Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and

Environmental Effects

ISSN: 1556-7036 (Print) 1556-7230 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ueso20

Techno-economic analysis of waste paper energy

utilization

Marek Vochozka, Anna Maroušková, Jarmila Straková & Jan Váchal

To cite this article: Marek Vochozka, Anna Maroušková, Jarmila Straková & Jan Váchal
(2016) Techno-economic analysis of waste paper energy utilization, Energy Sources,
Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 38:23, 3459-3463, DOI:
10.1080/15567036.2016.1159262

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2016.1159262

Published online: 24 Oct 2016.

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ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
2016, VOL. 38, NO. 23, 3459–3463
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2016.1159262

Techno-economic analysis of waste paper energy utilization

Marek Vochozka, Anna Maroušková, Jarmila Straková, and Jan Váchal
The Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
The existing waste paper recycling technologies are based on partial incorpora- Anaerobic fermentation;
tion of recycled cellulose fibers into “new” paper products. The main usage is in financial assessment; paper
low-grade products, such as paperboards or wrapping papers. However, due to recycling management;
electronization of mass media in combination with increasing quantities of pyrolysis; waste paper
leaflets and continuous downward pressures on paper production costs, the
waste paper currently used in the recycling scheme is of lower quality than paper
used decades ago. It contains much more fillers, adhesives, dyes, polishers, and
similar additives that are problematic for conventional paper recycling technol-
ogies. A sharp growth of this trend encourages conceptual reengineering of the
existing technological processes in waste paper management. A techno-
economic analysis of energy utilization by means combustion, anaerobic fer-
mentation (also accelerated by steam-explosion), and pyrolysis was carried out in
a pilot scale. The results have revealed that if the current trend continues, it
might be reasonable to divert waste paper from returning back into production
(recycling) and to prefer its commercial pyrolysis.

1. Introduction
The conflict between economic optimization and environmental protection has received wide
attention in recent research programs for waste management system planning (Pati et al., 2008).
An increased interest in sustainable agriculture and bio-based industries requires that we find more
energy-efficient methods for treatment of cellulose-containing wastes (Huang and Logan, 2008).
Substantial quantities of such wastes are generated every day in the modern era leading to higher
levels of environmental pollution (Pati et al., 2008). Considerable efforts should be directed toward
reduction of the environmental load by recycling. Multiple goals with an appropriate priority
structure must be taken into consideration when planning the recycling network system.
Notwithstanding the social aspects, various implementations of environmentally friendly technolo-
gies have shown that profitability remains a key factor (Maroušek, 2014a). Byström and Lönnstedt
(1995) stated that a major problem in many countries and a driving force behind the legislation on
recovery and use of waste paper is the large volume of paper and board products in household waste,
and the scarcity of room for landfills.
Paper has been produced from a wide variety of raw materials, including cotton, linen, bark,
hemp, jute, straw, and wood. For many centuries, the most important raw material was rags which
means that there is a long tradition of paper production from secondary raw materials, such as rags
and old paper (McKinney, 1995). At the beginning of the previous century, waste paper became an
important waste material in Europe’s collection systems developed to meet the demand. Although
recycling was practiced for some board grades, a higher recycling rate was promoted as a desirable
environmental policy in the last decades before the turn of the millennium. Until recently, lack of
motivation was seen as the major problem of paper recycling (Hage et al., 2009). Nowadays,

CONTACT Marek Vochozka vochozka.marek@gmail.com Okružní 517/10, České Budějovice, 370 01, Czech Republic.
© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
3460 M. VOCHOZKA ET AL.

