Goal and Strategy

Stimulate development of new breakthrough technology concepts and projects to reduce average water usage by half by 2030.

• Identify target areas for reuse and establish water quality requirements.
• Develop cost-effective, broadly applicable technical solutions to address contaminants that inhibit the reuse of process effluent streams. 

R&D Needs 
Paper machine Whitewater Reuse:

• Develop cost-effective, operationally reliable technologies for the removal of suspended solids, especially in the 10-40 micron range
• Develop cost-effective technologies for the control or removal of dissolved colloidal substances
• Develop technology to effectively remove inorganic constituents (total dissolved solids and calcium) that cause scaling issues​​

Reuse of Biologically Treated Effluents:

• Determine a process for cost-effective reuse of biologically treated effluent in bleach plant applications
• Demonstrate the compatibility of treated effluents from five broad categories of mills with various process applications within these mills​

High-Priority Initiatives
Model development - Development of a predictive model to determine the possible water reuse options in the mill and corresponding ROI
Status: Concept paper describing the needed predictive model was broadly circulated for review and response/proposals from external experts.  The paper has generated some interest and several proposals to perform the modeling were received and are being evaluated.