The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is launching a new initiative, the Center for Research and Advancement of Forest Product Technologies (CRAFT).
ORNL is partnering with the National Laboratory of the Rockies, PNNL, and INL. With the involvement of universities and industry partners, they hope to deliver a much-needed modernization of the U.S. pulp, paper, and packaging industry.
Modernizing Old Mills
Our goal is to help mills run more efficiently, reduce production costs, and keep US manufacturing competitive globally. Many of the mills out there have been running for 30 or 40 years with very little in the way of technology. CRAFT will address this by introducing smart manufacturing, better materials, and more advanced data analysis to help the mills run more efficiently with less downtime.
“The U.S. pulp and paper industry is critical to thousands of rural communities, like the one where I grew up in Maine, but much of the existing infrastructure is decades old,” said Daniel Coughlin, executive director of CRAFT and senior research and development staff member at ORNL. “CRAFT aims to unify, align, and accelerate the nation’s leading centers of forest-products innovation. By linking both industry and the research community through this center, our goal is to provide a framework to support the growth of U.S. manufacturers.”
Bringing New Tech to the Factory Floor
The research will focus on several key practical areas (chemical recovery, drying, new pulping, etc.) and on using AI and computer modeling to develop new methods and test them rapidly.
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“We are eager to engage industry to identify critical bottlenecks and innovation opportunities,” said Gregg Beckham, senior research fellow and NLR lead for CRAFT. “We will apply molecular-to-process-scale modeling, AI-enabled discovery, and integrated experimental validation to accelerate the translation of new technologies with real-world impact.”
By running these ideas through pilot programs, the center hopes to reduce the financial risk for companies adopting new technology.
“This center will serve as the gateway to innovation for the U.S. pulp and paper industry,” said Art Ragauskas, the University of Tennessee-ORNL Governor’s Chair in Biorefining and chief technology officer for CRAFT. “Together with our partners, CRAFT will de-risk technologies to rapidly transition the most promising solutions from research to full commercial impact.”
In addition to the tech research CRAFT will conduct, it will focus on training the workforce and helping local communities retain good manufacturing jobs as market demand changes.
“DOE’s investment in CRAFT recognizes that the nation’s economic security depends on efficient, competitive manufacturing,” Coughlin said. “The innovation developed here in close partnership with industry will strengthen U.S. manufacturing, assist industry to adapt to market shifts, and help to secure high-value manufacturing jobs in communities across the country.”
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