Business idea: Wheat straw office paper. white straw paper

Office paper it can be made from wood or be the result of recycling already used paper, but when it comes to the production of large quantities, wood is still used to make it.

In an effort to save tens of millions of trees from this fate, the company "Nature"s Paper» offers an alternative that uses leftover wheat straw.

When wheat is harvested, as a rule, only grain is used, which becomes the raw material for products such as flour and cereals. The remains of the mow, namely wheat straw, are usually left to decompose in the fields or fed to livestock.

Company «Nature's Paper» collects straw residues and converts them into paper pulp. At the same time, straw is also being used to produce organic biofuel, which helps the company heat water in production.

The bleaching process uses chlorine and sodium salts. Now the company produces office paper in A4 and A3 formats. Its quality is no different from paper made from wood.

This is an ideal business for district and regional scales.

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Comments (8)

The demand for carton packaging is gradually increasing.
Now our team is able to produce cardboard without harming our planet, since straw is endless. Paper and cardboard made in this way are of high quality and environmentally friendly. Within 5-10 years, in Russia, this production method will be the main direction in pulp and paper industry. No deforestation, no pollution of rivers with chemicals, all this will remain in the past!

Current state

pre-investment stage. There is a platform for the implementation of the project. In 2017, the innovative technology was tested by our team on the basis of Karton-South LLC, Novocherkassk.

Market

Within the framework of the project, it is planned to manufacture products using
consistently high demand not only in a particular region or federal district, but also in Russia as a whole. The company adequately evaluates its products in terms of
consumer qualities and prices for these products. The balance of these parameters ensures stable demand and successful competition. The planned difference in price with competitors is at least 10-12%, and this is a significant indicator for wholesale buyers. The main contractors of the planned plant will be corrugated companies producing corrugated cardboard, companies producing roofing materials based on roofing cardboard.

Problem or Opportunity

Demand for corrugated packaging in the Russian market is influenced by how
consumer market and industrial sectors. Increase
consumer spending through growth in real disposable income
of the population, of course, has a positive effect on retail trade, while
Increasing turnover requires more and more packaging throughout the chain
supplies. Increase in retail sales in the country over the past seven years
explains the outstripping dynamics of growth in the production of corrugated packaging
relation to the volume of production of manufacturing products.
Imposing restrictions on the import of agricultural products from Europe and
North America turned out to be in the hands of Russian food manufacturers
food, beverages and tobacco, which have benefited from reduced competition from
side of the import. Some of the local industries were oriented towards
import substitution, which contributed to an increase in workload
industrial enterprises (mainly food industry companies) and the creation
additional domestic demand for corrugated packaging in 2018.

Solution (Product or Service)

The production plan involves the production of two main types of cardboard: packaging and roofing. The versatility of production is one of the advantages of this project. Recycled packaging board for smooth layers of corrugated packaging is a raw material,
the buyer of which is the manufacturer of packaging products. So
Thus, the Company, launching a cardboard production project, enters the b2b sector,
understanding and taking into account all the peculiarities of working in this market.
The planned indicator of cardboard sales is 21,000 tons per year. These are very significant volumes, and even despite the gradual withdrawal of production, for this volume, it is necessary to be ready for competition.
Technical cardboard is a raw material to which consumers have two main
requirements:
 Price
 Stability of quality corresponding to the price.
It is the price that will be the main tool for promoting products.
Since the business idea of ​​cardboard production is based on the desire to minimize the cost of finished products by making the best use of energy resources and secondary raw materials, the Company has the opportunity to enter the market with an unprecedentedly low price and at the same time maintain a relatively high sales margin.

