Indian Pulp and Paper Technical Association (IPPTA) organized a zonal seminar on ‘Energy Conservation, Cost Reduction and Developing Alternate Source of Energy’ at Vapi, Gujarat from November 17 to November 18, 2022. The seminar aimed at addressing the current challenges being faced by the paper industry regarding energy efficiency. Mr. Sunil Agrawal, Chairman-Programme Committee & President of Gujarat Paper Mills Association gave the welcome address and Mr. M.K. Goyal, Honorary Secretary General, IPPTA, presented the outline of the workshop.
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The event commenced with a lamp lighting ceremony by the Chief Guest Shri Kanubhai Desai, Finance Minister, Government of Gujarat, Mr. Sunil Agrawal, Chairman-Programme Committee & President, Gujarat Paper Mills Association, and CMD, Shree Gajanan Paper & Boards Pvt. Ltd., Dr. TG Sundara Raman, Technical Advisor (BD & Tech), Enviropool Engineers Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Ganesh Bhadti, President, IPPTA & Director (Operations) Seshasayee Paper and Boards Ltd., Mr. MK Gupta, Director, CPPRI, and Commodore Saurav Deb, CMD, NEPA Ltd.
‘Paper has turned out to be a profitable businessʼ
Addressing the leaders of the paper industry, Shri Kanubhai Desai said, “Vapi has improved a lot in the last five years and paper has turned out to be a profitable business. The industry has performed well even during the pandemic. The theme of the seminar ‘Energy Conservation, Cost Reduction and Developing Alternate Source of Energy’ is extremely important for the industry. If you work on that, your profit will definitely increase because when you become energy efficient and control environmental problems, your waste reduces and you get the maximum out of your business”.
‘The three Es important in the paper industry are energy, environment and emissionʼ
Dr. TG Sundara Raman shed light on the three Es that are important in the paper industry, i.e. ‘energy, environment and emission’. Through his presentation, he showed that uses of alternate sources of energy in paper mills could be solar thermal coupled with waste heat radiation (lime kiln) conversion, solar concentrating parabolic trough collector with tracking, solar drying of fossil fuel, and solar thermal for hot water generation at 90°C for VAM deaerator steam consumption reduction. He further emphasized that the industry needs to move from segment (isolation)/block practice to an integrated approach.
‘There are some changes expected in the energy consumption pattern of the pulp & paper industry by 2030ʼ
Along the same lines, Mr. Ganesh Bhadti added, “A religious approach is needed at the moment because once we change our approach or the attitude toward the natural resources, we can avoid this depletion”. He further said, “There are some changes expected in the energy consumption pattern of the pulp & paper industry by 2030. The coal consumption is expected to reduce by 18.2% and gas will be coming down by 15%. Electricity would go up by 12% and bioenergy will go up by 23%. Further, paper production will go up to 20 million tonnes and net energy consumption will come down by 16%. Sustainable consumption is required to ensure that this energy is available all the time.”
‘Conservation of energy will give us cost reductionʼ
Elaborating on energy conservation approaches by Nepa Ltd., Commodore Saurav Deb said, “Conservation of energy will give us cost reduction and that’s how we not only save the planet but also save ourselves. As long as the smoke gushes out of the chimney, keeping all the environmental parameters in mind, Nepa is a beacon of hope for the people in the area, and I can assure you that we will not let you down.”
‘We’ve got good potential in terms of the availability of infrastructure and manpowerʼ
The inaugural session was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Mr. Tushar Shah, Director, Daman Ganga Board Mills Pvt. Ltd. Sharing his views on the paper industry, Mr. Abiali Jani, Director of Jani Sales Pvt. Ltd., said, “There is a lot of development in the e-commerce sector which has opened a plethora of opportunities for the packaging industry. Apart from this, education is also a booming sector in India and an important factor for the growth of the paper industry. However, you need to study what kind of project you want to put up. As an industry, we’ve got good potential in terms of the availability of infrastructure, labor, and manpower. We are far better than the Western countries.”
‘All you can do is bring new technology, increase efficiencies, increase control methods, and work on the kaizen systemʼ
Talking about the ways to increase efficiency in the paper industry, Mr. Varun Shah from Shree Ajit Pulp and Paper Ltd. said, “The power cost is always going to go up. All you can do is bring about new technology or increase your efficiencies, increase your control methods, and work on the kaizen system, which is rolling off your processes, rechecking, and then evaluating. That will eventually lead to your decrease in power consumption and increase in your efficiency.”
‘By 2030, our target is to meet 30% of our total energy requirements from renewable energyʼ
Meanwhile, Mr. Pritesh Shah, Joint Managing Director, Shah Paper Mills Ltd., shed light on the strategies taken at his company. “We take action today to make our future generation better. So we need to work across all the aspects, like saving water, saving energy, saving steam, and, also our fossil fuel. We need to work in each and every direction to make more efficient and cleaner production. This will also help in bringing our profitability better. At Shah Paper Mill, we already invested in wind and solar power. By 2030, our target is to meet 30% of our total energy requirements from renewable energy. Besides investing in solar and wind power, we have a waste-to-energy boiler at our mill, which is under commissioning. We are using sludge (the deinking sludge) as one of the fuels for the boiler which essentially reduces the coal consumption by about 15 tonnes per day. With the boiler, we expect to save about 10 tonnes of coal per day in the near future” he said.
