W. M. Hearon Crown Zellerbach Corporation Son Francisco, California
Career Opportunities in the Pulp and Paper Industry
W e wonder at tlir vastness of spacc and we are awed by the penetration of its mysteries. However. there remain vast froutiers still to he conquered liere on earth. The research chemist has a myriad of problems to solve, questions to answer, myst,e~ies to probe, and new and useful products to devdop. Chemistry offersmany stimulating challenges-perhaps not as dramatic as nuclear physics and rocketv-hut equally valuable in their potcnt,ial contrihutims to the welfare of mankind. Space exploration and interplanetary travel haw an important but unheralded helper in paper. Every rocket launching is hacked up by thousands of pounds of paper in the form of reports, analyses, and computer tapes. Components of the rocket am shipped to their assembly point in corrugated and solid fiber containers. In most. cases, a subst,antial tonnage of newsprint and magazine papers, radio and televisiou scripts is consumed in reporting the cvei~tt,o millions of eager people throughout the world. Uses of Paper
Pulp and paper, one of the he at ion's larg~slmanufacturing industries, has an exceedingly promising future. During the past 50 years, pulp and paper production has multiplied teu times while the nation's population has merely doubled. Curreut projections indicate that pulp and paper production may well increase another 60-10070 during the next 25 years. Paper and paperboard production in the United States in 1962 totaled about 37.7 million tons, up 6.0% over 1961; the U.S. Department of Commerce cstimates that production has reached 39 million tons in 1963. The Commerce Department further predicts that apparent consumptio~l-production plus imports minus exports-will approximate 44 million tons this year, compared with 42.5 million last year and 40 million the year before. If this were all in the form of an openedout newspaper, the sheets of newspaper laid end-to-end would extend to the sun and back twice with enough left over to circle the earth 6000 times. For a moment, let us briefly examine ho~vour uation's consumption of paper products has soared since the beginning of this century wheu it mas only 58 lh per capita. By the end of World War I, each American was consuming 119 lb. By 1929, consumption had jumped to 220 lb per capita. During the ensuing decade, consumption was retarded by the depression but, by 1!349. per capita usage had leaped to 331 111. In 1959, each of Presented as part of the Symposium on Education in tlte Field
of Cellulose, Wood, and Fiber Chemistry before t,he Division of Cellulose, Woad, and Fiber Chemistry and the Division of Chemical Edueation at the 145th Meeting of the American Chemcal Society, New York, N. Y., September, 1963.
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us mas consuming 438 11). Currcl~tly,per capita corn sumptio~~ is running at a rate of about 160 lh. (Icrtainly, by 1970, it 71-ould not he extravagant to forecast a per capita consumption of more t,han 500 lb. Expresscd ouly in terms of per capita consumption, papcr usage may uot appear to he vely impressive. However, the aggregate t,olmage of the paper we proclucc each year exceeds the t,otal t,onnage of all the automobiles we turn out aru~nally. In terms of gross sales volume, the paper industry expanded from 85.0 billion in 1947 to uearly $14 billion in 1061. I'arc11thetically, wc should note that the paper industry today utilizes lOY0 of the U.S. chemical industry's aunual production. The paper industry's insatiable thirst for water each year is equal to all tlic water which churns over Niagara Falls during a five-year period. The pulp and paper industry today offers challengi~~g and rewarding careers to many graduates in the sciences and engineering. This is due largely to the fact that the industry is becoming more scientifically oriented and is, therefore, interested in engaging a larger number of technically trained people. Our industry is placiug a greater premium upon those chemists and engineers who achieve msults through their imagination and sometimes unorthodox approaches to problem-solving. The progress achievcd in our industry has certainly not I~eeuattaiued through couformity. Today the pulp and paper industry is undergoing a new emphasis in research and product development. I"rankly, this research effort hecame really significant only aftcr World War 11. While thc industry still has a long nay to go in catching up with more research-oriented illdustries such as chemicals, clcctronics, and acrospacc, it is doing more today than ever before. Total 'csearch and development expcnditures ill 1'360, gove~nmentaland private, were estimated to bc 812$15 billion. Of that total, the pulp and paper industry accounted for ahout $70 milliou. Also during 1960, the chemical industry as a whole spent about %8!30 million on research and development. So, the pulp aod paper industry outlay was less than 10% of that amount. Now, while the overall expenditures of the pulp and paper industry 011 rcsearch and development represent only a minor perceritage of all the monies heing spent in this area, it is an cxpe~~diture which is growing and which mill he of more substantial proportions in the years to come. Perhaps the really more signiticaut point is not how little the pulp and paper industry has speilt but what we have been ahlc to accunlplish with thc funds availablc to us. Paper is the most widely used mawmade product iu terms of the number of places and mays it is utilizedpaper for communications, paper for packaging, paper for sauitary purposes, papcr for hundreds of industrial
and construction purposes. Some of the newest paper products include the foil-and-kraft-laminated oil can, extensible papers, paper textiles, electrostatic printing papers so vital in the field of advanced data handling techniques and business communications, and an exciting and expanding line of industrial chemicals made from leftover woodpulping materials. A new electronic ultrahigh-speed printer has been developed which can print almost as fast as a computer can produce its tl~oughts. This printer can print in the range of 60,000 characters per second, and it eats up a continuous sheet of electrosensitive paper a t a speed of 483 feet per minute. Career Opportunities
