Creating appropriate technology
A.J. Leslie and Börje Kyrklund
A.J. LESLIE and BÖRJE KYRKLUND are, respectively, Director of the Forestry Industries Division and Chief of the Pulp and Paper Branch in the FAO Forestry Department. This article originated as a paper presented to the 21st session of the FAO Advisory Committee on Pulp and Paper held in Rome in June 1980.
The most obvious way for a country to avoid gelling hurt by the shortage of an essential commodity is to produce that commodity itself. The possibilities of doing so with paper in developing countries have therefore become the major item in the FAO programme for pulp and paper. During the programme's evolution, it became evident that one of the major obstacles to the establishment of pulp and paper mills in developing countries is the nature of the technology of the industry.
The development of pulp and paper technology is now virtually confined to the industrial countries and it reflects changing economic and social conditions in those countries. Three of the influences which have played a major part (until quite recently, at least) in shaping that technology are:
(a) The rising real and relative cost, in the broadest sense, of labour.
(b) The rising cost of raw materials and, in particular, wood.
(c) The need for industries to find ways to absorb the full cost of pollution control.
Rising labour costs have been countered by substituting capital equipment, material costs by the evolution of high-yield pulping methods and processes using other raw materials, and pollution costs have simply had to be absorbed by increasing the capital investment. The result, on the whole, has been a steep increase in the capital cost of a plant of a given capacity regardless of the process involved. Since economies of scale are an important characteristic in the financial viability of the pulp and paper industry, the minimum economic size of a mill has therefore increased tremendously.
Generally speaking, the prospects for a pulp mill in a developing country have been assessed in terms of transferring current technology. Very often and, in fact, almost inevitably, in most developing countries it was found that the minimum economic size of a mill would have a capacity much greater than the size of the domestic market or any possible regional market, and would demand a much greater capital fund than the country could afford. However, a plant with a smaller capacity, more appropriate to the local conditions, would, almost by definition, have a unit production cost very much higher than the world market prices.
The obvious alternatives in such circumstances are to establish a sub-economic mill made viable by direct or indirect subsidy, or to abandon the idea of domestic production. Neither of these is particularly attractive. The dangers of a plant depending for economic survival on a permanent subsidy are only too obvious, but to depend permanently on imports leaves the country in exactly the position from which it was trying to escape. Therefore, the idea developed of searching for another alternative, a more appropriate technology.
Technology originating in industrial countries is designed to economize on two inputs, labour and wood, which many developing countries have in surplus; and to substitute capital and highly skilled professional management, which in developing countries are usually in short supply. The possibility of designing mills which would match the market capacity and the economic situation in a developing country has, therefore, an irresistible appeal. The technical difficulties are small, since the need is little rave than the re-creation of a type of industry that was successful in the developed countries in the past. Whether this can be done in a way to meet the quality standards required by today's paper-using industries is another matter.
A similar problem had been encountered more or less simultaneously in the wood-based panel industries. Because the physical processes involved are rather simpler than in pulp and paper, the capital investments are of a much smaller magnitude. Thus, fairly rapid progress was made: in building up an FAO portfolio of small scale forest industries for developing countries, mainly in fibreboard and particle board. The success of that programme in adapting modern plant design to labour-intensive, smaller-scale operations without sacrificing quality or viability provides an encouraging precedent for the small-scale mill programme for pulp and paper.
FAO's first effort in promoting a small scale pulp and paper mill approach came with the establishment of the FAO/UNDP Pulp and Paper Industries Development Programme (PPIDP) in 1976. Combining the financial resources of PPIDP with the human resources of that programme and the FAO Regular Programme, a case study was formulated and sub-contracted to a consulting company. The study investigated the production of cultural papers (newsprint and wood containing printing and writing papers) on two different levels -- 18 000 tons per year and 36 000 tons per year. It concluded that the production of such grades of paper on a scale as small as 18 000 tons per year could not be financially viable without subsidies. Fewer subsidies would be needed with the production of 36 000 tons of paper.
The design concept of this study was later applied to techno-economic studies for specific sites carried out by the Pulp and Paper Branch in cooperation with PPIDP. From these studies it was concluded that small-scale production of wood-containing cultural papers could be viable under certain conditions, especially if it were integrated with mechanical wood industries or with a larger pulp and paper producing complex making industrial grades of paper as well.
The conclusion from further techno-economic studies carried out in the same context was that mechanical pulping processes might provide possibilities for viable manufacture of certain grades of paper on a comparatively small scale in developing countries. The prerequisite was that simple and straightforward equipment should be used in the papermaking process. Still unsolved, however, is the problem of reducing the minimum viable size of a chemical pulp mil for manufacture of other grades of paper.
Since advances cannot be made on these problems without assistance from the industry, a correspondents' group on small-scale pulp and paper manufacture was established in 1978 with FAO as the focal point. The members of the group were recruited mainly from the FAO Advisory Committee on Pulp and Paper. The purpose of the correspondents' group is mainly to serve as a forum for exchange of ideas in the broad sense and to provide constructive criticism on ideas originating from within the group or from outside.