‘We need to expand our horizon towards the international marketʼ
Mr. Prince Shah from Best Paper Mills Pvt. Ltd. added, “Our country has a lot of potential and we’ve been actively investing in paper mill plants and other technologies. We are not looking here to improve, increase or decrease our production, but to make profits. We all should look at the varied products that we can make on the same machinery. Secondly, we are facing a lot of competition domestically; hence, we need to expand our horizon towards the international market. Our qualities are great, and we have made good CapEx investment. I truly believe that we should be competing on an international platform and not within ourselves. So that will be our key for going forward in the next coming few years,”
‘Quality development, sustainability and profitability should go hand in handʼ
Mr. Kunal Dharia, Director of Revival Paper Mill Pvt. Ltd. emphasized that “Quality development, sustainability and profitability should go hand in hand. Sustainability is increasing machine efficiency, reducing your cost, making it affordable, and at the same time, providing good quality products to the clients.”
‘Paper with suitable properties can definitely replace plasticsʼ
Mr. Aditya Gupta, Director at Narsingh Dass Group added that “In India, we have the capability of producing very good quality of paper. By the good quality of paper, I mean efficiently producing it with the best of the cost parameters that exist for the industry. The paper mills should increase that capacity within their unit to compete internationally and reduce the import of the paper to serve that application.”
When asked about the possibility of paper replacing plastics in the near future, he said, “I have tried combining paper with each and every kind of material that exists right now as a choice of material in the packaging line. Plastic offers a functional barrier property, which is generally moisture barrier and oxygen barrier, which gives the shelf life to the product. These two things are the most challenging thing for paper. But paper with suitable properties can definitely replace plastics in that application where the commercial sense of the final product makes brand owners accept the paper as a choice of material such as molded fiber products. The cutlery made out of paper is getting exported from India. Similarly, the sachet business, like the e-commerce bags, is happening in a big way. Paper tape is the third such product, which is a big wave right now in India. If a systematic collection system of waste paper gets in place, there is no stopping. People can really go ahead and just replace plastic in a big way. The issue of ‘barrier’ might also be addressed in the coming times because people are working day in and day out to bring in this barrier property.”
‘As the larger industries come in, they bring lower costs and better quality productsʼ
Talking about the opportunities and challenges of small and medium mills, Ms. Fazilah Nathani, Director, Mehali Papers Pvt. Ltd., says, “The scale of production is directly dependent on the cost of production and high-end technology. Some of the small and medium-scale industries might not be able to afford those and, that possibly is a bottleneck for them to give up the required quality in that product. A lot of factors need to be considered. In the past, there have been a lot of small paper mills in China and in the US that are being closed down and replaced by some of the largest mills in the world. As the larger industries come in, they bring lower costs and better quality products, so it becomes very difficult for the smaller ones to compete with them. However, I should add that there could be some advantages, like location which offers specific advantages for people in remote areas in India where they could use the agri-residue as fuel and that would be advantageous in times like today when the coal prices have shot up almost three times.”
Talking exclusively to Paper Mart, Ms. Fazilah Nathani says, “I would love to see more women participation in the paper industry. We do have a lot of women in the administration side of it, but I want to see them in the factory side and for that, I think, we as an industry should change our mindset and empower women.”The first panel discussion was followed by a second panel discussion moderated by Mr. Ashraf Nathani, Managing Director, Mehali Papers Pvt. Ltd where many young leaders of the industry shared their interesting journey in the paper industry. The participants were mostly the renowned suppliers of machines and technology to the paper mills.
‘There is going to be a lot of engineering and a lot of studiesʼ
Mr. Amit Mistry, Managing Director, CAD Paper Machines Pvt. Ltd. said, “I see this journey of last 50 years as very memorable, a lot of learning in this and coming 50 years, which I see is going to be just as beautiful and as wonderful, as what the past has been. I would like to also add to this part that, it’s not only past and the present which we’re looking at but, we should also emphasize and focus on our future. There is going to be a lot of engineering and a lot of studies. Every mill is different and every idea is different. We are just looking ahead and we are seeing what best opportunities will come to us and we can give back.”
‘We have to focus on specialization on the making of certain types of machineryʼ
Mr. Dipak Panchal, CE-Marketing, Honest Iron & Engineering Works added, “We have to focus on specialization on the making of certain types of machinery. In the last few years, we have been going on making all the things together and it is not the solution. We have to follow certain models like what other countries or other people are doing. That should be the solution in the paper industry, at least because of the competition, that we are facing now. Every manufacturer should focus on their expertise, what they can make.”
‘In the last three years, we have supplied a good number of headboxes in the marketʼ
Talking about his journey, Mr. Kunal Rana, Managing Director, Micro Fab Industries said, “I joined Micro Fab in 2018 after completing my engineering. And then personally, I developed pressurized headbox. I saw a lot of potential in the market, and also we started doing some of the projects after that. In the last three years, we have had a good number of headboxes supplied in the market. And our main target was small and medium-scale industries, which were facing a lot of problems with their head boxes. So we developed a high-quality head box basically for the kraft paper industry, which was the major potential market. Most of the mills in Gujarat are facing huge issues with their GSM range. We have started working on it, and we are also developing hydraulic head boxes.”
