=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1152/paper77
|storemode=property
|title=Water Consumption Reduction Strategies In Recycled Paper Production Companies In Iran
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1152/paper77.pdf
|volume=Vol-1152
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/RamezaniKRR11
}}
==Water Consumption Reduction Strategies In Recycled Paper Production Companies In Iran==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1152/paper77.pdf
Water Consumption Reduction Strategies in Recycled
Paper Production Companies in Iran
Omid Ramezani1, Hossein Kermanian1, Zahra Razmpour1, Mehdi Rahmaninia2
1
Department of Cellulose and Paper Technology, Faculty of New Technologies and
Energy, Zirab Science and Technology Park, Shahid Beheshti University, Zirab, Savadkoh,
Mazandaran, Iran, e-mail: O_Ramezani@sbu.ac.ir, Kermanina_h@yahoo.com,
Parisa_Razmpour@yahoo.com
2
Department of Wood and Paper Science and Industry, Faculty of Natural
Resources, University of Tarbiat Modares, Noor Campus, Noor, Mazandaran, Iran,
e-mail: mrahmaninia@yahoo.com
Abstract. A close relation exist between Forest products industries and water
cycle. Water as a natural resource is assumed to be a necessary and vital
element in pulp and paper manufacturing and power generation in the related
power plants. The objective of the current study is to determine the main
factors affecting the water consumption in recycled paper manufacturing
companies using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Several questionnaires
and related tables were forwarded to selected recycled paper manufacturing
companies to evaluate the water reduction criteria in different sectors including
manufacturing process, final product, raw material, human resources, costs and
expenditures, environmental regulations and technical modifications. The
results were analyzed by Expert Choice 2000 software. The results indicated
that 'final product" criterion was ranked first following by manufacturing
process, human resources, costs and expenditures, environmental regulations
and technical modifications, respectively. Also among alternatives, final
product, cooling water network, and water storage tanks were categorized in
the first three priorities. The specified priorities would assist the managers and
production experts to achieve the optimized water consumption with minimum
possible cost.
Keywords: Analytical Hierarchy Process, Water Consumption Reduction, Pulp and
Paper Industry, Paper Recycling Technology.
1 Introduction
Paper is a network of fibers and chemicals affecting its properties and quality.
Large amount of water and energy in form of steam and electricity other than the raw
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865
materials are essential for paper manufacturing. Therefore, the most important
environmental concerns in pulp and paper industry are the contaminants emission to
water and air as well as energy consumption. Moreover, the wastes and residuals
resulted by production are increasingly affecting the environmental concerns (1).
There is a close relation between the forest products industry and water cycle as
shown in figure 1. Water is a vital and essential source in pulp, paper and paperboard
manufacturing. A major part of water required in the factories is supplied by surface
water resources such as rivers and lakes and the remaining is fed by water wells with
the depth ranging from very shallow to more than 1000 meters.
In Iran, the water consumption standards in industry has not been determined
correctly and no extensive study has been dedicated to clarification of water
consumption condition and the water saving potentials in the capital industries (2).
Fig. 1. Forest Products Industry and Water Cycle (NCASI, 2009)
Similarly, Iranian pulp and paper industry lacks a definite standard for water
consumption. Besides, the situation is more severe which is due to the increasing
grow in the number of small manufacturing plants of recycled paper products
supplying the packaging industry including test liners and corrugating medium as
well as a non-existence of supervision in water consumption. On the other hand, in a
recent study (3), the water consumption in pulp and paper industry in Iran has been
reported to be above 20 m3/ton (m3 water/ton paper) which is significantly higher
than the global standards as summarized in table 1.
Table 1. Water Consumption Standards in Paper and Paperboard Plants (4)
866
Water reduction in papermaking companies have attracted many studies and
research projects (5- 8). By now, different process integration methods including
linear models, non-liner models, pinch analysis, genetic algorithms, cleaner
production strategies, benchmarking, water re-use and recovery methods and waste
water and effluent treatment methods have largely contributed to water reduction in
industrial plants. Each of the mentioned methods has definite advantages and
drawbacks but generally, implementation of modification or alternation procedures
for water reduction in process requires a substantial financial costs and expenditures
which is the main obstacle in practical application of the methods (9-11). The
situation in small and medium-size plants with weak management, low technical
capacity, limited access to technical data and unstable financial situation is more
unsatisfactory. Therefore, priorities determination and proper strategic decision
making is of great importance.
