Driving Pulp and Paper Industry Margins with Seeq

Processes in the pulp and paper industry are filled with variables that affect operational performance and asset availability. Ineffective washing and drying techniques increase chemical and energy use. Unplanned equipment outages require expensive repairs. And inefficient material management wastes valuable fibers, driving up costs. 

Using advanced analytics in the pulp and paper industry allows businesses to analyze large amounts of production data and identify inefficiencies in waste and material management, as well as operational and maintenance. Management can then fine-tune operational parameters in real time, reducing process variability and optimizing chemical, energy, and material use.  

This leads to significant, measurable margin gains in quality control, waste reduction, predictive maintenance, and demand forecasting. By analyzing pulp and paper manufacturing data with advanced analytics, companies can make more strategic, data-driven decisions that make operations more sustainable. 

As the leading industrial analytics and AI partner for pulp and paper, Seeq is uniquely qualified to help engineers and operational teams rapidly analyze complex time-series data to optimize process manufacturing. By using Seeq, companies can quickly address core challenges in the paper making process to increase efficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. 

This blog post explores the benefits of virtually centralizing industrial data to make faster, scalable decisions through real-time visibility. It also looks at how predictive analytics can manage margin pressures by identifying inefficiencies and preventing loss of valuable resources. Ultimately, by optimizing stock prep and paper forming with advanced analytics, operational teams gain greater empowerment and measurable ROI through reduced costs and improved efficiency. 

Connecting Industrial Data Systems for Real-Time Visibility

Optimizing processes in the pulp and paper industry means first organizing production data into a unified, accurate view of the production lifecycle to find opportunities for margin improvements. Paper manufacturers must look at data from several systems, including DCS, historians, MES, and LIMS. 

Only by integrating all this data and seeing how they work in tandem can manufacturers gain a seamless look at how operations from the plant floor to the enterprise level work in real-time. Seeq can connect or pull data from historians, LIMS, MES, and other systems and centralize the information for analysis.  

Tools like Seeq Data Lab leverage machine learning and advanced Python-based analysis to look at production and costs in real time. It can then use AI-powered predictive modeling to find opportunities for improving quality, reducing waste, and optimizing maintenance costs.  

Seeq dashboards and data visualizations can then show real-time cost curves for specific processes and compare performances before and after implementing new control strategies. This helps communicate the effectiveness of new strategies, leading to faster, scalable decisions. 

Tackling Margin Pressures with Predictive Analytics

Inflation impacts the cost of fiber, while spikes in energy prices drive up operational expenditures. High freight rates and supply chain disruptions raise the cost and time it takes to transport paper products. 

In addition, workforce shortages and increased labor costs can lead to overworked employees and less experienced staff. Meanwhile, shifting consumer preferences are creating declines in demand for certain paper grades. To compete, companies must invest in new technologies and materials to produce more in-demand paper products, like light-weight corrugated cardboard packaging or sanitary paper products. However, purchasing these items and training staff on how to produce high-quality products costs companies time and money. 

Predictive analytics can detect issues with input costs, labor gaps, and demand shifts early on, giving companies sufficient time to make necessary changes to the production line. For example, by monitoring commodity markets and rising energy prices, analytics can breakdown the cost of production over time almost instantly. 

Likewise, predictive models can analyze historical shift performance, and mill productivity to anticipate which grades require more attention and replicate best practices across shifts and mills. Managers can then take steps to upskill workers with the technical expertise, aptitude, and digital literacy that will be needed in the future. Anticipating future company needs also generates new jobs across the supply chain, creating a positive impact on the economy.  

Market & Cost Pressures in Pulp & Paper Grades

Paper-making companies face considerable pressure from environmental regulatory agencies. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) requires that paper mills reduce hazardous air pollutants like methanol and formaldehyde in factory emissions.  

Likewise, the EPA’s Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Effluent Guidelines set strict limits on pollutants released into water bodies. And the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires that paper companies get their wood pulp from sustainably managed sources. 

In addition, updates to the EPA’s Boiler MACT regulations in the mid-2010s imposed tighter emissions limits and continuous compliance requirements on industrial boilers and process heaters, forcing paper mills to invest in fuel handling upgrades, emissions monitoring systems, and tighter operating controls. 

All this creates significant margin pressure. Most paper mills have already made the capital investment to comply with regulations. However, sustaining compliance depnds on operating these systems realibly under increasingly tight limits.  

