The Alliance for Pulp & Paper Technology Innovation (APPTI) is an industry-led consortium that promotes development of advanced manufacturing technologies for the pulp and paper industry and supports development of platforms to enable new revenue streams from forest-based biomass. 
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We believe that industry, academia, and government have a shared purpose in advancing this strong domestic industry, based on renewable resources, sustainable manufacturing practices, and sound economics. 

Our mission: To identify industry technology needs and R&D priorities. To inform universities and government agencies about industry research needs and opportunities. To promote collaborative R&D programs to seize these opportunities.
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Explore this site to learn more about our teams, our research portfolio, our progress, and plans.  And then join with us as a member, a partner, or an interested contributor.  Together, we can make the industry even more sustainable, more energy- and natural resource-efficient, and more competitive. 

Learn more about about APPTI’s history and evolution here 
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Why Membership / Partnership is Important

APPTI provides a forum for manufacturers, suppliers, academic experts, and government agencies to develop pathways to advanced manufacturing technology for the pulp and paper industry.  We seek breakthrough improvements in manufacturing processes and resource efficiency. 
  
We tackle projects too complex for individual companies to pursue individually.  APPTI stretches scarce research dollars for high priority, pre-competitive projects by obtaining matching funds for pooled resources.  Since 2016, over $30 million in public and private funds have been or are being spent to address the challenges identified in industry roadmaps.

Our members and partners drive the selection of priority research areas and content of the project portfolio.   They value having a window into emerging technology—a way to keep up to date with progress that matters to them.  Participants in our meetings enjoy exposure and networking with their counterparts and with universities and national laboratories.
 
Suppliers gain insight into the aspirations of their customers, building awareness of their visions and needs.
 
Our activities are purposeful and credible.  Our portfolio aims high.  It is intended to create economic opportunity, support national and industry goals, further improve our industry’s sustainability, and protect and grow US jobs. ​

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​What are Roadmaps?

APPTI has five work-teams—four devoted to critical areas of manufacturing technology, and one devoted to creating new forest-based bioproducts platforms.  Experts in each area assessed current and state-of-the-art technology, then identified obstacles preventing significant improvement in process elements and in energy and resource efficiency.  They focused on the barriers which, if overcome, would yield the greatest improvements, and then determined the most promising avenues to success.  The result is five detailed, actionable technology research plans, or roadmaps, execution of which would produce major increases in efficiency and sustainability once successful results are widely implemented across the industry.

Get more info on APPTI Roadmaps here...

It all starts with a tree - one of the world's most renewable resources.

News Headlines

Workshop MANUFACTURING RENEW3D
APPTI is a co-organizer of the 2nd Annual Manufacturing Renew3D workshop which will take place on May 23 & 24 at the University of Maine.  For further details and to register, please visit the webpage for the event, MANUFACTURINGRENEW3D.

Webinar Biobased Materials for Advanced Manufacturing
APPTI is pleased to offer a new webinar series to share research updates on the multi-year, multi-phase research collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Maine.  The webinar is structured to help promote new learnings and opportunities resulting from this collaboration. The final webinar will be held October 14, 2022, at 10:00 EST. Further details and the ability to register for the webinar can be found by clicking here.

Project Team Corrugated Box Model
The Alliance for Pulp & Paper Technology Innovation has selected an international team led by Miami University to carry out a project, under the direction of Dr. Douglas Coffin, titled Development of a Corrugated Box Model for Time-dependent Load Scenarios. In addition to Miami University, the team includes RISE Research Institutes Of Sweden, Scion and Massey University (New Zealand). The combined experience and expertise of the four international teams of investigators working in close collaboration will result in the development of models and methods for predicting containerboard performance. More Details

Nanocellulose Workshop Final Report
APPTI has released the final report from the Advancing Commercialization of Nanocellulose: Critical Challenges Workshop held in Washington DC in May 2019.

The R&D project plans developed during the workshop and provided in this report will be used by APPTI’s Cellulosic Nanomaterials team and supporting partners for next-stage planning of projects that support development of pre-competitive technology platforms that enable new revenue streams from forest-based biomass. Readers of this report are encouraged to contact APPTI if they have interest in accelerating or participating in these, or similar, R&D projects.

See more News...

​Current Projects

No amount of research will result in greater resource efficiency:  successful projects must be implemented at manufacturing sites for society or companies to realize any benefit.  In our requests for proposals, APPTI has placed a high premium on research projects which are practical and based on a sound business case.  All of our teams are overseeing projects meeting those tests.  Click here to see a list of all current projects, and links to review the goals, strategies, projects and plans of each team.

​Get more info on APPTI's current projects here...