BioRegional MiniMills

Overview

Agricultural residues such as wheat straw are plentiful and can be used to make the paper we need. In fact 8% of the world’s paper is made from non-wood fibres. As agricultural residues are bulky they are best pulped on a small-scale of around 10,000 – 30,000 tones per year - much smaller than wood pulp mills.

To date the main problem with using these residues is that there is no clean technology to treat the toxic effluent, known as black liquor, produced at this small scale. Because of the pollution that the effluent has caused, many small, straw paper mills in China and India have been closed down, holding back the use of agricultural residues to make paper there and in Europe.

BioRegional MiniMills (UK) Ltd was established in 1997 to develop and apply small-scale, clean technology to pulp straw and recover energy and pulping chemicals from the effluent – the MiniMill. The technology could also be used for the mainstream wood pulp industry.The MiniMill has been developed to the point where the technical and economic feasibility is proven at a laboratory and pilot scale. Currently a 10% industrial scale demonstration plant has been constructed and is being tested at a paper mill in Manchester, UK.

Background

Flexible technology for small-scale pulp production
This infomation is also available in Chinese download the pdf here)

The BioRegional MiniMill is designed to:

• enable any country to exploit local fibre resources economically;

• realise the potential of non-wood fibre sources - ideal in countries with a limited forest resource, reducing pressure on global forests;

• process hemp, flax, wheat or rice straw and other crop fibres, and be adapted for wood and recovered fibre;

• introduce new, clean technology for raw material preparation, pulping, bleaching and chemical recovery;

• save carbon emissions by cutting energy used in transport and recovering energy from the effluent for reuse in the pulping.

The company was formed in 1997 to establish a small-scale mill to pulp locally-grown fibre for a range of quality papers and board. Shareholders include six leading paper companies and two environmental organisations, the WorldWide Fund for Nature International and BioRegional Development Group.

A complete pulp mill process line has been designed to optimise the properties of pulps from non-wood fibres, with technology which can be readily adapted to wood fibre. The technical and economic feasibility of the process has been demonstrated through trial work during 1998-2007 carried out with the support of the UK Government and private investment. A prototype design specification with costs has been completed for both a commercial and a demonstration BioRegional MiniMill.

Current shareholders include:

BioRegional Development Group
Inveresk plc
James Cropper plc
Tullis Russell Papermakers Ltd
WorldWide Fund for Nature International
NESTA
Business angel investor

BioRegional MiniMills (UK) Ltd is now seeking further partners to commercialise and promote the technology.
The BioRegional MiniMill – design for cleaner production. The industrial scale BioRegional MiniMill will serve as a demonstration unit to promote this approach to small scale pulping. Designed by a team experienced in the field of non-wood fibre processing, the pulping, bleaching and chemical recovery system ensures maximum water and energy efficiency and minimal generation of waste streams.

The MiniMill can be adapted to a range of different fibres and readily transferred to emerging countries where small pulp mill pollution is a serious problem. The MiniMill capacity will be in the range of 10-100 tonnes of pulp per day, a typical amount for pulping of agricultural residues.

Novel BioRegional MiniMill features under development:

•A method of opening up the stems, including nodes, to facilitate efficient pulping, whilst preserving fibre length

•Re-designed twin screw system for improved throughput and pulp quality

•A method to suppress silica from entering the straw black liquor stream

•A small-scale chemical recovery process which burns black liquor cleanly to produce heat and energy and directly recover the pulping chemical

•ECF bleaching system specifically for non-wood fibres

The BioRegional MiniMill – technical innovation plus:

Commercial Scope

•The BioRegional MiniMill is designed to produce a range of unbleached and bleached pulps

•Bast fibres such as hemp, flax, jute, sisal and abaca give greater foldability, strength and runnability for products such as maps, filters, banknotes and many industrial papers. These long fibres can also be used to upgrade recycled paper

•Wheat straw offers an alternative to hardwood for printing and writing papers. It gives a good, closed sheet and adds stiffness to papers making it also suitable for fluted packaging and heavy embossing

•The MiniMill's scale and adaptability makes it easily replicable in a wide range of locations

•Projected financial analyses show the MiniMill to be very cost competitive.

Local Advantage

•Using local fibres ensures control of supply and quality of raw material

•Producing your own pulp brings stability. It allows independence from the volatile international pulp market and exchange rate fluctuations

•MiniMills are small enough to allow pulping to be integrated with existing paper and board mills, saving energy

•Small-scale mills provide local and rural employment

•Transportation costs of raw materials are reduced

•The addition of pulping to a paper and board mill brings a higher degree of stability and independence.

