Bobsen

  Bobsen is a paper container laminated manufacturer, after our fundraising session, Bobsen agreed with us to arrange a corporate visit. Let us visit the factory and equipment of the paper laminating and answer our doubts about the production line.

Followings are information we got form Bobsen:

Mails:

Corporate Visit Notes:

Chung Hwa Pulp Corporation

  Chung Hwa Pulp Corporation provided us simple paper pulping and making process, they also answered the raw materials of paper and the black liquor. In addition, they recommended that we can ask experts from ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) and professors at Chung-Hsing University for more questions about the characteristics of paper container raw materials.

Following are questions we had asked:
1. What’s the raw material you use to produce paper?
2. We knew that “black liquor” would be produced during the procedure of paper manufacturing. What’s the percentage of lignin in black liquor? Is there a technology for recovering lignin or is there any other manufacturers recycling and purifying the black liquor?
3. Would it have any influence on paper recycling if the paper is doped with lignin?

The answers they gave us:
1. The raw material of the paper comes from the pulp, which consists of cellulose and hemicellulose separated from the wood chips.
2. The black liquor is produced after the wood chips are cooked, so the black liquor component is lignin. Black liquor will be concentrated and used as a biomass fuel to provide the energy needed for production.
3. You can find paper quality and technology in the relevant literature.
The process of pulping and papermaking is described as follows:
1. The process of pulping:
The main raw material of the paper is wood pulp, which is made by peeling and slicing the logs. The principle is to separate the wood chips from the pulp fibers by mechanical or chemical methods, and then the fibers are pulped, bleached and dried to make pulp or pulp board.

→ Cooking: Digestion is also called cooking. The purpose is to dissolve the lignin in the wood chips by using chemicals and under high-temperature cooking conditions to dissociate the fibers.
→ Bleaching: The color of the pulp after cooking is generally tawny, which is mostly used in packaging kraft. For high grade paper, the color needs to be white, so that the printed pictures and texts are vivid. In order to improve the whiteness of the pulp, it must be bleached.

2. The process of papermaking: The process of paper producing is made of wood pulp or paperboard, through pulping, beating, batching, cleaning, screening, molding, dehydration and drying, then the products can be used for household paper and high-grade cultural paper. If recycled paper is used as the raw material, the process must go through deinking, which is mention to remove the printing ink and impurities on the surface of the recycled paper, process it into recycled pulp and then produce the product through the papermaking process, such products are mostly used for photocopying papers, newspapers, general culture printing paper and cardboard.

ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute)

Through the introduction of Chung Hwa Pulp Corporation, we found ITRI. Dr. Hsieh is an expert specializing in the field of lignin. Since LIGGREEN is a new product similar to lignin, we would like to benefit from Dr. Hsieh, hoping to understand more about the characteristics that LIGGREEN may need or avoid during processing.
Besides Dr. Hsieh, we also asked Dr. Huang and Dr. Hsu to know the direction of LIGGREEN's future development and cater to market needs.

Following are some questions that we had asked Dr. Hsieh:
1. We have found that there are three kinds of bonds between G monolignols - β-5, β-O-4, β-β, and β-O-4 is the preferred bond with a ratio of up to 50% in the literature. We want to know that if the information we found is correct. We will use UV spectra to observe these bonds to determine its structure, and we also hope to find these bonds.
Dr. Hsieh: Yes, the cleavage of lignin is also broken from this place.

2. Monolignol is colorless, yet the lignin is brown. How could we explain the differences on color between these two objects? Is there any way to change the color for lignin? According to the literature, we knew that when lignin is exposed to sunshine, the color will fade, as well as the structure of lignin become fragile.
Dr. Hsieh: I am afraid that I cannot give you more information that how to get the color of lignin. What I can say is that the color of lignin is mainly due to the structure of phenol. In some applications, it is very important not to have color, such as the paper cup you want to use. As for the paint inside the can, the color considerations are relatively small. We had tried to remove the color of lignin, the idea is how to make the structure of phenol disappear. Of course, if you have a way to synthesize lignin, and there is no color, it is also a breakthrough, but the problem is that you have to think about how to judge the structure of your synthesis is lignin? The other is why you should deliberately synthetic lignin? Lignin is attracting attention because it is a material that is readily available in nature, and the amount is huge. The focus is on things that were previously considered as no value. There is a concept of waste utilization, then your team have to think about what is the meaning of deliberately synthesizing lignin? Is color, structurally simple, or is other disadvantages of synthetic lignin without natural lignin? I think you should think twice.

3. The data we have found in the literature now indicate the melting point, density, chemical properties and physical properties of the purified lignin, but these properties will vary due to the large number of lignin species. We want to ask if Doctor can provide the nature of the lignin that you have searched? (Reaction in elastic, acidic solution, etc.) Then we can make the experiment process more smooth.
Dr. Hsieh: This depends entirely on the source of your lignin. The structure and characteristics of lignin are affected by the species, origin, season, and even the process conditions obtained. This means that if you took an A-source lignin for experimentation and application development, after finding the optimum conditions, however, such conditions have the opportunity not to apply to the B-source of lignin. Of course, if you can develop synthetic lignin may solve this problem.

