WO2023198269A1

WO2023198269A1 - Method of producing a paper product and system for producing a paper product

Info

Publication number: WO2023198269A1
Application number: PCT/EP2022/059621
Authority: WO
Inventors: Katharina Stark; Jan Christoph SCHLAKE; Thorsten Schindler; Marco Ulrich
Original assignee: Abb Schweiz Ag
Priority date: 2022-04-11
Filing date: 2022-04-11
Publication date: 2023-10-19

Abstract

A method (200) and a system of producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material is described. The method incudes virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions (110); generating material portion representors (120) associated with the material portions, wherein generating the material portion representors (120) includes generating respective attributes (124) of each of the material portion representors (120); for at least some of the process steps of the process, modifying the material portion representors by a respective virtual process step function (130-132; 135). The method further includes a splitting process stage including splitting a portion of a downstream material portion representor (122) into a split resource material portion representor (123) and a remaining material portion representor (124). The method further incudes a merging process stage including merging with an upstream material portion representor (121) a mergeable resource material portion representor (127).

Description

METHOD OF PRODUCING A PAPER PRODUCT AND SYSTEM FOR PRODUCING A PAPER PRODUCT

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method of producing a paper product. Further embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a system for producing a paper product and a computer-readable medium to carry out the method of producing a paper product. More particularly, methods and systems according to embodiments of the present disclosure may relate to producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material.

BACKGROUND

[0002] The process industries, such as the pulp and paper industries, are major consumers of resources and emitters of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. It is desired to better understand the impact of the paper product process on environmental problems such as the climate change. Further, there is a desire of producers to provide products having a small environmental footprint and an increasing demand by customers for such products. However, in conventional paper and pulp production, the footprint of the processing or of the products with respect to environmental costs or other costs can only be estimated on a very rough scale, considering for example the plurality of process steps or the variety of starting materials.

[0003] Especially, as the paper industry is a very energy-intensive industry, there are attempts to bring down the energy consumption. Currently, about a third of the energy used in a paper producing process is consumed as electrical energy while two third is consumed as heat energy (e.g. as steam). Additionally, in recent years, the energy consumption as well as the production of wastewater during paper production did not significantly decrease. Often, it is not even known which sort of paper consumes which amount of energy. To be able to reduce energy consumption during the process of paper making, one wants to know in which process step how much energy is consumed. [0004] For instance, to optimize the CO2 emission and energy consumption, expensive sensors/devices would be required that track material attributes of the pulp & paper (P&P) process. Currently, the paper production process is automated, but for a lot of process values, no online values are measured. This is typically true as well for the input products (here typically the pulp, the waste paper and chemicals). There exist different types of qualities that the resources can have, which are currently not considered, just estimated, or given by the vendor. Hence, one does not know if all ingredients had the required quality/energy/CCh- emissions, and currently the output product does not have a product pass.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

[0005] In view of the foregoing, the present disclosure is directed to a method and a system for producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material and a computer-readable medium that can provide a precisely determined footprint with respect to environmental aspects, emissions, energy consumption or other aspects in the industrial processing of pulp and paper.

[0006] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method of producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material is described. The processing includes at least two process stages including a plurality of process steps. According to embodiments described herein, the method includes representing the material as a virtual material and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions; generating material portion representors respectively associated with the material portions, wherein generating the material portion representors includes generating respective attributes of each of the material portion representors, the attributes being indicative of properties of the respective material portions; and, for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modifying the material portion representors by a respective virtual process step function representing the respective process step, wherein the modifying includes modifying at least one attribute of the material portion representors. According to embodiments described herein, the at least two process stages include a merging process stage and a splitting process stage, wherein the merging process stage is upstream of the splitting process stage and includes merging a mergeable resource material part to the material, and wherein the splitting process stage includes splitting a split resource material part from the material. The method includes for the splitting process stage, whereby a downstream material portion of the material portions is being processed in the splitting process stage: splitting a portion of a downstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the downstream material portion representor being associated with the downstream material portion, into a split resource material portion representor associated with the split resource material part and a remaining material portion representor for the remaining downstream material portion. The method includes for the merging process stage, whereby an upstream material portion of the material portions is being processed in the merging process stage: merging, with an upstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the upstream material portion representor associated with the upstream material portion, a mergeable resource material portion representor associated with the mergeable resource material part.