Mills must manage greater process variability, aging assets and constrained operating windows while controlling wastewater treatment facilities performance, pulping and bleaching emissions, and recovery boiler combustion. Supply chain traceability further adds operational and data-management complexity. All together, these factors reduce operational flexibility and increased the cost of operations.  

Companies with the tools to show compliance with environmental regulations enjoy many benefits. Beyond avoiding legal penalties, compliance helps build a stronger brand image that makes companies more popular with consumers and investors. Implementing sustainable practices also makes companies eligible for tax breaks, grants, and subsidies, easing cost pressures.  

How Analytics Protects Margins Across Operations

Predictive analytics identify opportunities for cost savings across all operations in the pulp and paper industry. By processing and analyzing historical data from multiple systems, analytics can detect inefficiencies in the paper and pulp-making process and suggest ways to prevent losses. 

For instance, by collecting data on temperature and vibration fluctuations in machinery via sensors, analytics determine patterns that forecast equipment failure. AI-powered tools can then plan maintenance checks based on equipment condition rather than fixed schedules. This reduces labor costs and prevents unplanned downtime.  

Sophisticated analytics models can create virtual representations of your assets, systems, and processes using continuously updating real-time data from your systems. These “digital twins” can reveal unplanned employee absences, inefficient machinery, or scheduling issues that create bottlenecks. Managers can then take steps to address these problems and improve workflows. 

Operators can also use digital twins to run “what-if” scenarios to see how changing certain variables affects an overall process. For instance, they could model changing furnish ratio or steam pressure to see how this could improve pulp quality or production speed or eliminate bottlenecks before implementing any real changes in the actual mill. Doing this helps fine-tune operations and prevents costly mistakes from untested changes. 

Optimizing Fiber Prep & Paper Forming with Seeq

Seeq’s analytics capabilities reduce chemical and energy waste by optimizing fiber prep and forming processes. By connecting directly to data sources, Seeq dashboards and data models automatically calculate and visualize key performance indicators (KPIs), including efficiency, quality, and waste metrics. 

This eliminates manual data preparation and human error, providing a way for engineers and managers to easily see and compare current performance trends against historical benchmarks. Users can spot inefficiencies such as excessive waste from grade changes or underperforming assets, making it simpler to identify processes that need managing.  

The following real-world use cases show how paper and pulp companies use Seeq to optimize operations, reduce costs, and research alternatives.

Case Study #1: International Paper: Recovery Boiler Asset Group Usage
International Paper is a global company that has produced sustainable packaging, absorbent pulp, and other fiber-based products for over 125 years. Their facilities convert wood chips into pulp while separating “black liquor”—a dark liquid byproduct that can generate energy—from the pulp. The black liquor is then burned in a recovery boiler to produce heat, steam, and electricity to enable the recovery of useful chemicals.  

Optimizing the reduction efficiency of the recovery boiler improves cost efficiency and maximizes production. However, operators had issues with understanding how process changes impact efficiency, scheduling cleanings to prevent unwanted chemical buildup, and comparing historical boiler efficiency.  

In one notable use case,  the company  built several new pulp and paper technology tools and models using Seeq Data Lab and Workbench to help optimize reduction efficiency. These include: 

• A reduction efficiency model that allows operators to make simulated changes in liquor firing rate, gas flow, and other boiler functions to see which changes benefit boiler efficiency before making any changes in the actual process. 

• An analytics tool to visualize fouling rates based on historical data and forecast when machines need cleaning to prevent chemical buildup. 

• A boiler steam efficiency tag that shows how boiler efficiency changes based on boiler steam efficiency, fouling rate, and other factors 

• Asset groups that help monitor and manage equipment across multiple paper mills, ensuring longer asset life and increased uptime.  

Case Study #2: Pratt Industries: Balancing Cost, Quality, and Sustainability
Pratt Industries is a privately held 100% recycled paper company that has operated in Georgia for over 30 years. They run an extensive, vertically integrated recycling company that supplies six of the most cost-effective paper mills in the U.S. Using recycled corrugated containers, the company produces new corrugated sheets, custom packing solutions, and displays. 

To produce its pulp, Pratt Industries collects waste paper and cardboard, then mixes it with water to break it down into recycled fibers. The resultant pulp is cleaned through a screening and refining process that removes chemical contaminants and non-fiber materials.   

To maintain paper product integrity, their operators must add dry strength additives like starch, to its recycled pulp to  improve paper strength. 

