Use Of Adaptive Technology In Pulp and Paper, 1998 Process & Product Quality Conference Proceedings
The economic cycle for the industry is becoming much less predictable than it was ten to twenty years ago. The ways in which we communicate and use paper are changing. Finally, with the construction of mills all over the world, the pulp and paper industry has truly become a global market. Every mill executive’s current objectives are to increase productivity while decreasing costs and delivering added value to their customers, in turn, generating added value for their shareholders. These executive objectives quickly become the process engineers directives. Their job is to implement processes and advanced controls to maximize the utilization of existing and future capital expenditures. The goals are increasing process reliability, reducing waste, enhancing product mix, attaining better machine utilization and improving the use of raw materials and resources. For the past five years, Pavilion Technologies, Inc. and others, have provided software products utilizing adaptive technologies for solving process modeling/control applications in the pulp and paper industry. These adaptive algorithms (Neural Nets, Chaos Theory, Fuzzy Logic, Multi-variable Dynamic Control, etc.) have provided the unique ability to build accurate non-linear process models based on enormous historical data sets. Many pulp and paper companies are currently using these products with resulting increases in yield, efficiency and throughput. This paper provides a background on these technologies that represents the next step in process optimization. The types of applications will be categorized and some specific examples given. Finally, the advantages of real time application of these technologies will be examined.