Competitors

The company - the initiator of the project thoroughly analyzed the main trends in the market of cardboard consumers. The basis of a possible summary, as a result of this analysis, may be the following statements:
1. The domestic market of cardboard consumers in recent years, despite the crisis, shows a steady and significant growth.
2. The increase in the volume of demand for cardboard is due to the growth in demand from the manufacturers of corrugated packaging, namely, these enterprises are potential partners of the project - buyers of finished products planned for production - cardboard for smooth layers of corrugated packaging.
3. The constant increase in the cost of secondary raw materials, namely waste paper, also indicates the presence of demand for cardboard and, in part, a certain shortage of waste cardboard.
4. Using only waste paper as a raw material for the production of cardboard can be a very risky decision, since the high share of waste paper in the cost and its price can significantly affect the marginality of cardboard, its selling prices and the planned, very high and ambitious dynamics of reaching the planned production and sales volumes.
Competitors:
Nikol-Pak, Novoulyanovsk, Ulyanovsk region. The factory is focused on the production of cardboard sleeves for winding roll materials. The factory was put into operation in October 2011. The design capacity is 3,000 tons of products per year with an increase in productivity up to 6,000 tons. The volume of production and sales of the factory is growing steadily: the territorial location has allowed us to expand the geography of sales and reduce the costs of our customers for transporting products.
Nikol-Pak Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Region
Founded on the basis of a cardboard-roofing plant, Nicole-Pak
Nizhny Novgorod" after the reconstruction of KDM, which began in December 2011, began the production of box and coreboard in May 2012. Design production capacity −20,000 tons per year; in 2016, it was planned to reach an increase in indicators up to 24,000 tons of finished products per year.
Limited Liability Company "KARTONPRO", Nizhny
Novgorod. KartonPro LLC is engaged in wholesale deliveries and complex supply of paper products and packaging to enterprises in various fields of activity: printing, pharmaceutical, industrial, furniture, food, etc. The range of main products includes paper, cardboard,
corrugated cardboard, ruberoid. There are no competitors in the Tyumen Region (where the plant is planned to be located and operate).

Benefits or Differentiators

The main material for the production of cellulose is wood. For this, coniferous trees are used. 30% of commercial wood production is spent on the production of cardboard packaging. The demand for this material is gradually increasing. Exhausted forest clearings will resume at best in 50 years. When cutting down the border of the forest moves further and further away from transport routes.
The destruction of the forest causes irreparable harm to mankind. For the production of 1 ton of cardboard, on average, 7 trees are processed. This is a horrendous statistic. However, there is an alternative production method, which has been actively popularized in the West since 2015 (for example, Actor Woody Harrelson, an ardent defender of forests in the USA and Canada, invested in organizing the production of office paper from straw). For this, ordinary straw (cereal straw) is used. After the wheat crop is harvested, there is a lot of straw left in the fields, and many agricultural enterprises completely dispose of it by burning it.
1.2 tons of straw is enough to produce one ton of paper;
for the manufacture of cardboard 1.3 tons.
Our organization, having studied a huge amount of literature, consulted with foreign technologists of this type of production, in 2017 conducted trial closed tests by producing 1 ton of cardboard from straw on the basis of the Novocherkassk Cardboard Plant (Kardon-South), the figures are simply staggering (given that the cost straw cardboard will not exceed 6-6.5 thousand rubles per ton). Now we are able to produce cardboard without harming our planet, as the straw supply is endless. Paper and cardboard made in this way are of high quality and environmentally friendly. We are confident that within 5-10 years, in Russia, this method of production will be the main direction in the pulp and paper industry. No deforestation, no pollution of rivers with chemicals, all this will remain in the past! This technology has not yet been applied anywhere in Russia.

Finance

Planned revenue per month 52,500,000 rubles
Planned gross profit per month RUB 39,013,539
Planned net profit per month 27,250,000 rubles
Discount rate 10.00%
Payback period 8.6 months
Project profitability 22%
Net present income per year 327,000,000 rubles

Purpose of investment

Equipment for the production of paper (stock preparation, paper machine, reel cutter)
44 000 000
Generator (with cogeneration system)
18 000 000
Circulating water purification system
12 000 000
Fire extinguishing system
2 000 000
Room ventilation systems with catalysts
1 200 000
Finished product packaging equipment
380 000
Laboratory equipment for quality control of raw materials and products (QC)
600 000
Well drilling and water disposal
200 000
Acquisition and installation of crane beams in the production room
450 000
Acquisition and configuration of automated control systems
700 000
Truck tractor KAMAZ
2 800 000
Semitrailer
700 000
forklift
800 000
Acquisition of construction tools for installation work and the production process
500 000
Other expenses of the investment stage (costs for obtaining permits, contingencies)
500 000
Total:
84 830 000
Also 8 170 000 rub. to replenish working capital.

Offer to the investor

We will announce the proposal for interested investors at the meeting during the negotiation process.

