Features Equipment & Systems
Fisher International releases paper industry carbon emissions database

The pulp and paper industry now has a comprehensive way to benchmark its carbon emissions. A new model, developed by the paper industry consulting firm Fisher International, can now show the carbon footprint of every pulp and paper mill in the world.

The benchmarking tool has already revealed some startling comparisons across the industry, according to Stanley Okoro, general manager at Fisher International. “We are very excited about this breakthrough because neither the paper industry – nor any other industry that I know of for that matter – has a standardized global database that can analyze carbon emissions both at micro and macro levels worldwide.”

The new resource calculates carbon emissions for every pulp and paper mill in the world making more than 50 TPD, with segmentation by emission source from cradle to destination. Since the new data is integrated with Fisher’s mill asset and cost databases, it’s possible to conduct rich analysis of asset comparisons by type of equipment, grade, company, region, and hundreds of other factors as they relate to carbon emissions.

The system uses FisherSolve’s powerful benchmarking software, commonly-accepted carbon emissions methodology, and Fisher’s mathematical modeling of each mill’s mass-energy balance to follow CO2 emissions from raw materials, fossil fuel combustion, purchased energy, and transportation. It also provides carbon-neutral biomass emission data.

Fisher’s Carbon Benchmarking tool can now be used by the pulp and paper industry as a standard measure and a consistent method for considering policy and commercial issues. The product is available as a module in FisherSolve.