however, the key challenge seems to be the dramatically changing quality of paper entering the
recycling process.
According to McKinney (1995), there are two fundamental differences between virgin fibers and
waste paper. The first one is the damage of fibers during the first paper making operation – fibers
collapse during drying on a paper machine and hornification occurs on the surface which means that
after repulping the properties of the fibers are different, with more fines produced. Consequently, all
recycled fibers, whether from mill broke or from contaminated postconsumer sources, behave very
differently from equivalent virgin fibers. Moreover, waste paper contains non-fibrous materials,
some of which cause difficulties during paper making; for example, the presence of adhesives in
waste paper creates stickies which cause many problems during paper making. Even paper mill broke
can contain stickies, for example, white pitch from the use of coated broke. It is very common that
postconsumer wastes have greater processing needs but all waste papers require removal of con-
taminants. In recent years, the use of recycled fibers in the paper industry has significantly increased.
Multiple independent sources have confirmed that a higher percentage of recycled fiber used in
paper production results in problems of product quality (Viesturs et al., 1999). Wood and non-wood
fibers can provide a wide spectrum of properties which depend on the fiber type and on the
production process and which ensure, for example, protective strength of packaging, contrasts
provided by printed papers, or absorbency of tissue papers (McKinney, 1995). Different fiber types
from several processes can be combined to make or to convert papers and boards. Their separation is
not possible when recycling old corrugated cases. It is widely recognized that papers, including
xerographic and laser printed ones, are difficult to deink using conventional methods (Viesturs et al.,
1999). Toners used in xerographic and laser printers consist of thermoplastic resin pellets, such as
copolymers of acrylate and styrene or polyester, with pigments, such as carbon black. Toner pellets
are fixed by fusion and applied electrostatically on a sheet of paper where they commingle with the
fibers (Carr, 1991). Unlike traditional ink formulas, toners cannot be broken down into individual
pigment particles. In the course of conventional repulping, toners are released from the fibers as flat
plate-like particles that are difficult to disperse and to remove by conventional processes of washing
and flotation. Unconventional and modified approaches to deinking of toners, such as chemical
agglomeration, use of enzymatic mixtures, or steam explosion (Maroušek et al., 2014), have proved
to be excessively costly. Byström and Lönnstedt (1995) proposed to use the surplus of waste paper,
which is hard to utilize, for energy production. Maroušek (2014b) proposed to turn waste ligno-
cellulose residues into biochar using waste heat from recuperation.
Based on the information described above, a techno-economic analysis was carried out for the
processes of combustion, anaerobic fermentation, and pyrolysis.

2. Materials and analytical methods

The waste paper was obtained from Grafobal Bohemia s.r.o. (Holubov, Czech Republic). The
samples were prepared from a mixture of 20 t of thermoformed cardboard (mostly 3-layer corru-
gated board, 1.4 mm thick, 700 g m−2 on average) and 20 t of offset papers that were finely varnished
(conventional and white color printing, 155 g m−2 on average). All the papers were free of polyvinyl
chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Al, and other foils. Volatile solids (hereinafter VS)
were analyzed by repeated drying at 95°C for 2 h to achieve weight change lower than 0.1%.
Therefore, all the following analyses are related to VS. Cellulose was analyzed by the Fibertec 1020
(M6) fiber analyzer (FOSS Ltd., Hillerød, Denmark). Biological oxygen demand (hereinafter,
BOD5,20, mg kg−1) was analyzed during 5 days at 20°C. Chemical oxygen demand (hereinafter
COD, g kg−1) was analyzed by the K2Cr2O7 method. The ratios of labile (hereinafter LP1), partly
resistant (hereinafter LP2), and resistant (hereinafter LP3) fractions of organic matter were analyzed
using the acid approach method (H2SO4) as modified by Shirato and Yokozawa (2006) using the
NC-90A automatic high-sensitive N/C analyzer (Shimadzu, Japan). Prior to the combustion analysis,
the waste paper was pelleted at 440 MPa using the PM-260 pellet press (Leabon Ltd., China) into
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 3461

rolls with the diameter of 6 mm and density of 1,652 ± 17 kg m−3. The calorific value (hereinafter
HV, MJ kg−1) was analyzed using the CA-4AJ automatic bomb calorimeter that was equipped with
the P-202 calorimetric calculator (both made by Shimadzu, Japan). To analyze the potential of biogas
or CH4 production, the mixture of waste paper was exposed to steam-explosion (operating pressure
0.8 MPa; hydraulic retention time 10 min; speed of pressure fall 3 L s−1; hydromodule 10% VS) using
the TTP4 steam-explosion technology (AIVOTEC s.r.o., Czech Republic) according to Maroušek
(2013a). Subsequently, the steam-exploded waste paper was mixed with 1% (by weight) of inoculate
from biogas station in Nedvědice (Czech Republic), the analysis of which was provided by Maroušek
(2013b). Subsequently, the cumulative CH4 production (hereinafter ƩCH4, m3 CH4 t−1, converted to
0°C and 101.3 kPa) was analyzed for 60 days at 45°C in STIX fully automatically monitored semi-
batch 70 L reactors (Stix Ltd., Czech Republic) equipped with the AIR-LF biogas analyzers (Aseko s.
r.o., Czech Republic) and other online sensors as indicated by Maroušek et al. (2012). The charcoal
production was carried out in the UH-LN pyrolysis unit (AIVOTEC s.r.o., Czech Republic) at 550°C
and 40 min hydraulic retention time, according to Maroušek (2014c). All the remaining routine
analyses were carried out according to the routine laboratory methods as described by Mardoyan
and Braun (2015).

