, better quality products using smaller quantities of resources like wood fibre, energy and fresh water and to produce less waste.

Paper Production

Paper is essentially a sheet of wood fibre in which a certain number of chemical products have been incorporated. These determine the properties and quality of the sheet. The pulp used to manufacture this paper can be made from new fibre or obtained from reprocessing old paper into pulp.
Today, more than half of the tonnage of paper produced in Europe is made from recycled paper.

Innovation

To maintain it’s leadership in paper production, the European industry must continue to invest in innovation.
ECOTARGET gives the possibility of organizing cooperation between technology suppliers, institutes, universities and the paper industry.

Ecotarget Subprojects

Ecotarget includes five sub-projects:

- the use of new fibre
- the use of recycled fibres
- the consumption of fresh water in the manufacturing process
- separating thick fibres from thin fibres
- optimizing manufacture of paper by using the various fibres in an original way

Virgin Fibre Supply

The first sub-project targets increasing the use of mechanical paper pulp, which is obtained by simply laminating wood fibres.

Recycled Fibre Supply

The second targets greatly increasing the use of recycled paper.

Mill Process Waters

In the third sub-project the consumption of fresh water will be reduced and emissions in water will be controlled.

Furnish Solutions

The separation of thin and thick fibres is harnessed because we obtain different quality paper depending on whether we use thick or thin fibres.

Paper Making Solutions

Normally we use fibres by laying them in a single layer. The originality of this project consists of laying the fibres on different levels. For example, based on the separation of fibres, we will get better quality paper while consuming less raw material and energy.

Ecotarget Subprojects: conclusion

All the Ecotarget projects must achieve at least one of the following objectives:
reducing the use of raw material by 30 %, reducing consumption of energy by 30 %, reducing consumption of fresh water by 20 %, and reducing production of waste and atmospheric emissions by 20 %.

General Conclusion

The paper industry plus the activities derived from it, represent one of the largest economic sectors in Europe.
Ecotarget sustains industrial producers and suppliers in the sector to get together with universities and research institutes to meet the challenge to innovate, the only way to ensure sustainable development.