Welcome to paperChain
Innovative new circular business models
Most of the current waste streams generated by the Pulp & Paper industry (PPI) are currently disposed to landfills or burnt for energy production. Inorganic wastes are basically used as cement raw material and to a lesser extent as soil amendment in forestry applications. These solutions have a low added value and are dependent on the existence of cement kilns and acid soils in the vicinity of the mills, reducing their potential valorisation. Although there is extensive academic research on the waste valorisation to enhance the utilization of paper mill waste streams, there is still a lack of alternatives proved at real scale under operational conditions.
Paperchain is a demonstrative project that proposes innovative applications for different underused PPI waste streams, proving their technical, economic and environmental feasibility in five circular business models through real scale pilots.The project aims at unlocking the situation that hinders the proposed solutions to reach the market, including not only technical issues, but legal, social and economic factors.
To overcome these barriers, the project has involved the whole value chain and provides transparency of their outcomes, being public awareness a priority.
paperChain at a glance
The overall objective of PAPERCHAIN is to deploy five novel circular economy models centred in the valorisation of the waste streams generated by the Pulp and Paper Industry (PPI) as secondary raw material for a number of resource intensive sectors: construction sector, mining sector and chemical industry.
The Project
The Consortium
Circular Cases
REAL SCALE DEMONSTRATORS
Want to meet the Consortium?
News
EU GREEN WEEK: Virtual Conference
We are delighted to announce a joint workshop on important developments in the pulp industry, organised by the European Union H2020 projects paperChain (https://www.paperchain.eu/) and Pulp&Fuel (http://pulpandfuel.eu/). This event is organized as a part of EU...
Video: Circular Case 5
We would like to present the first of the two Circular Cases that have been developed in Sweden, in this case the CC5. A new technology for covering mining waste has now been tested in demonstration scale at Boliden's mine in Garpenberg, Sweden.This new technology...
VIDEO: CIRCULAR CASE 2
We continue with the series of animation videos of the different Circular Cases in which the paperChain project is divided. This time it is the turn of the pilot developed in Spain and coordinated by ACCIONA, the Circular Case 2. The pilot has demonstrated...
Article: Using Recycled Material from the Paper Industry as a Backfill Material for Retaining Walls near Railway Lines
Our partner ZAG has published an open access article in MDPI. A pioneer in scholarly open access publishing, MDPI has supported academic communities since 1996. Based in Basel, Switzerland, MDPI has the mission to foster open scientific exchange in all forms, across...