Risks

The equipment provided for by the project must, at the request of the Project Initiator, be capable of producing a wide range of cardboard at a relatively high productivity: in a wide range of grams (i.e. density and, accordingly, weight) using mass prepared from different raw materials. Such unification makes it possible to significantly eliminate the risks associated with a drop in demand and prices for one or another type of cardboard. The possibility of using straw and sawdust together or as a substitute for waste paper is a step in the same direction: reducing the cost of cardboard and roofing material. The successful implementation of this plan will reduce the risks associated with rising prices or shortages of raw materials for production.
In general, the future production looks balanced, the main items of expenditure are taken into account, and the estimated cost of production allows us to be optimistic about the sales plan and planned revenue and gross profit.

Is a tree. For this, coniferous trees are used. 10% of the volume of commercial wood production is spent on paper needs. The development of computer technology and the Internet reduces the need for it. But the need for such material is gradually increasing. The developed clearings will be renewed in 50 years. When cutting down the border of the forest moves further and further away from transport routes.

The destruction of the forest will cause irreparable harm to mankind. There is an alternative production method. For this, ordinary straw is used. After the harvest of wheat, a lot of it remains in the fields.

Material consumption:

• it takes one and a half tons of straw to produce one ton of paper;
• for the manufacture of cardboard - two tons.

Sometimes a small amount of recycled paper is added during the production process. Nowadays, Woody Harrelson actively promotes the type of paper based on wheat straw.

Paper is not only made from wood. In China, for hundreds of years, this material has been made from cane or rice straw. In Russia, the first attempts to produce such paper date back to 1715.

Actor Woody Harrelson founded a company that makes paper from wheat straw. He promotes the production and use of this environmentally friendly and high-quality type of wheat straw paper. Woody Harrelson believes that the use of paper production from straw helps to protect nature more effectively.

Woody Harrelson with a book on making paper from straw

Production

The technology of using cane is a complex process. First, straw is poured into the box. Straw should not be used immediately, long stems will damage the processing.

First stage

First you need to grind the material. A special device is used, which is a rotating drum. Straw is fed into the pipe, where it is sucked. After processing, the straw becomes suitable for further processing. 1300 kilograms will be processed into 1 ton of paper. Loading occurs approximately every 15 or 20 minutes. The chopped straw will need to be transferred to the brewhouse, where further steps in the process will be carried out.

Cooking processing

The crushed material is transferred to vats, which contain alkali - caustic soda.

1. To prepare high-quality paper, it is necessary to soak the straw well with the indicated solution. This is done by digestion in it. An important role is played by the ability to easily absorb and release moisture. This eliminates the use of powerful presses and intensive cooking process.
2. The processed material is drained through the holes that are prepared next to the end of the cooking hose. Straw at this stage is saturated with moisture and alkali to the degree of 20 - 25 percent.
3. It is fed into the next cooking chamber. In this case, the processing takes place with the help of hot steam at a temperature of one hundred degrees.

The operator monitors the filling of the tank. For this purpose, there are holes in the tank shell, and various sensors are installed here, which allow the operator to quickly respond to the degree of loading of the cooking chamber. At the bottom there is a special discharge hose. Through it, the finished mass is unloaded from the tank.

flushing

The mass of treated straw enters the pulper.

1. It is saturated with liquid to a concentration of three percent. In this chamber, the material is washed and prepared for further processing stages.
2. The washed and diluted solution is pumped into the buffer tank, which is considered as an intermediate tank. It is equipped in a special way in order to ensure constant mixing and prevent possible compaction of the upper layer of the solution.

To do this, there is an elevation in the center of the pool, and mixing is carried out directly with the help of special fans.

The last stage of preparation

The next step is to grind the material.

1. The device to which the mixture is fed is the primary grinding mill. The material is further defibrated and crushed.
2. At this stage, pre-treatment ends and, after drying, it is sent directly to the paper shop. There it is mixed with a small amount of waste paper and is directly used in the papermaking process.

paper making

After the final grinding and dilution with water, the solution is sent to the table of the paper machine, where there are vibrating grids. There, with the help of vacuum boxes, excess moisture is sucked out and the still wet sheets are cut to the desired size. The presses bring the mixture to a fifty percent state, after which the dryers produce the final drying of the paper. The moisture content of sheets of paper does not exceed ten percent.