One of the qualified tools in the similar situations is Analytical Hierarchy Process
(AHP) which has been used in ranking and categorization of many sciences including
marketing, architecture, energy resources scheduling as well as social and
economical analysis. AHP is the most popular method in Multiple Criteria Decision
Making (MCDM) methods which was first introduced by Thomas L. Saaty (12).
When the AHP logic hierarchical structure is formulated, one should first yield the
judgment matrices based on pair-wise comparison of all elements in each hierarchy
with respect to the higher hierarchy according to certain criteria of comparison within
certain scales. The basic idea of AHP is that the factors in a complex system are
grouped on different logic levels, forming a chain, or hierarchy, whereby the lower-
level elements can be compared in pair-wise matrices with respect to the higher level,
and so on, so that finally the composite priorities of all levels are achieved (13-15).
As described in the foregoing paragraphs, the water consumption in Iran is far
above the global standards and therefore requires a careful attention. On the other
hand, the solutions suggested by some of the available techniques and methods
involve high financial expending which is not fully justifiable for industry. The
objective of this paper is to apply the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a
decision making tool for selecting the most prior decision for water reduction in Pulp
and Paper manufacturing companies in Iran enabling them to obtain remarkable
saving by the most prior approaches.
2 Methodology
2-1 Questionnaire and preliminary data collection
867
Based on the similarity in product and manufacturing process, 20 companies
producing packaging paper and paperboard (Test Liner and Corrugating Medium)
were selected. The reason for selection of this particular type of manufacturing plants
was the increasing number and the lack of technical supervision on their operation. In
the first stage of this research, a preliminary questionnaire was designed asking
several questions about the manufacturing process, water supply resources of the
company, water consumption estimates as well as the main locations of this
consumption and major production costs. This data were used in the company
selection and design of the hierarchy tree by which 9 companies representative for
their capacity, water supply source and major water consumers were selected. Table
2 summarizes the list of selected companies and their response to some of the
questions.
Table 2. The selected Companies for Studying Water Reduction Strategies
2-2 Analytical Hierarchy Process
Utilization of Analytical Hierarchy Process involves four major levels as
followings:
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a) Modeling and the Hierarchy Tree Development
In this step, the objective and problem of decision making is derived from the
decisions ' elements which are related to each other. The elements of decision include
decision making criteria and alternatives. The hierarchy process requires the
breakdown of a complex decision problem in a logical manner into many small but
related sub-problems in the form of level of a hierarchy. The top level indicates the
main objective of the decision making process. The second level comprises the main
criteria which can be broken into subcriteria in the following levels. The last level
presents the decision alternatives. Based on the data collected from the companies,
The Training Resource Package published by United Nations Environment Program
(16), Technical Guidelines published by European Community (17) and the pre-
assumption of the following white water cycle in the paper machines as figure 2
shows, the hierarchical tree developed.
Figure 2. Typical White Water Cycle in Pulp and Paper Companies
The hierarchy tree for determining the water reduction consumption potentials was
structured into tree levels as figure 3 shows. The effective factors were divided into
manufacturing process, product, raw material, human resources, costs, environmental
regulations and technological aspects. Subsequently, the criteria were extended to
sub-categories (figure 3) from which the comparison tables are derived.
869
Figure 3. The hierarchy tree of the criteria and sub-criteria effective in water consumption
rates.
b) Developing the questionnaire and pair-wise comparisons
The next step in AHP is data collection. This was done through a systematic series
of pair-wised comparisons among the specific criteria and sub-criteria. AHP provides
unique features for criteria weight and subjective evaluations by pair wise
comparison and the 1-9 ratio scale in Table 3. The pair-wised comparison matrices
were completed with the aid of 10 experts from industry and academia. The AHP
then converts these comparisons to criteria weights using a matrix algebra-based
algorithm while also checking for consistency in the results.
