Pulp and Paper Productivity Improvement

Tech Futures named a 2010 ASTech Honouree

Technology test succeeds against mountain pine beetle
Technology created at Tech Futures is being recognized as a 2010 ASTech Honouree. The ASTech's are an annual celebration to award Alberta's best in science and technology.

Tech Futures sensor technology has helped an Alberta business win a battle for communities and companies in a war against the mountain pine beetle. This technology was used to detect and respond to changes in both wood supply and mill process water quality, better equipping them to handle beetle-killed wood’s drier, weaker and darker characteristics.

Learn more about how this technology is supporting Alberta industry 
 


Tech Futures' pulp and paper productivity improvement program provides development and deployment of new process improvement technologies for value generation within the pulp and paper industry. Within this program focus areas include: process measurement (sensors) and control, processing mountain pine beetle wood, aspen wood processing, energy conservation and production, process improvement, and identification of process changes yielding new or improved products.

Developing a new generation of measurement systems for wood, pulp and paper processing
Leveraging a unique combination of capabilities that span pulp and paper processing expertise, spectroscopy and measurement, and instrument engineering, Tech Futures has developed and deployed novel instrumentation to solve difficult and valuable measurement problems in the industry. Examples of instruments that have been developed and that are available include:
 

  • Colloidal Pitch Analyzer: Provides measurements of the concentration and stability of wood pitch in pulp and paper streams.
     
  • Fiber Line Quality System: Pulp Brightness Provides measurements of pulp brightness for baled fluff pulp.
     
  • Raman Peroxide Analyzer: Provides measurements of residual peroxide in bleach pressates.
     
  • On-line Wood Chip Color Analyzer: A vision-based system with color analysis algorithms that provide measures of bluestain, bark, and red (late or heartwood).
     
  • Laboratory Wood Chip Color Analyzer: A vision-based system with color analysis algorithms that provide measures of bluestain, bark, and red (late or heartwood).
     
  • UV Analyzer for Dissolved Organics: A UV analysis system that has been optimized to measure dissolved UV substances in pulp mill water.