Conclusion

Stocks of straw are huge. Paper and cardboard made in this way are of high quality and environmentally friendly. It is possible to produce them not only from straw, but also on the basis of similar materials:

• cane;
• reeds;
• cattail.

Making paper from wood is a relatively recent invention. For example, in North America, paper was made almost exclusively from recycled linen and rags before 1850.

And for example, banknotes, dollars, were made from linen (25 percent) and cotton (75 percent). It turns out paper - rough and velvety, elastic and durable, neutral in color, interspersed with the smallest synthetic fibers (red and blue hairs). Rumor has it that hemp fibers are also used to produce this paper - that's why the dollar is so elastic and wrinkle-resistant. However, official .

A powerful turn of laws during the industrialization era introduced tax breaks and favorable freight rates in the late 1800s—it was the kind of development that firmly established wood as the primary material for paper. These incentives remain relevant to this day and are a big part of our reliance on endangered forests for our paper needs.

During World War II and up until 1960, there were 25 mills in the US that were still making paper from wheat straw.

More than 20% of paper produced in India and China is made from wheat and rice straw and cane bagasse. (the stalks of sugar cane residue are crushed to extract their juice, and then the fibers are used).

In the world, 8% of all paper products are produced from agricultural waste.

Every year, millions of tons of agricultural residues of wheat and flax straw remain unused, while paper production continues to ramp up. According to various estimates, this leads to the cutting down of about 830 million trees every year in the USA alone.

6 Interesting and Astounding Facts About Paper Making

What is paper made from?

One of these companies was Nature's Paper, which began to use wheat straw for the production of office paper, which remains after the grain harvest. Usually this straw is fed to livestock or left in the fields without using anything other than fertilizer.

Nature's Paper collects straw and processes it into paper pulp. But not only the end product is provided by straw, but water for production is also heated with organic fuel made from straw.

Office paper made from this material has a yellowish color, because sodium salts and chlorine are used to bleach it. The quality of bleached paper is absolutely no different from wood. If you think about it, how much waste paper is constantly thrown away with food

The company sets an example of exceptionally careful attitude to nature and maximalism in the use of agricultural products. This idea is for reflection and development of similar thoughts in the minds of future entrepreneurs and inventors.

Another company, New Leaf Paper, makes paper from banana and palm fibers. All paper produced at this enterprise has nothing to do with trees. It is ordered for printing. books.

Ecopaper makes paper from anything but wood. Paper from plantations of bananas, mangoes, coffee. It is made from the leaves and stems of these plants remaining after harvest. Previously, they were simply thrown away, but now they make excellent paper. Chlorine is not used in the production of such paper. It also mastered the production of paper from hemp. Sugarcane pomace paper, perfectly white, suitable for use in office equipment.

Poopoopaper has mastered the technology of paper production from… elephant dung!

The manure is first dried, then boiled, thoroughly washed and used to make paper. No, the paper does not smell of anything and looks no different from ordinary paper!
Production is put on stream, paper is sold in 16 countries of the world.
taken

Woody Harrelson is a well-known actor who has appeared in film and television in a variety of roles, from Woody the bartender on Cheers in the 1980s to Hamich Abernathy on last year's The Hunger Games. There were many more milestones along the way, including two Oscar nominations. He is also known as an ardent environmentalist, especially when it comes to the forests of North America. Having left his role as a political activist in the past, he has now gone far beyond the protest format in favor of a project designed to shift society's appetite for paper products from forests to a much less sought-after product: agricultural waste.

How relevant is this? Wild forests absorb almost a fifth of the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels, according to data from Canopy, a company that promotes forest conservation. When we cut down trees, we are not only reducing the size of one of the most efficient carbon dioxide disposal mechanisms on the planet, but we are also releasing dozens, if not hundreds, of years of storage to freedom. Globally, 71% of the world's paper stock comes from a variety of forests. It is estimated that 63,000 trees are required for one issue of the New York Times Sunday.

RP Siegel spoke with Woody ahead of a press conference to launch and distribute Step Forward in the US by Prairie Pulp & Paper, of which Woody is a co-founder. This paper consists of 80% wheat straw, instead of conventional wood pulp, and thus has the lowest environmental impact on the market. Starting today, Step Forward paper will be sold at Staples. Jeff Golfman, President of Prairie Pulp & Paper, also took part in the conversation.

TriplePundit: What inspired you to take on this project?