• The MiniMill could help to rescue mills closing under legislative pressure as a result of the untreated effluent they produce.

• A paper industry could be generated where forest resources are scarce.

Superior Environmental Performance

•Waste reduction: Agricultural ‘wastes’ such as straw and bagasse become valuable pulping materials

•Forest protection: Use of non-wood fibres relieves pressure on the world's forests to meet rising demand for paper pulp

•Efficient material use: The MiniMill optimises raw material utilisation to recover energy and the pulping chemicals.

•Energy savings: MiniMill uses 50% less energy than the latest conventional wood pulp mill and 90% less energy than traditional non-wood pulp mills.The mill is anticipated to be thermal energy self-sufficient through the recovery and use of the organic material in the black liquor effluent. Local supply means less energy for transport. Energy is also saved when pulp mills are integrated with paper manufacture.

•Pollution prevention: A closed loop totally chlorine-free system to minimise releases to land, air and water

For more information about BioRegional MiniMills, contact:
BioRegional MiniMills (UK) Ltd
Tel: 020 8404 4886
Fax: 020 8404 4893
e-mail: brmm@bioregional.com

Last updated 22nd April 2009

Technical update

Technical update February 2010

During 2007-8 BioRegional MiniMills built a ten per cent scale proprietary black liquor gasification plant at Ahlstrom’s Radcliffe Mill in Manchester,UK with the support of a grant from the Technology Strategy Board. Ahlstrom generates black liquor from its pulp mill and although this is currently safely disposed of, the company is seeking a more cost effective and sustainable alternative, which is why it is hosting our plant on site. The technical team, led by Philip Hartwell, first succeeded in demonstrating through the pilot plant that the BRMM process can generate energy and recover chemicals from black liquor in line with theoretical models.

Work continued on site in 2009. With support from the Northwest Regional Development Agency the team worked to overcome some operational issues to try and achieve continuous operation. Several process breakthroughs were achieved and work is ongoing to test these promising new developments in 2010.

In addition BRMM has been developing a new pulping process. A one third scale twin screw pulping unit was installed in Manchester to trial straw pulping. In 2009 we tested the BRMM proprietary pulping unit with wood chip, in trials supported by Scottish Enterprise and Forestry Commission Scotland, with promising results and an encouraging economic analysis. The next step would be to trial the black liquor process with the wood pulp black liquor.

Last updated 8th February 2010

Team

Sue Riddlestone, Managing Director
Sue initiated and has led the development of the Company and its technology since 1996 bringing together and leading the team and securing funds of £2 million to date. Sue co-founded the environmental organisation, BioRegional and as director has built it up to an organisation with a turnover of £2 million with 40 staff and six spin out companies.

Sue established the Laundry, London’s first kerbside recycling collection for small businesses and has led a marketing campaign generating annual sales of over £2 million for the local recycled paper product. Sue is also a member of the London Sustainable Development Commission.

Philip Hartwell, Technical Project Manager
Philip is a senior consulting engineer to the paper industry and experienced project manager both for research projects, which he led when he worked at the Paper Industry Research Association, and for turnkey engineering projects when he was a director at paper industry engineers AF-QPS. Philip project managed the largest paper industry project in the UK in recent years, the installation of a recycling plant for SCA in Shotton, Wales in 1997.

Philip has been the lead engineer in the development of the MiniMill technology since 2005, working on a consultancy basis, full time for long periods as we have moved forward on phases of research. Philip is responsible for overall technical project management and is based on site in Manchester.

Clive Ward, Process Design Engineer
Clive is a senior process engineer with a long career in the paper industry, including as Mill Manager at several UK paper mills. Clive has been responsible for taking a variety of paper industry engineering projects from design and costing to installation in the UK and abroad. Clive has worked on the development and design of the new MiniMill technology since 2000. Clive recently stepped down after many years service on the board of the UK Paper Industry Technical Association.

Clive works for BRMM on a consultancy basis and although he is currently working in Saudi Arabia , Clive worked on site for 3 weeks in May, will be working on site again in August and has indicated his wish to join the company officially once the first sales are secured and will work closely with Philip.

James May, Assistant Engineer
James has assisted Philip in the development of the MiniMill since 2005, undertaking manual and technical work on both the fibre processing and black liquor technologies. He has BTEC and NVQ qualifications in light engineering. James is responsible for assisting the operation of the plant.
 

Harry Cripps, Process Engineer
Harry is a consultant engineer to BRMM, with a background in industrial process engineering. He currently undertakes process integration and energy saving studies, pulp mill conceptual/front end process engineering, process heat and material balance simulations, optimisation of multiple effect evaporation plant, water and environmental waste minimisation, environmental and ecological awareness promotion. He has extensive pulp mill energy integration experience in Europe and N America. Harry typically works 4-5 days per month for BRMM.