Table 3. Saaty’s 1-9 scales for pair wise comparison in AHP
Importance Definition
intensity
1 Equal importance
3 Moderate importance of one over another
5 Strong importance of one over another
7 Very strong importance of one over another
9 Extreme importance of one over another
2,4,6,8 Intermediate values
870
C) Determining the normalized weights
With the completion of the pair-wised comparisons, mathematical computations
were conducted. The first step in the evaluation is to normalize each matrix by
adding the values of each bxy. So a matrix (B) can be normalized:
!
b11 b12 b1n ! " 1 b12 b1n #
" # " #
b b b2n # " 1b 1 b2n #
B $ " 21 22 $ 12
"! ! ! # "! ! ! #
"" # " #
% bn1 bn2 bnn #& " 1 1 #
" b b2n
1#
% 1n &
Then the local weight W Bi was calculated according to the formula:
1
' n ( n
) - b ij *
W Bi $ + j $1 ,
1
n ' n ( n
. ) - b ij *
i $1 + j $1 ,
After determining the local weights, the global weights of each criteria and sub-
criteria are calculated. To avoid misdirection analysis affected by interviewees’
incompatible judgments, AHP establishes a consistency indicator as the standard
judgment if the values are incompatible. The questionnaires involved in incompatible
judgments were normally discussed with their answerers. Only the matrices that
passed the consistency test were included in the final analysis.
d) Aggregating the weights and Expert Choice Software
To prioritize the decision alternatives, the weights of each element were multiplied
by the weight of prior element to reach to the final weight. The implementation of
this method for each stage would lead to final weight. The Expert Choice Software
(http://www.expertchoice.com/) was applied for weight calculations. Expert Choice
is a multi-attribute decision support software tool based on the analytic hierarchy
process (AHP) methodology. Expert Choice poses a series of pair-wise comparisons
of each of the alternatives identified in relation to each of the criteria and objectives.
Expert Choice's five Sensitivity Graphs enables taking some of the uncertainty out of
the decision making by quickly and easily testing the results using "what if"
scenarios. A full range of reports - either printed in hard copy or pasted into other
Windows applications - can be customized to individual needs for presenting results
or documenting the decision making process through this software. Reports may
include the entire decision hierarchy in sideways or tree view, specific segments of
the hierarchy, details of the synthesis process, or sensitivity analysis.
871
3 Results and Discussion
As indicated in table 2, except Kahrizak the other companies are categorized in
small-scale and medium-scale papermaking plants (lower than 5000 and between
5000 to 15000 tons annual production, respectively). Highlighted in table 2, despite
the considerable water consumption by papermaking plants, only two companies of
Namiran and Omid Kaghaz mentioned the cost of water consumption as their major
production costs while the other 7 companies did not refer to the costs due to water
utilization from water wells and the industrial complex and pretty likely the water
consumption reduction is not considered as their challenge. On the other hand,
although 6 out of 9 companies in this study stated the existence of water treatment
plant in their factory, it should be noted that other than exceptions the only available
technology for water treatment in this sort of companies is Dissolved Air Flotation
System (DAF) which is responsible for fiber recovery and presents less effects on
reducing the pollution of the wastewater to the required environmental standards.
3-1 Water Consumption Reduction Criteria Results
As shown in figure 4, the "Product" category is the most prominent water
reduction criteria with a normalized global weight of 0.250 followed by
manufacturing process, raw material, human resources, costs, environmental
regulations and technological aspects, respectively. In the Product category, the
"Type" of the product gained more global weight than the "Quality" of the product.
Figure 4. The prioritization of the main criteria in water consumption reduction
As table 2 indicates, the companies in this research manufacture three products of
Topliner, Corrugating Medium and Testliner ordered from lower quality to higher
quality. To produce the higher quality products, more complex manufacturing
process and unit operations and application of new chemicals are indispensible and
essential. The increase in the number of wastepaper processing stages and chemical
preparation requires more water consumption implying the result signified by figure
4. Also, the raw material in all of these companies is mixed wastepaper. Despite, the
higher quality of Old Corrugated Container (OCC) due to source sorting practices for
this material compared to other types of wastepaper, OCC contains several process
contaminants including Pressure Sensitive Adhesives (PSAs), low molecule weight
extractable polymeric materials like styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), Copolymers,
Polyvinyl Acetate (PVAc), Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVOH) and etc. (18-19) which
pollute the process water and limit its re-use. As a rule of thumb, the amount of
contaminants in raw material directly affects the fresh water utilization in recycled
paper companies. The technical knowledge of human resources and training would
872
indirectly influence the reduction of water consumption in the factories. The
knowledge of fiber line potential to decrease water consumption and identification of
major water consumers in the process and optimization of manufacturing process
through training of personnel and operators can significantly affect the water
consumption.