[0007] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a system for producing a paper product by industrial processing a continuously flowing material is described. The industrial processing includes at least two process stages including a plurality of process steps. According to embodiments described herein, the system includes a processor and a data system, and is configured for representing, by the processor, the material as a virtual material and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions; generating, by the processor, material portion representors in the data system, wherein the material portion representors include respective attributes of each of the material portion representors, the attributes being indicative of properties of the respective material portions; and modifying, for at least some of the plurality of process steps, the material portion representors by a respective virtual process step function representing the respective process step, wherein the system is configured for modifying at least one attribute of the material portion representors , when modifying the material portion representors. Further, the system is configured to performing the process stages including a merging process stage and a splitting process stage, wherein the merging process stage is upstream of the splitting process stage and including merging a mergeable resource material part to the material, and wherein the splitting process stage includes splitting a split resource material part from the material. According to embodiments described herein, the system is configured for the splitting process stage to split, by the processor, a portion of a downstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the downstream material portion representor associated with a downstream material portion processed in the splitting process stage, into a split resource material portion representor associated with the split resource material part and a remaining material portion representor for the remaining downstream material portion. Further, for the merging process stage, the system is configured to merge, by the processor, with an upstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the upstream material portion representor associated with the upstream material portion, a mergeable resource material portion representor associated with the mergeable resource material part.

[0008] According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure a computer-readable medium is described. According to embodiments described herein, the computer-readable medium includes instructions which, when executed by a processor of a system for producing a paper product by industrial processing a continuously flowing material, cause the system to carry out the method according to embodiments described herein.

[0009] To be able to decrease energy and CCh-consumption in a pulp and paper (P&P) process, it is desirable to know which process step causes which emissions and to understand the influences of different input attributes (e.g., different pulp, other chemicals. . .) as well as which of the resulting products causes which emissions. With the help of a virtual material flow digital twin (MF-DT) modelling the process, a soft-sensor may be implemented to measure the currently unknown, but relevant, values (like material attributes) within the whole P&P process, considering external (like the current price for electricity) and internal information according to some embodiments described herein.

[0010] Embodiments described herein relate to building and running a digital twin for the material flow in the P&P production process and realizing a soft-sensor with it to track the input parameters of the process and measure and optimize the energy and CO2 consumption of the production. The different resources like input materials (e.g., pulp, chemicals...) as well as the energy and the outputs are be modelled as representors that pass through different models within the MF-DT. A slicing (or splitting) and merging concept for the representors is used in embodiments as well.

[0011] Typically, the soft-sensor may be supported by different models which can be realized as FMUs (functional mock-up units) that hold the various model quotations and represent the different assets within the P&P process. Typically, the granularity and accuracy of the models may determine the later accuracy and usability of the soft-sensor results. The models may use Functional Mock-Up Interfaces (FMI) for modularity. According to some embodiments, these models may be validated with historic data and can as such be used for fine-grained predictions. This enables the tracking of input attributes throughout the process as well as measuring and optimizing the energy and CO2 consumption of the process and calculate/provide trends up to final consumer product level (especially to support the Manufacturing Execution System MES). It also enables to generate product passes for the paper product and to remind (e.g. like a recipe) about missing input resources as well as best trimming plan.

[0012] Furthermore, the solution provided by embodiments described herein contains a concept of howto model the resources, energy, orders, and products as representors and how these representors can be sliced (or split) and merged. The modelling is used for representing the continues process of a P&P process (including e.g., a continuous broke flow and/or mixed continuous inputs) but discrete values are used for the modelling and calculations in embodiments described herein.

[0013] In particular, embodiments described herein build and run a system that is capable to track the relevant properties to monitor the energy consumption, emission like CO2 and resources used, e.g. chemicals added, including their quality. For instance, for each order coming into the Enterprise Resource Planning ERP-System, a virtual (order) representor with relevant information (e.g. paper quality attributes, amount, due date) for this system is created in the material flow digital twin (MF-DT). The MES schedules the orders, represented as tasks, adds information to the representors and asks the operator to start the production via the Distributed Control System (DCS) according to the schedule that was made. In pulp and paper industry, the start of (or the change to) the new production might be done by a grade change to adapt the paper attributes.