Dr Edmund Fowles, Chemist
Edmund is a consultant to BRMM on the black liquor technology and continues to provide valuable insights which have allowed significant evolution of the theory into reality. He is an experienced industrial chemist and now runs his own consultancy. Previously, he had technical manager roles within the international specialty chemicals companies Laporte Industries and Associated Octel, where he led process optimization and new product development projects. Edmund works 2-3 days per month on average for BRMM.

Majonne van der Bijl, Company Secretary & Resources Manager BioRegional MiniMills (UK) Ltd
Majonne has a BA in Communications. During her studies she volunteered as PR-coordinator for multi-disciplinary cultural festival Virus in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Prior to joining BioRegional she was Business Manager for homeless charity Emmaus South Lambeth and ran a successful furniture, electricals and household goods reuse business. 

BioRegional MiniMills Directors

Sue Riddlestone, Managing Director (as above)

Trevor Dean, Non Executive Director
Trevor is one of the inventors of the MiniMill technology and has forty years of international experience in pulping of non-woods, paper manufacturing and pollution control. Trevor has previously worked as a consultant to UNIDO and the EIB in this area. Trevor was a partner at Cross & Bevan, Ltd. from 1980-1992 and was employed by the Paper Industry Research Association. Trevor is a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Jan Ward, Non Executive Director

Paul Wickham, Non Executive Director
Paul has a law degree and 28 years experience at Nat West Bank, many of which were spent in Corporate Finance. This includes aircraft finance, north sea oil and gas finance, euro tunnel and other complex structural finance arrangements. From 1997 Paul worked as Chief Executive of Surrey Wildlife Trust increasing turnover ten-fold. Paul retired in 2006 and is a Director of BioRegional Development Group and The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.

Ruth Jarratt, Non Executive Director
Ruth has more than 20 years marketing experience. Ms Jarratt is currently Director of Policy Development for the Royal Opera House and was previously Fundraising and Marketing Director for Age Concern England. Ruth is a Director of BioRegional Development Group.  

Sarah Purdy, MA Cantab, ACA, Non Executive Director
Sarah is an experienced chartered accountant who started her career at Ernst and Young, then moved on to Sun Oil as a joint venture accountant after which she became a management accountant at the BBC. Ms Purdey is a Director of BioRegional Charcoal Company and BioRegional Development Group.

Graham Dean, Non Executive Director
Graham is a senior policy officer in the Corporate Policy and Partnerships Team at the London Borough of Sutton. Graham is a qualified Town Planner, was an elected member of Croydon Council for 4 years and has an MSc in Environmental Assessment and Management. Graham is chairman of the board of BioRegional Development Group.

Funders

BioRegional would like to thank the following funders for their generous support.

TSB
http://www.innovateuk.org
Its vision is for the UK to be a global leader in innovation and a magnet for innovative businesses, where technology is applied rapidly, effectively and sustainably to create wealth and enhance quality of life.

Northwest Regional Development Agency
http://www.nwda.co.uk/
The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) is responsible for stimulating the economic growth and regeneration of England’s Northwest.

Scottish Enterprise
http://www.scottish-enterprise.com
Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's main economic, enterprise, innovation and investment agency. Their ultimate goal is to stimulate sustainable growth of Scotland’s economy.

Forestry Commission Scotland
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/scotland
The Forestry Commission’s mission is to protect and expand Scotland's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment.

Home Grown Cereals Authority
http://www.hgca.com
HGCA supports the UK cereal and oilseeds industry in improving its competitiveness in UK and overseas markets.

Defra
www.defra.gov.uk

Past Funders:

NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts)
NESTA helps to fill a funding gap by investing in outstanding ideas, and the people who have them, often much earlier than other funders. By supporting this talent, NESTA hopes to provide a real boost to the countries economic, cultural and creative capital.

EEDA (the East of England Development Agency)
The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) is the driving force behind economic growth and regeneration in the six counties of the East of England: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Established in April 1999, EEDA is one of nine regional development agencies created to bring a new focus to economic development and to build prosperity across the English regions.

Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation
The Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation (PPCF) is a grant awarding trust that supports work in peace and security and ecological sustainability.

The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation
The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation is a private grant-making trust and is funding this project through its Major Grants Programme. This programme primarily supports registered charities whose work is concerned with nature conservation, the environment, and sustainable development in non-first world countries.

JJ Charitable Trust 

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Last updated 24th April 2009