‘We are currently working on 1000 mpm machinesʼ
Ms. Saloni Sharma, Executive Director, Saloni Paper Machines Pvt. Ltd. added, “It has not even been two decades that we have been a part of the paper industry. Although short, the journey has been a rollercoaster ride. We never thought that we will be coming up as a manufacturer and supplier of the paper machine. We were basically the erectors – commissioning and installing the paper machines. Seeing the opportunity at Vapi, we thought to have a small workshop for the maintenance purpose of all the paper mill owners. Eventually, with the support and trust of all our valued customers, we have now started taking up turnkey projects. Till now, we have been giving machines to the kraft paper industry, from headbox to the rewinder for around 300 TPD capacity. If I talk in terms of speed, we have already commissioned 750-800 mpm machines, and are currently working on 1000 mpm machines.”
‘The area with the highest potential for energy efficiency improvements is the drying process, which accounts for about 70% of the total energyʼ
Elaborating on the milestones achieved by JMC Paper Tech Pvt. Ltd., Dr. Yesha Patel, CEO of the company said, “As our generation enters the pulp and paper industry, it’s important for us to recognize the journey of our companies because they will influence our personal journeys in the industry as well. JMC started by supplying drying cylinders. And at the time, the idea of supplying a full-scale paper machine was just a distant dream for JMC. But not long after, JMC commissioned an 80 TPD kraft paper machine to Sripathi Paper & Boards Pvt. Ltd. in Sivakasi, making JMC’s dream a reality. And now, almost 30 years later, we continue to break barriers and reach new heights as one of the leading paper machine manufacturers with the first-ever integrated pulp mill and paper plant with a capacity of 200 TPD. And this is just the beginning at JMC. Our strategy, while approaching future developments is to be critical, yet creative, curious, yet capable. JMC’s journey toward the future includes innovations to increase energy efficiency within each step of the manufacturing process. Our focus remains on the development of energy-efficient technologies, research and development and digital transformation in the paper machine manufacturing process. The area with the highest potential for energy efficiency improvements is the drying process, which accounts for about 70% of the total energy that’s used for pulp and paper making. Research shows that there are three areas for innovation having high-efficiency potential.”
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“First is the superheated steam; the superior heat capacity and thermal conductivity of superheated steam allow for higher drying rates, shorter process times, and more homogenous drying. The second is water removal without evaporation through using electric forces like electro-osmosis, this method would avoid the most energy-intensive part of the drying process leading to up to 90% energy savings during drying. And third is paper making without water. There is research being done to eliminate water from the pulping process, providing the potential to remove the use of heat for drying completely to increase energy efficiency. JMC has adopted several technologies with high-efficiency potential, such as our new design steel dryers. The use of steel allows for higher heat transfer rates throughout the cylinder, leading to higher evaporation rates. This helps increase the production rate while reducing drying capacity. Additionally, steel dryers include grooving inside the shell, which allows for better conductivity and lower total energy consumption. Steel dryers provide a better and quicker response to any changes, which provides more efficient control, better quality, and better consistency of paper. JMC is also in the process of completing a hydraulic head box, which is designed for a high-speed modern paper machine with operating speeds above 500 meters per minute.”
‘Engineering in the paper industry has come a long wayʼ
Mr. Mihir Mistry, Managing Partner of Scan Engineering said, “Engineering in the paper industry has come a long way from complete mechanical systems to sophisticated systems, which have more electronics in them. Scan engineering, as a manufacturer of equipment which enhances the productivity of the basic paper machine, also believes in that same value. We have installed CNC machines, and are continuously upgrading. We are moving from a conventional setup to a complete CNC workshop and we are also adding more and more products.”
‘Our vision for the coming years is to develop technology in waste managementʼ
Discussing the history and vision of the company, Mr. Keyur Panchal from Panchal Engineering Works, said, “We begin our industrial journey under the guidance of Ruby Macons. We were one of the first manufacturers to introduce an MG cylinder with a 12-foot diameter during a time of limited resources and untapped technology. Our vision for the coming years is to develop technology in waste management. As we all know, there’s a lot of waste being created in paper mills. In the interest of generating a more sustainable and environmentally friendly procedure, this would be our main focus as a paper mill machinery manufacturer, another main focus, is to improve and advance the quality of paper by tapping new engineering methods of creating economical, better machinery, bringing something new to the table as we move ahead.”
‘Around 80% of our business is from the pulp and paper sectorʼ
Talking about the scope of robotics and automated guided vehicles in the paper industry, Mr. Ashish Chokhawala, Partner, CN Automation LLP, says, “Around 80% of our business is from the pulp and paper sector because we have been born and brought up in the paper industry. The sector has been a blessing for me.” The panel discussions were followed by various technical sessions that can benefit the industry in terms of adopting new technologies, improving existing operations and investigating the value of specific technology tools.
