The Myth of Commodity Pulps, 2005 Engineering, Pulping & Environmental Conference

Most people who work with pulp are familiar with the concept of commodity pulps and can probably supply most of the acronyms, like NBSK, NBHK, SBSK, SBHK, DIP, and BCTMP. As many of these labels illustrate, the commodity, Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK), for example, is defined by a region, level of bleaching, wood type, and pulping process. Recently the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) began trading NBSK pulp futures. This commodity is described in the press releases as being of a commercially accepted “prime” grade of a specific moisture content, dirt count and brightness. All of this information suggests that NBSK is a commodity, but is this “commodity pulp” truly a commodity? This presentation delves into this question by looking at the similarities and differences of a cross-section of market NBSK pulps available around the world.

The testing results of 16 NBSK market pulps, ranging across the northern hemisphere from Coastal British Columbia to Siberia, are compared to show that major differences exist in many key properties of this commodity pulp. These differences are translated into both likely paper performance outcomes and their economic impact. The major role that fiber morphology plays in these differences and the reason for the trends in the data will be highlighted. The presentation will examine, additionally, the connection between traditional paper industry pulp analysis and commodity pulp.