Abstract
Corporate image, European Emission Trading System and EnvironmentalRegulations, encourage pulp industry to reduce carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions. Kraft pulp mills produceCO2 mainly in combustion processes. The largest sourcesare the recovery boiler, the biomass boiler, and the lime kiln. Due to utilizingmostly biomass-based fuels, the CO2 is largely biogenic.Capture and storage of CO2 (CCS) could offer pulp and paperindustry the possibility to act as site for negative CO2emissions. In addition, captured biogenic CO2 can be used asa raw material for bioproducts. Possibilities for CO2utilization include tall oil manufacturing, lignin extraction, and production ofprecipitated calcium carbonate (PCC), depending on local conditions andmill-specific details. In this study, total biomass-based CO2capture and storage potential (BECCS) and potential to implement capture andutilization of biomass-based CO2 (BECCU) in kraft pulp millswere estimated by analyzing the impacts of the processes on the operation of twomodern reference mills, a Nordic softwood kraft pulp mill with integrated paperproduction and a Southern eucalyptus kraft pulp mill. CO2capture is energy-intensive, and thus the effects on the energy balances of themills were estimated. When papermaking is integrated in the mill operations, energyadequacy can be a limiting factor for carbon capture implementation. Global carboncapture potential was estimated based on pulp production data. Kraft pulp mills havenotable CO2 capture potential, while the on-site utilizationpotential using currently available technologies is lower. The future of theseprocesses depends on technology development, desire to reuseCO2, and prospective changes in legislation.
Highlights
Pulp and paper production is one of the largest industrial energy users (IEA 2014)
This study provides an assessment of the global potential of pulp and paper industry to act as site for negative CO2 emissions through biomass-based CO2 capture and storage (BECCS) and what could be the share of internally utilized CO2
Reaction product calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is regenerated to CaO in the lime kiln with heat from burning typically fossil fuel according to the reduction reaction: CaCO3 þ ðheatÞ→CaO þ CO2: The reduction reaction produces biogenic CO2 that exits with the flue gasses from the stack of the lime kiln
Summary
Pulp and paper production is one of the largest industrial energy users (IEA 2014). The raw material used in chemical pulping is mainly woody biomass. In the chemical pulp industry, a large share of energy use is already biomass-based, and in normal operations, modern kraft pulp mills are usually self-sufficient in energy, with the exception of lime kiln operations. Substituting fossil fuels used in the lime kiln with renewable fuels produced at the mill, especially if existing side streams are used, would make normal kraft pulp mill operations nearly fossil fuel-free. Feasible options to integrate renewable lime kiln fuel production into the kraft pulp production process exist (Kuparinen and Vakkilainen 2017). This study provides an assessment of the global potential of pulp and paper industry to act as site for negative CO2 emissions through biomass-based CO2 capture and storage (BECCS) and what could be the share of internally utilized CO2 (biomass-based CO2 capture and utilization, BECCU). The possibility to utilize captured CO2 as raw material for further bioproducts is explored
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