Day 3 of our journey began with a train ride from Karlstad to Stockholm. The train took us through rural areas that could have been mistaken as our hometowns in Maine. This was also our first introduction to the incredible public transportation system in Sweden. We arrived in Stockholm mid morning, got settled in, and headed to our next destination.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden was the next stop on our expedition. The Bioeconomy branch of RISE is located in Stockholm. At their facility extensive research is being done surrounding alternative uses for paper making byproducts. This includes, but is not limited to, repurposing lignin for multiple end uses. An example of this utilizes Valmet's LignoBoost process to extract the lignin from black liquor. Once extracted the solid lignin is crushed, heated, and spun into fibers. These fibers are then sewn together and coated with polyurethane resulting in a carbon fiber building material. We also got a brief introduction to the pilot paper machine that RISE uses for paper making trials for their own research among the research of other companies in the industry. This machine is more narrow than a typical paper machine but almost as long and has the ability to run in multiple configurations due to having two different types of head boxes! We also toured the laboratories in this facility that are used for simulating the cooking stages in pulp.
Many thanks to Elizabet Brännvall for hosting us!
No comments:
Post a Comment