To develop these new products has required the efforts of a large number of people in many companies and research centers-people with diverse skills and backgrounds. It has required the contributions of paper technologists, chemists, chemical engineers, physicists, mechanical engineers, electrid engineers, industrial engineers, electronic specialists, foresters, and even biologists to help solve water pollution problems. The pulp and paper industry has earned an outstanding record for stability during good times and bad. Its growth rate and productivity in the past have been only slightly affected during periods of depressed general business activity. Interestingly enough, during those times when general business has fallen off, scientists and engineers in the pulp and paper industry have found much to do, since slack economic periods have acted as a spur to developing new products and processes which have reduced costs or opened new markets. The circumstances which more or less tend to immunize the pulp and paper industry from painful readjustments from the ups and downs of economic activity are quite important to any person planning his career. I n general, there are three broad avenues of opportunity for young scientists and engineers who are beginning their careers in the pulp and paper industry: Basic and applied research, including studies in such areas as plastic-paper combinations, modifications of cellulosic fibers, chemical modifications of paper t o impart new and desirable properties, and new packaging concepts. Product and process development, which covers such things as using computers to optimize pulping, bleaching, and refining processes, automation, utiliaation of new high-intensity energy sources, and mechanical devices fur augmenting desirable paper properties. Production control and operation which among other factors would include new instrumentation and programing for computers and developing electronic ourves for consistency in paper colors.
The manufacture of paper is quite complex and demanding since it involves processes with so many variables which are often difficult to measure and control. Pulp and paper has no paucity of technical challenges. There is so much we have to do in creating new products for new markets, improving our present products, reducing costs, and making our production more efficient. Today our industry employs about 10,000 engineers and scientists, and due to the ever-increasing complexity of the industry this number is certain to expand in the future.
Pressing Problems for Research
The first problem is the utilization of thme parts of the tree not now being used for making pulp and paper. The mass of material left over from the nation's wood pulping operations each year, if made into a pillar 100 feet on each side and packed down, would extend 25 miles up into the sky. A wag once said that you can make anything out of lignin except money. While this is not altogether true, there is some truth to it. The business of making chemicals profitably from pulping wastes is a peculiarly challenging assignment because the basic raw material, lignin, is a highly complex molecule of still unknown structure. It will require extensive research and special techniques to unlock its secrets. On the other hand, it is known t o contain phenolic groups and it can be a potential source of chemical intermediates. The other part of tree is cellulose, which is not commonly thought of as a chemical raw material in the same sense as petroleum or coal tar. However, cellulose is the raw material from which have been derived cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, methyl cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, and hydroxyethyl cellulose. At first glance cellulose might not appear as an attractive chemical raw material because it is a polymer and often not available in a highly purified form. Admitting these defects, nevertheless it does have several rather outstanding advantages. It is nature's most abundant raw material, and it is continually being replenished. We in the United States are growing 1.34 trees each year for every tree which is being removed by harvest, fire, inserts, or disease. Cellulose is essentially an inexpensive raw material, comparable in cost to ethylene, benzene, or ethanol. A most obvious chemical product to be derived from cellulose is glucose. While the hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose is not commercially being done in the United States, several European plants are in operation and advanced development programs are underway in Europe and in Japan. The action of strong mineral acids on cellulose will produce very satisfactory yields of levulinic acid through the intermediate formation of glucose and this reaction has become the basis for a commercial plant recently built in the State of Washington. Because of the availability of cellulose in large quantities and its relative low cost, it has a significant potential as an attractive raw material for the prcduction of other chemicals. With the establishment of a few commercial processes utilizing cellulose for making chemicals, it would appear that extensive research is justified in finding newdegradative reactions of cellulose. Successful results from research could have a profound impact on both the wood and chemical industries. Finally, another area worth intensive development work is the conversion of wood or components of it into plastic or plastic-type materials. Several approaches to this problem are possible and if a process is devised, it will open up tremendous new markets to the pulp and paper industry. Our opportunities in the future are without limit. We have to keep up with space-age technology by developing new, more useful and more sophisticated papers, new packaging materiaIs, new paper textiles, and new chemicals. Volume 41, Number
4, April 1964
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