4. In general pulp and paper manufacturing, NaOH (high-concentration sodium hydroxide) is added to separate lignin from cellulose, and the mixed solution under washing is called black liquor. In the literature, the change of bonding of lignin after the addition of sodium hydroxide makes the proportion of G monolignaols relatively higher. I would like to ask, if we add the enzyme peroxidase16 to black liquor (using the chemical side to adjust the PH to 4-5 and filter, do not destroy the environment of the enzyme), whether it can make the bond that was originally broken by the strong base link again?
Dr. Hsieh: I cannot answer this question because I am not this doctor of bacteria searching. There is one thing I want to remind you that is that the composition in the black liquor is quite complicated (the compound produced by hemicellulose cracking), so you have to test whether such an enzyme can live in black liquor, and whether the activity will decrease.

5. About the decomposition, we will use Bacillus sp bacteria to decompose lignin in a biodegradable way. If it is a G monolignol polymer, whether this part is feasible?
Dr. Hsieh: I am sorry that this has exceeded my field, so I cannot give you a better answer.

6. Is lignin in black liquor highly polymerized or small molecule fragments polymerized?
Dr. Hsieh: The lignin in the black liquor is the lignin of the wood. As you had mentioned above, in the papermaking process, only the strong alkali is used to dissolve the lignin and hemicellulose in the cellulose, and the hemicellulose will deteriorate, but lignin does not degrade into oligomers or even small molecules (chemical processes require further high temperature and pressure to further degrade lignin).

7. If we remove the suspended solids, organic pollutants and toxic substances from black liquor, then add the enzyme Laccase to the black liquor, will it decompose the already polymerized lignin?
Dr. Hsieh: I checked that Laccase can break down lignin, but I don't know the environment and conditions of decomposition.

Dr. SHU – CHUAN HUANG

She recommended that the coverage of the material should be very good. In addition, she recommended that we should refer to the isoo/astm standard, D6400, or the plastic center. Then, she recommended that we should cut the material into small pieces, carry out industrial composting, and detect the decomposition ratio.

Dr. SU（Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories）

He suggested us to make sure that our product is waterproof, and the weight will not exceed the paper cups in market too much.

CEO of THEFREEN BURGER

  He provides us with more thinking and how to conduct market analysis to better develop LIGGREEN. He also reminded us to investigate the status of similar industries in the existing market, in order to better construct the business model and strengthen the link between LOGGREEN and society.

Feedback

  Did you finally mention whether I want to use it? There are two sections. First, the product itself, from a sustainable perspective, is definitely the targets we will be looking forward to in the future. From the practical side, the unit price of 2.5oz $6.5 is far higher than many general paper cups! In Taiwan's catering market, there is a general trend of price orientation. Everyone knows that they should pursue value, but when they return to the basic relationship between supply and demand, they seem to be in a difficult situation.

  You are still in the research and development stage, and the cost is certainly not the primary consideration now. This is very reasonable, but what about the relevant future planning? A sweet price point? A sweet production scale? Can Taiwan’s market be rationally expected within a certain period of time? Or is there a chance to switch to foreign market such as Hong Kong or Tokyo and whether the unit price can be perfectly supported?

  Recently, I saw several interesting news. The French agent of Sunrise Tea Tai brought this Taiwanese brand into the Louvre, and even a cup of bubble milk tea sold for more expensive than a cup of Starbucks! Such a market or brand demand may also be another consideration that can be written into your script. The opinions on the Internet (of course, both positive and negative are very important) Perhaps it is also possible to add a reference.

  Regarding the government's subsidy policy, some aspects may need to be clarified in this regard. In addition, it is important to understand the market conditions (because our current overall usage and production requirements are not objective, it is recommended that you can refer to the relevant objective price of the relevant package), but how to use the experimental stage and future commercial Properly linked, it is also the key to thinking. As in the other countries' catering pricing and market logic in the letter, how is more likely to accept newer technology trends, or to increase the feasibility of acceptance. Observe and think carefully, it is necessary to learn the key advantages.

Taiwan Recycle Tour

Wu, Meng-Erh Deputy Executive Secretary

He recommended that our products may need to consider the shelf life and the rate of pulping. And he mentioned that the government used the method of Administrative guidance and Subsidy incentive to try to improve the recovery yield.
However, some misunderstandings in the process led to false positives in the news, causing the public to throw paper containers into general garbage disposal.

Professor Shu

He told us the truth of recycling in Taiwan, he also told us our product would not influence the paper recycled system because the amount of our LIGGREEN is very low and we do not need to set a recycled spot of LIGGREEN cups.

Paper Carton Alliance (PCA)

We asked some questions for their exhibition. They supplied us the data reference and defined what the paper containers are.

Chung-Hsing University

Professor Yuan-Shing Perng: He helped us test whether the paper laminated with LIGGREEN can be separated into paper pulping and LIGGREEN. In the interview with professor Perng, he confirmed that a small amount of lignin mixed into the ordinary pulp will not affect the paper remaking process, maybe LIGGREEN can be separated, too. He taught us to operate the pulper, after 200 seconds of pulping and beating, LIGGREEN and the paper were indeed separated. This proved that LIGGREEN would not harm in the pulp recycling system.

Professor Wen-Jau Lee: He told us that in the reaction forming LIGGREEN from monolignols bonding to oligomers, there are some bonding nodes would act. He suggested that the oligomers we produced were preferably two-dimensional chain systems, not three-dimensional, to have thermoplastic properties.

Lian-Tai

Lian-Tai is the only manufacturer in Taiwan that can separate paper from plastic lining. He helped us understand Taiwan's current recycling environment and recycling issues, you can refer to more details in iHP.