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The carbon footprint is one of the main factors for measuring CO emissions2, this atmospheric gas represents a worldwide environmental problem. Currently, universities are making inroads into the solution through the quantification and mitigation of CO2. Academic activities and the delivery of physical documents generate high amounts of paper consumption and consequently levels of CO2, which establishes a problem. The objective is to estimate the carbon footprint of the Universidad Técnica Estatal de Quevedo (UTEQ) located in Ecuador. The methodology employed consisted of a quantification of the number of files registered in the academic system per year. The files were multiplied by an average number of sheets obtained through a survey applied to teachers. The carbon footprint was determined by multiplying the CO emission factor2 by annual paper consumption. The emissions obtained are 3.21 ton CO2 eq to 3.00 ton CO2 eq for the year 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, respectively. The virtual education implemented at UTEQ contributed to the fulfillment of climate change objectives, due to the non-emitted CO2 emissions determined in this study, an issue that is related to the achievement of a green university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research has been focused on maintaining stable humidity conditions in buildings housing heritage collections while reducing energy use. Moisture buffering by collections themselves can have a marked effect on the stabilisation of relative humidity (RH), the key parameter for preservation. Modelling of moisture transport using COMSOL Multiphysics was applied to transform three-dimensional paper and wooden objects into their one-dimensional representations, without changing the moisture uptake and release characteristics. The results were coupled to the modelling of indoor microclimate and energy consumption in collection storage spaces with the use of WUFI ® Plus software. The study revealed the crucial impact of air exchange rate of the building on the stability of indoor RH and the humidification and dehumidification loads required to maintain it. In the adequately air-tight library store, a sizeable paper collection was found to reduce the RH fluctuations from ±9% to ±6% around the yearly average and the energy consumption due to the humidification and dehumidification load by 38% when compared with the empty space, for a high-quality climate control scenario. In turn, a wooden collection, occupying a realistic fraction of a museum store was not large enough to significantly narrow down the RH variations and reduce the energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key challenge in prevention of global warming is how to increase energy efficiency, to be able to deal with increased fossil CO2 emissions from rising energy usage. Increasing energy efficiency will decrease energy usage and is in a key role in emission mitigation. The focus is the pulp and paper industry, which is energy-intensive. Development of industrial energy efficiency has been studied before but the role of industrial transformation is still mostly unknown. The knowledge must be improved, to be able to predict future developments in the most effective way. In this research, impact of various production unit closures and start-ups on energy efficiency of the Finnish pulp and paper industry were studied utilizing statistical analysis. Results indicate that about 20% of the Finnish pulp and paper industry energy efficiency improvement between 2011 and 2017 is caused by the major structural changes. The rest, 80% of the progress, was mainly due to improved technology and more optimal operational modes. Additional findings suggest that modern mill start-ups have a significantly greater potential to reduce energy consumption than old mill closures.

Paper drying is a highly energy-intensive and complicated multivariate process. The dryer section plays an important role in the energy consumption of a paper machine, especially of thermal energy. A comprehensive method for assessing the energy performance of the dryer section was investigated in this study to improve energy efficiency. This method was divided into three component processes: energy and evaporation load audit, field test and observation, and energy flow analysis and energy efficiency estimation. In a case study, we found that the method could, in addition to analyzing the key factors that restrict drying efficiency, also depict the details of energy consumption clearly. At the same time, several significant energy-saving measures were suggested to improve the energy efficiency of the paper-drying process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• Hydropulping and selective dissolution/precipitation separate Tetrapak® constituents. • Effective separation of paper, AL and LDPE is achieved. • LDPE from inner layers exhibits properties comparable to virgin LDPE grades. Tetra Pak cartons, i.e. multilayer packaging consisting of paper, low density polyethylene (LDPE) and aluminium, are widely used as aseptic packages in the food and beverage industry. Paper can be easily recovered from this type of post-consumer beverage cartons (PCBCs) by the pulp industry. The remaining LDPE/aluminium by-product, however, cannot be easily separated to its constituents so currently it is mostly downcycled or used for energy recovery. The aim of this work is to develop an effective process that separates and recovers LDPE and aluminium of high purity and good quality from Tetra Pak cartons. To this purpose, following paper recovery by hydropulping, LDPE and aluminium are separated using a selective dissolution-precipitation (SDP) process. The recovered LDPE is characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning (DSC) and melt flow rate (MFR) measurements. The findings reveal that the SDP separation process is an effective method to recover LDPE and aluminium from PCBCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key challenge in prevention of global warming is how to increase energy efficiency, to be able to deal with increased fossil CO2 emissions from rising energy usage. Increasing energy efficiency will decrease energy usage and is in a key role in emission mitigation. The focus is the pulp and paper industry, which is energy-intensive. Development of industrial energy efficiency has been studied before but the role of industrial transformation is still mostly unknown. The knowledge must be improved, to be able to predict future developments in the most effective way. In this research, impact of various production unit closures and start-ups on energy efficiency of the Finnish pulp and paper industry were studied utilizing statistical analysis. Results indicate that about 20% of the Finnish pulp and paper industry energy efficiency improvement between 2011 and 2017 is caused by the major structural changes. The rest, 80% of the progress, was mainly due to improved technology and more optimal operational modes. Additional findings suggest that modern mill start-ups have a significantly greater potential to reduce energy consumption than old mill closures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]