The environmental regulations and technological aspects were ranked in the
lowest weighting levels. This result is expected because no water consumption
standard has been defined yet for papermaking companies in Iran. On the other hand,
since no wastewater and effluent discharge legislation or permit has been issued for
recycled paper companies, the environmental regulations do not seem to be an
effective factor in water consumption reduction in Iranian papermaking companies.
As figure 5 shows, in the manufacturing process criteria, the process design sub-
criteria is regarded as more prominent than paper machine and in process design sub-
criteria, the tanks and vessels of water storage are weighted more.
Figure 5. Prioritization of manufacturing process criteria
Figure 6 indicates that the sub-criterion of Type has more priority than Quality
sub-criterion in Raw Material criteria. And in the Quality sub-criterion, the
"Cleanliness" was superior to "Free from Other Impurities".
Figure 6. Prioritization of Raw Material criteria
The judgment of the experts about Human Resources criteria implies the priority
of Technical Knowledge than Training as figure 7 shows.
Figure 7. Prioritization of Human Resources criteria
Figure 8 indicates that the Taxes sub-criterion is more prominent than Other
Expenditures sub-criterion in Costs criteria.
Figure 8. Prioritization of Costs criteria
Figure 9 indicates that the Standard Water Consumption Determination sub-
criterion is more prominent than Water Recovery Requirement sub-criterion in
Environmental Regulations criteria.
873
Figure 9. Prioritization of Environmental Regulations criteria
Figure 10 indicates that the Modern Technologies in Water Treatment sub-
criterion is more prominent than Water Cycle Modifications sub-criterion in
Technological Aspects criteria.
Figure 10. Prioritization of Technological Aspects criteria
Decision alternatives in the prioritization of 30 criteria effective on Water
Consumption Reduction Potentials have been summarized in figure 11.
According to figure 11 and as indicated before, the Type of Product directly
affects the water consumption. Considering this priority, the selection of final
product and setting the process variables in a way to optimize the production of the
selected product would significantly influence the water consumption. The other
major alternatives affecting the water consumption included cooling and sealing
water network in the factories.
Other research projects have confirmed the importance of water cycle network in
the manufacturing plants (20-21) in which the recovery of the water used in cooling
and sealing of pumps, vacuum pumps and other equipment has been emphasized.
Also, they have reported that in the case of water loops separation and use of white
water from each section in the previous section, the suspended and organic solid
content would reduce 2 to 4 times.
The significance of storage tanks and vessels and leaks control in water cycle
network have been emphasized elsewhere (17, 22) in which storage capacity of
process water tanks and broke pulp should be adjusted in a way to contain the
maximum water discharge in the accidental shut downs preventing the overflows and
leaks.
874
Figure 11. Decision alternatives in the prioritization of 30 criteria effective on Water
Consumption Reduction Potentials
Despite that wire nozzles, press machine nozzles and steam loss in the dryers were
placed in the lower levels of decision alternatives in the present research, others (23-
24) have stated the remarkable loss of water in the mentioned sections and some
practical approaches have been outlined.
Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank the assistance and
collaboration of the companies taking part in information and data providing in form
of the questionnaire and comparison tables. It is hoped that the results of this research
can lead to a significant improvement in the manufacturing productivity.
Conclusion
Recycled paper production companies in Iran consume water far beyond the
global standards and therefore require a careful attention. On the other hand, the
solutions suggested by some of the available techniques and methods involve high
financial expending which is not fully justifiable for the industry. The present project
applied the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a decision making tool for selecting
the most prior decision for water reduction in Pulp and Paper manufacturing
companies in Iran to enable them to obtain remarkable saving by the most prior
approaches. The results indicated that 'final product" criterion was ranked first
following by manufacturing process, human resources, costs and expenditures,
875
environmental regulations and technical modifications, respectively. Also among
alternatives, final product, cooling water network, and water storage tanks were
categorized in the first three priorities. Regarding the results in the present paper, it is
stated that reaching to optimized water consumption in the factories requires
significant modifications as well as cooperation and partnership of the manufacturing
personnel and management of the company. Considering the high costs and
expenditures related to some alternations and modifications in the manufacturing
process, the specified priorities in this paper can considerably help the decision
makers in the companies to have more intended and prioritized decisions in water
consumption reduction with minimum possible costs.
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