[0014] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, representing a material as a virtual material may include transferring the material into a virtual world. For instance, the material may be represented as a virtual material by modelling, defining and calculating parameters of the material in a virtual space. According to some embodiments, representing the material as virtual material may include modelling the material, e.g. by a numerical model. According to some embodiments, virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions may be done in one step together with representing the material as a virtual material, or in a consecutive step after having represented the material as a virtual material. In embodiments, the material portions of the plurality of material portions may include different amounts of the material for a paper product. The material may be (purely) virtually discretized while being present as a continuous material without corresponding delimiters between (at least some) material portions in the real world (e.g., without real- world tags such as RFIDs and without real-world delimiters between different material portions).

[0015] In some embodiments, a material portion may be defined by virtually discretizing the material based on, or considering, a real discretization of the material. Such a real discretization can be a division of the material into batches or reels or the like. A batch can be a load of a processing step such as a transportation or material transformation step. For example, in paper processing, a reel of paper may for example be defined as a material division. In some embodiments, the virtual discretization of the material may be finer than a real discretization of the material (e.g., so that a batch contains a plurality of virtual material portions, without real- world delimiters between the material divisions of a batch).

[0016] In some embodiments, a material portion as used herein may be defined by virtually discretizing a continuous flux of the bulk material. In particular, a continuous flux may be understood herein as an uninterrupted flux, particularly uninterrupted over a time period, for example uninterrupted over a time period at least 10 minutes, particularly at least 30 min or at least 1 hour. For instance, the amount of material transported in a continuous material flux during a specified amount of time may be defined as a material portion, e.g. the amount of processed material transported by a conveyor during a time period. According to some embodiments, an uninterrupted flux may be interrupted depending on the order situation, or other process parameter and may, especially, not be dependent on a predetermined time interval.

[0017] Continuously flowing material as used herein may be understood as a substantially continuously flowing material. In particular, the continuously flowing material as used herein may be understood as a material substantially continuously passing process steps. According to some embodiments, the term “continuously flowing material” may include a material, which substantially continuously flows through the process in sections. For instance, the material may substantially continuously flow within one section (which may be a section of the process including some of the process steps or a section of the material). In particular, “continuously flowing material” does not exclude large batches such as reels, within which the material is processed continuously. Furthermore, “continuously flowing” in this context may include different velocity, by which the material passes the different process steps. According to some embodiments, a continuously flowing material may be virtually be split up into single portions, e.g. for reasons of representability or calculability.

[0018] According to some embodiments, the material as referred to herein may be a kind of a raw material for the production of a paper product, such as pulp, fibers, wood, pieces of wood, fibers of wood, wastepaper, precursors of the paper product, paper, cellulose, recycled cloths, and the like.

[0019] According to embodiments, a material portion representor associated with the material portion may be generated. The material portion representor may be generated in a data system, e.g. a database or a table. According to some embodiments, a material portion representor may be a kind of data container including data of the material portion and/or holding a set of relevant information, depending on the type of representor. In some embodiments, a representor as used herein may be described as a kind of database, or a kind of a (data) storage, such as a file storage or a representor storage, e.g. a material portion representor may be a database for a material portion. According to some embodiments, which may be combined with other embodiments described herein, a representor may be a sub-database, or a partial database of the database of the processing system.

[0020] In embodiments, generating a material portion representor associated with the material portion includes generating attributes of the material portion representor, the attributes being indicative of properties of the material portion.

[0021] In some embodiments, the attributes include an extensive attribute indicative of an extensive property of the material portion. Extensive properties can depend on the amount of material of the material portion, particularly be proportional to the amount of material. For example, an extensive attribute may be indicative of at least one of a mass of the material portion, a volume of the material portion, a length of the material portion (e.g. the length or thickness of a paper sheet) or any combination thereof.

[0022] According to some embodiments, the attributes include an intensive attribute indicative of an intensive property of the material portion. Intensive properties can be at least substantially independent of the amount of material. For example, an intensive attribute can be indicative of a density of the material portion, a particle size of the material portion (e.g. the particle size may refer to a fiber size of the pulp), a viscosity of the material portion, a chemical composition of the material portion, mechanical characteristics of the material portion (such as tensile strength), the color, the surface condition (e.g. smooth or handy), or any combination thereof. Attributes, particularly intensive attributes, may be generated depending on the type of industrial processing or the type of operations performed on the material portion. For instance, the chemical composition of the material portion and/or mechanical characteristics of the material portion may change during processing in different process steps. In embodiments, the attributes may include a time attribute. For example, the time attribute may be indicative of the time, particularly date and time, of generating the material portion representor and/or of starting the industrial processing of the material portion.