3. Results and discussion

The fiber analysis of the waste paper mixture revealed that it contained 22 ± 1% of cellulose. This
is a very interesting starting point because earlier analyses of waste papers described in literature
reported values more than three times higher (Demirbaş, 1999). The amount of lignin (15 ± 3%)
was a little bit higher in comparison to other references (Demirbaş and Şahin, 1998) which
indicates that, despite the lower amount of cellulose, the HV might be at usual levels in the end.
The automatic bomb calorimeter equipped with a calorimetric calculator has shown that this
prediction was correct and that the heating value (13.904 ± 0.262 MJ kg−1) is similar to other
values indicated in earlier research papers (Schmidt et al., 2007). If we consider the cost of
pelleting (7.42 EUR t−1), logistics (2.21 EUR t−1), and other overhead costs, we come to the
average price of 4.5 EUR GJ−1. However, to fully assess this issue, it should be noted that this
method raises concerns relating to its environmental aspects because chemical composition of the
ash varies with composition of the waste paper and therefore, it is problematic to incorporate the
ash into arable land (Maroušek, 2013).
Anaerobic fermentation of waste paper is not mentioned in literature very often. Its acceleration
by steam-explosion has not been reported at all. The values of the BOD5,20 954 ± 85 mg kg−1 and
COD 1,403 ± 46 g kg−1 are in a good agreement with Thompson et al. (2001). Such values are
normally considered satisfactory and one would expect good yield of biogas or CH4. On the other
hand, the ratio of LP1, LP2, and LP3 (1:15:48) subverts good prospects. The yields obtained were as
low as 69.62 ± 3.07 m3 CH4 t−1 from the raw paper and 107.15 ± 9.70 m3 CH4 t−1 from the waste
paper sludge pretreated by steam-explosion. However, if we take into account running cost of the
anaerobic fermentation and running cost of the steam-explosion pretreatment, the price per 1 GJ
obtained is 9.7 and 10.2 EUR, respectively. Observations made by Yen and Brune (2007) lead to
similar findings. However, considering the current prices of crude oil (Rahman, 2016), this method
of energy utilization does not seem to be financially viable in the long term.
The selected pyrolysis apparatus was designed to maximize the solid residue of pyrolysis –
charcoal. Therefore, the presented techno-economic assessment does not take into account pyrolytic
gases or tar. The HV of the obtained charcoal was 23.606 ± 0.075 MJ kg−1 which is a little bit more
than stated by Strezov and Evans (2009) or Islam et al. (2005), but it is in good agreement with Wu
et al. (1997). Breakdown of the production indicates that the cost of 1 GJ in this case is 3.5 EUR.
However, it should also be noted that Galletti et al. (2007) mentioned some concerns regarding
hygienic aspects of pyrolytic gases produced by pyrolysis of paperboard. Based on those findings, it
3462 M. VOCHOZKA ET AL.

should be underlined that pyrolytic flue gases should be filtered, preferably by highly activated
charcoal.

4. Conclusion
It has been confirmed that the content of cellulose in waste paper decreases as a result of various
inexpensive fillers which have been lately added into paper in order to lower costs of paper
production. Consequently, waste paper currently entering the recycling schemes is more difficult
to process in paper production. However, the fillers also hamper waste paper combustion. Moreover,
ink, PVC, PET, Al, polishes, and other finalizing products currently used as paper additives often
raise concerns about the combustion flue gases and also about ash management. The fillers also
reduce the potential for biogas or CH4 production. Pretreatment of paper waste by steam-explosion
also proved to be economically pointless because the finalizing products form various inhibitors for
the consortia of anaerobic fermentation. Production of charcoal might be an environmentally as well
as economically promising alternative subject to the condition that pyrolytic gases are properly
cleaned.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the criticism raised by anonymous reviewers that increased the overall quality
of the paper.

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