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The Greening of the Pulp and Paper Industry: Sweden in Comparative Perspective

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Technological Transformation in the Global Pulp and Paper Industry 1800–2018

Part of the book series: World Forests ((WFSE,volume 23))

Abstract

Since the 1960s, the pulp and paper industry (PPI) has developed from being considered one of the greatest polluters of the twentieth century to an industry that is in the lead in the transition towards a more sustainable, bio-based economy. This chapter covers the environmentally driven transformation of the PPI by focusing on the transition in one country, namely Sweden , which has pioneered parts of this transition. The chapter illustrates that the overall transition towards cleaner and more energy efficient production technologies is the result of long-term and incremental processes, starting in the early twentieth century. The development gained momentum with the environmental awaking in the 1960s followed by stricter environmental regulations, while the oil crisis in the 1970s pushed for energy substitution of oil with biofuels. Unlike the PPI in countries like Finland and the US, the Swedish PPI aimed at in-plant process changes rather than end-of-pipe technologies to control pollution from the start. This strategy, along with extensive industry wide R&D collaborations, enabled Swedish firms to take the lead in developing elemental chlorine free (ECF ) and total chlorine free (TCF) pulp from the late 1980s. Furthermore, from the mid-1980s green consumerism came to function as an additional driver, while the issue of climate change was an impetus to the development of cellulose based biofuels in the twenty-first century.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The invention of the recovery boiler by G. H. Tomlinson in the early 1930s was a milestone in the advancement of the Kraft pulp process.

  2. 2.

    For a more detailed overview of regulation and organization of the Swedish PPI during this period, see Söderholm and Bergquist (2012).

  3. 3.

    The conditions of required permits have to be based on Best Available Techniques (BAT) , and in 1997, the Sevilla Process was established to develop BAT . Since then, 33 BAT Reference Documents (BREFs) have been drafted, adopted and published containing ambitious consumption and emission levels which cannot be found anywhere else (Schoenberger 2009).

  4. 4.

    The IED is the successor of the IPPC Directive and, in essence, is about minimizing pollution from various industrial sources throughout the EU. Operators of industrial installations are covered by Annex I of the IED and are required to obtain an integrated permit from the relevant EU country authorities. Permit conditions including emission limit values (ELVs) must be based on the Best Available Techniques (BAT) as defined in the IPPC Directive.

  5. 5.

    Interview with Per G Broman, Falun, 9 May 2006.

  6. 6.

    http://www.skogsindustrierna.se/skogsindustrin/branschstatistik/hallbarhet/. Accessed 19 January 2018.

  7. 7.

    The Lignox process : oxygen-bleached pulp is treated with hydrogen peroxide at high temperatures after the removal of heavy metals with a complexing agent. Subsequent final bleaching takes place with peroxide and chlorine dioxide .

  8. 8.

    In the pulping process, cooking chemicals, known as white liquor are used to break out and dissolve the lignin whereas the white liquor becomes black liquor . There are basically two main process streams coming out of a pulp mill: cellulose fibres and black liquor .

  9. 9.

    BLG is in its essence a process in which a clean synthesis gas is produced from black liquor by converting its biomass content into gaseous energy carriers (Bajpai 2014, p. 3).

  10. 10.

    https://www.sca.com/sv/massa/aktuellt-inom-pulp/expansion-av-ostrand/. Accessed 19 January 2018.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Economic History, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Ann-Kristin Bergquist

  2. Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden

    Kristina Söderholm

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  1. Ann-Kristin Bergquist
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  2. Kristina Söderholm
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Correspondence to Ann-Kristin Bergquist .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Timo Särkkä

  2. Department of Economic History, Institutions, Policy and World Economy, The Research Centre in Economics and Economic History ‘Antoni de Capmany’, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Miquel Gutiérrez-Poch

  3. Department of History, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada

    Mark Kuhlberg

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Bergquist, AK., Söderholm, K. (2018). The Greening of the Pulp and Paper Industry: Sweden in Comparative Perspective. In: Särkkä, T., Gutiérrez-Poch, M., Kuhlberg, M. (eds) Technological Transformation in the Global Pulp and Paper Industry 1800–2018. World Forests, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94962-8_4

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