Due to the high variability in the process, additive requirements regularly change. This makes it challenging to maintain process control. Since over-consumption of additives raises costs, and industrial chemicals have risen in price, it’s important to optimize additive use. However, without trackable metrics, optimization is hard to quantify.  

To combat this challenge, Pratt Industries  created an optimization solution to balance cost, quality and sustainability using Seeq tools that includes: 

• A quality alert system that sends dynamic email alerts to departments when tests show chemical usage needs to be increased, decreased, or kept the same based on paper grade. 

• A strength cost calculator that can be adjusted so background formulas are site- and grade-specific. Operators use the calculator after receiving an alert to compare additive usage in their current machine set-up to 2 hypothetical additive changes and determine the optimal choice. 

• A shift comparison dashboard that monitors how well different work shifts implement email alerts and strength cost calculations to optimize product quality and cost savings. 

• Analytics that analyze the difference in spend on starch, dry strength, and basis weight before Seeq optimization, post an alternate process change, and post Seeq optimization. 

To assist employees through the changes, Pratt provides how-to guides for using Seeq. Shifts that produce top cost savings are rewarded, while shifts that need improvement receive targeted assistance. 

Five months after implementing the Seeq optimization solution, Pratt Industries determined their most produced paper grade is saving 3-5%, lessening the impact of inflation on additive chemicals. Moving forward, Pratt plans to apply its optimization package methods to its other paper mills and continue expanding on its tools to improve efficiency across operations. 

Case Study #3: International Paper: Process Cost Curve Visualization
Large paper mills, like those operated by International Paper, run a continuous pulp washing process. This involves using a process of filtration and diffusion to remove as much black liquor, dissolved lignin, and spent chemicals as possible from the pulp. The process purifies the pulp, allowing it to produce higher-quality paper products.  

Meanwhile, the recovered black liquor is used to generate heat, steam, and electricity, while the other chemicals are reused in the cooking and washing process. Reusing chemicals saves money while also minimizing environmental impact. 

In the past, production facilities had to wait years for internal audits to analyze historical data and provide recommendations for improving the washing process. However, with costs and processes constantly changing, this type of optimization was ineffective. Pulp mills needed a way to gain insights into the connection between monthly expenses and ongoing processes in real time. 

In their presentation Process Cost Curve Visualization, the company reveals how they used Seeq Work Bench to construct a daily washing costs dashboard to evaluate the effects of pulp washing in the fiber and liquor cycle. They developed real-time wash cost curves to show the relationship between the cost of pulp washing and the effectiveness of the wash process, helping operators find the optimal point of operation.  

From its original location in Seeq Workbench/Data Lab, the dashboard was transitioned into Seeq Organizer and incorporated into PI Vision with the Werusys weruEmbedder. This provided an integrated dashboard with more accurate real-time cost monitoring and a shared view of the data and analysis. Engineers, scientists, and production managers can all collaborate more easily and quickly with the dashboard. 

The dashboard updates daily, providing a real-time view of washing costs and performance, so teams can monitor the usage and costs of raw materials and chemicals. They can compare their current performance against baseline metrics, allowing them to identify inefficiencies and make data-driven decisions faster.  

By replacing manual calculations with Seeq, International Paper has made proactive adjustments to its operations, optimizing the pulp washing process. Within six months of implementing the dashboard, International Paper achieved a 64% reduction in washing costs. This success has caused the company to plan to use the system in its other facilities. 

Maximize Pulp and Paper Industry Margins with Seeq Analytics

Keeping track of so many industrial data sources creates many challenges for the pulp and paper industry. Seeq provides a solution by centralizing and contextualizing all this data into a unified view accessible to all levels of the workplace. 

This increases efficiency by allowing all personnel and engineers to easily monitor their assets. Teams can also alert each other to potential mechanical, staffing, and quality control issues, enabling them to address problems proactively and reduce downtime. As productivity improves, the company becomes more sustainable and profitable. 

Tracking key performance metrics such as energy usage, chemical consumption, and emissions offers additional benefits. Showing compliance with environmental regulations improves relationships with regulatory bodies and creates a brand of responsibility and reliability. With the right pulp and paper solutions to manage margin pressures, companies can continue producing high-quality, cost-effective products while controlling their environmental impact. 

If you’re ready to improve your operational performance with AI-powered analytics, Seeq can help. Request your demo and see why Seeq customers experience a 10x or greater ROI on their investment in Seeq.