Woody Harrelson: I've been worried about forests for a long time. For example, in 1996, I participated in demonstrations on the Golden Gate Bridge against the cutting down of redwood trees in Northern California (Woody was arrested at this demonstration), and even earlier, in 1992, I participated in protests against the transfer of 6 million acres of virgin forests in Montana for logging. It bothered me very much. I got in touch with my friends at Greenpeace and we started working on ways to stop this. But in the process, I realized that even when it turns out to save this or that forest from cutting down, they start cutting down somewhere else, well, like in the game “Kill the Mole” (an arcade game whose task is to hit the moles randomly appearing from mink). Therefore, one should turn to how paper is made. Of the three to six billion trees that are cut down in the world every year, half is used to make paper. Thus, a change in the approach to paper production would greatly change this picture. This is exactly what we have achieved. We now have paper that is 80% wheat straw, and it's better for the environment than any other paper in existence today. And now, for the first time, such paper will be available in the United States, at Staples stores.

TriplePundit: Do you plan to increase production as demand grows?

Woody Harrelson: Yes, we think to build momentum in a natural way. The volume of this industry is huge, the world demand is 400 million tons per year, and this number will double in the next fifteen years. Thus, the load on the forests is simply monstrous. We plan to launch the first wood pulp free paper mill in North America within the next 3-5 years. It will be an eco-factory outside the system, all paper will be 100% from non-wood raw materials, completely from agricultural waste - from what is left by farms. The price will be comparable to the price of ordinary paper or even lower. Then the revolution in this area will move to a qualitatively new level.

TriplePundit: What about other paper products like newspapers, napkins, etc.?

Woody Harrelson: We will definitely come to this, but right now we are focusing on office paper.

Jeff Golfman: I'd like to add that the boxes our paper is packaged in are also made from agricultural waste. So, sooner or later, we will start promoting many other types of paper products.

TriplePundit: Where is your paper coming from now?

Woody Harrelson: We make it in India. Jeff was able to find a factory that can produce chlorine-free paper from agricultural raw materials that meets our requirements. We are fine with that until we set up our own production here.

TriplePundit: Building a factory like this will offload your production from abroad, which means it will significantly increase your ecological footprint.

Jeff Golfman: On our website, anyone can find a report on the analysis of the life cycle of all company processes that we ordered. Even with overseas shipments, our GHG and footprint figures are generally lower than those of all other paper manufacturers in North America today. Once we commercialize wood-free paper using renewable energy here in North America, we will set new standards for sustainable paper products.

TriplePundit: So, over time, you will move from 80% non-wood raw materials in paper to 100%?

Woody Harrelson: Yes, we already have a few trial samples of 100% non-wood paper. I remember that I was very struck by the faces of the factory workers. They realized that they were part of a turning point in history. These people have devoted years of their lives to working in their industry. But the sight of rolls of paper coming out from under the press, which does not contain wood at all, should excite anyone.

TriplePundit: So what's holding you back from making the switch to 100% non-wood paper?

Jeff Golfman: It took us about 14 years of research to bring the first sheets of paper to the market, so it will take a few more months to go to 100% and several million dollars in research and development.

TriplePundit: Looking to the future, I imagine that more people will use their smartphones and tablets than print anything. More and more people will be involved in recycling. And already today we are going to produce wood-free paper. What do you think, will we be able to catch the moment when the forests will not be subjected to human influence at all?

Woody Harrelson: As of today, the demand for paper just keeps growing, regardless of the internet or anything else. And although people expected that they would get rid of paper in offices, the statistics stubbornly say the opposite.

But, given all the changes taking place in the industry, I look to the future with optimism. As Ramez Naam so aptly pointed out in The Infinite Resource, such projections consistently overlook the impact of innovation. And I believe that the innovation that will be presented today will do just that - change the current situation in relation to forests and our way of life.

Prairie Pulp & Paper provided me with samples of Step Forward paper that I tested for print quality on both color and black and white laser printers with excellent results on both. Plus, typing was much more enjoyable because I knew I was saving trees.

About the Author: Mr. Siegel is a professional engineer, inventor, consultant, and author. He co-authored the environmental thriller Vapor Trails, the first in a series of books on the impact of the human factor in various areas of sustainable development, including energy, food and water resources. The book is written in an entertaining and somewhat swashbuckling manner and is being adapted