In the autumn of 1978 the Swedish Industrial Development Authority offered to finance a major techno-economic study into the viability of the manufacture of wood-free printing and writing papers at an output level of 35 000 tons per year. The contract was granted in 1979 to Jaakko Pöyry International and the final report was submitted in early 1980. The conclusion, which considered pre-engineering-level mill design, was that a simple mill designed to maximize the use of materials available locally and with a process concept of minimum sophistication could be financially viable without subsidies. On the other hand, a mill of the same size, designed. according to the latest technology and using sophisticated equipment, would run at a loss under the same conditions. In both cases a fibrous raw material base of. plantation eucalyptus was assumed. Since chlorine dioxide would not be used for bleaching in the simpler mill, the printing and writing products would. necessarily be of a lower quality, though fully adequate to meet comparatively high demands.
Another study, financed by Finland-Aid and carried out by the same consulting company, concerned manufacture of thermomechanical pulp integrated with a sawmill and a plywood mill. The study was far less comprehensive and will be included in the FAO portfolio of small-scale forest industries. The pulp production in this case was about 16 000 tons per year (on an air-dry basis). The mill did not have any pulp drying or wet lapping facilities, but it was assumed that the pulp would be pumped to a nearby paper mill which would buy its entire production. The output from the sawmill and plywood mill would be 12 000 cubic metres and 6 000 cubic metres per year respectively. Under the conditions assumed, the integrated complex would be financially viable without subsidies.
One approach in developing small-scale pulp and paper mills is to try to find new pulping processes that are less capital intensive than existing ones. Although full-scale implementation of such new processes in developing countries lies in a distant future, it is still important to follow trends and developments in this field. Some of these new processes are still only being looked at in the laboratory, whereas others, such as sulphur-free chemical pulping coupled with a fluidized bed recovery system and auto-causticizing, are already reaching the pilot plant stage.
One process often mentioned as ideal for small-scale pulp production is nitric acid pulping. A very thorough pilot plant study was made of this process by the Stanford Research Institute in California in the fifties which concluded that it was not viable under conditions prevailing then. But FAO has received from the person who conducted the earlier research an updated review of his findings with cost estimates based on US conditions in 1979. According to this study, the nitric acid process would still have to reduce its operating cost considerably before it could be considered viable.
Finally, there is the pressurized groundwood process. FAO made a preliminary study of the financial implications of applying this process to newsprint mills in developing countries. Based on the still somewhat incomplete information available, it can be said that the introduction of this process, coupled with thermomechanical pulping using chips from an integrated sawmill, might be viable for newsprint manufacture on a comparatively small scale under appropriate conditions.
The studies mentioned here are, of course, case studies based on price and cost conditions which may vary considerably from one location to another. The mill concepts accordingly should not be seen as standard solutions applicable in any developing country. It goes almost without saying that the technology of any small-scale mill has to be compatible with the social, economic and technical environment of the developing country where it is to be built. A further complexity arises from the fact that there are several types of fibrous raw materials which can be used for pulping. There are also different kinds of pulping processes and a great number of different paper grades. This underscores the point that it is unlikely that a standard solution can be found for a small-scale pulp and paper mill which would fit any raw material, any market situation, or any social and economic environment.
Based on the general ideas expressed above, the Pulp and Paper Branch of FAO has formulated the following immediate objectives for the development of small-scale pulp and paper mills:
Where small-scale mills are concerned there are no standard solutions. The technology has to be tailored to the country's social, economic and technical environments.
1. To identify equipment manufacturers who are willing to direct part of their development work toward design and manufacture of equipment which would be comparatively simple, easy to operate and maintain, and which would have a range of adaptability to various levels of technical development in different countries.2. To identify alternative partial process design solutions and work out in detail the design of these alternatives in cooperation with engineering companies.
3. To follow closely the progress of development work in the field of new pulping processes with a view to identifying those which might allow establishment of viable small production units, adaptable to the conditions in some developing countries.
4. To study the techno-economic implications of the various technical solutions arrived at under objectives 1, 2 and 3 and especially to establish under which sets of conditions the solutions would be applicable and would contribute to the overall solution to the problem of establishing viable small-scale pulp and paper mills suitable for developing countries.
5. To disseminate the information obtained in the activities, aiming at achieving the above immediate objectives.
The activities envisaged for the future would be very similar to those carried out so far, and could be grouped as follows:
1. Develop, in cooperation with equipment manufacturers and through subcontracting to engineering firms, alternative partial process designs which would seem to provide appropriate technology for pulping and paper making under various sets of environmental conditions.2. Through subcontracts to research organizations, obtain studies of the influence of the changes made in process design on the quality of the product and of the possible interference with other parts of the pulping and papermaking process.
3. Apply the various solutions arrived at to the conditions in different developing countries where a preliminary sensitivity analysis indicates that the technology may be suitable so that its applicability under such conditions can be confirmed.
4. Disseminate the findings arrived at, first to the correspondents' group of FAO for comments and feedback, and then to a wider audience.
5. Provide advice to governments planning to build pulp and paper mills that will give them the widest possible range of mill design and capacity choice to fit into the economic realities of their country.
The question is, of course: how can these activities be financed?
