Electricity and Control June 2025

Industry 4.0 + IIoT

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Automation and digitalisation in the pulp and paper industry Arvin Ramjee, Account Manager, ABB Pulp and Paper, South Africa, says the pulp and paper manufacturing industry in South Africa is transitioning from traditional manual processes to embrace automation technologies, and so seeing significant transformation. He highlights too that industrial automation systems have evolved over the years, integrating soware to measure key metrics that contribute to eiciencies. Here, Ramjee reports on advances in the industry.

A s digital technologies are integrated into traditional automation systems, the pulp and paper industry is moving towards autonomous operations. Automation in pulp and paper mills aims to improve various production stages, from the preparation of raw material to producing the final product. The use of automation technologies enables

Automation systems provide enhanced control over energy usage, for example, by optimising equipment performance and adjusting processes in response to real-time energy demand. Automation solutions As a global technology provider with decades of experience in quality control and automation, ABB continues to develop its pulp and paper products and solutions to catalyse change and address sustainability without compromising process quality and performance. The company o”ers a comprehensive and integrated portfolio of automation products and solutions to support the pulp and paper industry throughout the manufacturing process. These include power distribution and electrification, paper machine drives, distributed control systems (DCS), paper machine QCS, manufacturing execution systems (MES) and ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations to leverage the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and deliver digital solutions to customers. Paper mills that use ABB products and solutions can reduce rejects by keeping the product properties within a target range throughout the papermaking process. This is accomplished with the ABB Ability™ QMS, which provides measurement and control to reduce variability and therefore production waste. When paired with ABB Ability™ Expert Optimiser for Pulp, operators can further optimise process e”iciency and raw material consumption to make on-spec products, economically and e”iciently. With time, adaptive Advanced Process Control together with Model Predictive Control adjust many variables simultaneously to achieve the desired output and meet the target range at the wet end of the machine. Staying within this range keeps costs in

precision and consistency throughout these processes. We have seen a shi• in the paper industry – with reduced demand for newsprint and graphic paper. However, this has been replaced by demand for renewable packaging and tissue. There has also been a rise in demand for kra• paper, due to its downstream use as a

ABB’s digital solutions can be integrated into existing automation systems.

solution to address sustainability concerns. The level of automation in the pulp and paper industry is quite mature compared to other key industries. The next level is exploring digitalisation solutions to augment the existing automation products and solutions to extract more value by improving manufacturing e”iciency. Paper manufacturing is one of the most complex industrial processes today. Ensuring visibility of product properties is key to minimise rejects and improve repeatability and runnability. By continuously adjusting production to dynamic process movements and disturbances, quality control systems (QCS) can deliver reduced variability and enable swi• responses to setpoint changes, avoiding production losses, improving product consistency, and contributing to lowering emissions. More than simply reducing variability, modern QCS enable automatic controls to optimise production processes and energy consumption, reducing waste and costs – and ensuring that the final product meets internal and external standards. Managing the use of resources The pulp and paper industry in South Africa is also looking to transition to renewable energy sources to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. We have seen strategic investments being made towards integrating renewable energy sources for existing manufacturing processes with a key focus on use of energy and water, and chemicals, and managing carbon emissions. Achieving these goals requires innovative technology that can increase e”iciencies in the process and reduce wastage.

Quality Control Systems enable reduced variability in product outputs and quick responses on setpoint changes, to improve product consistency and avoid production losses.

4 Electricity + Control JUNE 2025