For many years now, the Light Green Machine Institute has concentrated on paper machines and pulp mills.  It is where our home is, where our base of knowledge is.  Makes sense.

Recently, I have been thinking, "Is this enough?" Have we been promoting practices on paper machines and their ancillaries that may cause wasteful activities elsewhere?

Should we be looking at the process from where cellulose enters the equation until it leaves the equation, limp, broken and recycled the theoretical maximum eight times?

For certain, I can tell you I don't know, because I have not thought about it, nor, in some cases do I or others involved here have the expertise to know.

Minimally, we certainly don't want the actions we suggest in machine design or operation to merely move inefficiencies to other areas in the life of a cellulose fiber.  Optimally, we could invite others with expertise in the upstream and downstream ends of fiber life to contribute and tell us what we are doing that causes them problems.

We are going to think about this and would like your thoughts on the direction such efforts should take.  Just drop me a line at jthompson@taii.com.