[0023] According to some embodiments, the attributes of a material portion representor may include order information of the order of the paper product. For instance, the material portion representor as described herein may include intended start and end time of the processing, information about urgency and/or process priority, and/or desired properties of the paper product (such as thickness, density, color and the like). According to some embodiments, the order information of the material portion representor may come from the MES (Manufacturing Execution System) and may be transferred to the material portion representor, especially to each material portion representor individually.

[0024] Typically, attributes of the material portion representor may include data about environmental aspects of the P&P process, such as the CO2 emission, energy consumption, cost of energy consumption (especially regularly updated costs of energy consumption), resources used (such as pulp, fibers, water, solvents, chemicals, and in particular additionally information about the quality of the chemicals), concentration of recycled material, and recyclability of the actual material and the like. In particular, the attributes may include environmental information based on an emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide or methane, and/or based on a pollution of the environment. The environmental information can include an energy consumption. The energy consumption may be indicative of a consumed fuel energy and/or of a consumed electrical energy. The environmental information can include information of the source of the energy used. The environmental information can include a process efficiency, which may for example be indicative of an efficiency of processing the material portion in the process step. According to some embodiments, the data of the material portion representor may include monetary cost being for example indicative of the monetary costs of consumed energy and/or of the monetary costs associated with the wear of a machine used in the process step. The cost may particularly include one or any combination of an environmental cost, an energy consumption cost, a fuel cost, a carbon emission cost, a process efficiency cost and a monetary cost.

[0025] According to some embodiments, the attributes may include a location attribute indicative of a current location of the material portion. In particular, the location attribute may be associated with a process step currently being performed on the material portion. In some embodiments, the material portion representor may include a code for identifying the material portion, particularly for uniquely identifying the material portion. The code may include for example a number or a character string.

[0026] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the material portion is processed in at least two process stages. Typically, each process stage includes a plurality of process steps. In some embodiments, the process steps include at least one of or any combination of transporting the material portion, storing the material portion, a process changing an intensive property of the material portion, and a process changing an extensive property of the material portion. Further examples of process steps may be generation of the pulp, a drying process step, a cutting process step, a winding process step, an unwinding process step, and the like. Typically, a process changing an intensive property of the material portion may include a process changing a density, a grade or a fiber size or a material composition of the material portion, the humidity or proportion of water (or solvent) in the material, and the like. Typically, a process changing an extensive property of the material portion may include a process changing a volume or a mass of a material portion. For example, a change of mass may result from a drying process.

[0027] According to embodiments, the attributes of the material portion representor may be updated in at least some of the plurality of process steps. Typically, the attributes of the material portion representors may be modified by a respective virtual process step function representing the respective process step. According to some embodiments, the modifying comprises modifying at least one attribute of the material portion representors.

[0028] In particular, the attributes may be updated based on the process step and the respective virtual process step function, for example based on a process model of the process step, process sensor data of the process step and/or based on user input data of the process step. The process model or virtual process step function can include a mathematical function or lookup table for determining updated attributes, particularly updated attributes indicative of material properties, which change during the process step. Typically, the virtual process step function may follow different modelling paradigms, e.g. from simple linear models to partial differential equations. The process model or virtual process step function may use processing conditions as input for determining the updated attributes. The process model or virtual process step function may particularly use process sensor data and/or user input data as input for determining updated attributes. The process sensor data and/or the user input data may for instance be received through a distributed control system (DCS) or a fleet management system by a processor configured to update the attributes. For instance, an intensive attribute may be updated in response to a process changing an intensive property of the material portion. In some embodiments, one or more of the attributes may be logged in an attribute history associated with the material portion representor before updating the attributes of the material portion representor.

[0029] Typically, the at least two process stages of the processing of the continuously flowing material include a merging process stage and a splitting process stage. According to some embodiments, the merging process stage is located upstream of the splitting process stage (especially in the material flow direction or the direction of the material flowing from the start of the process to the paper product). According to some embodiments, the term “located upstream” in this context may be understood as being relative to the named process steps. For instance, the merging process step being upstream of the splitting process step only refers to the splitting process step, in which a material part being processed is split into a split resource material part and a remaining material part. Accordingly, the merging process step being upstream of the described splitting process step refers to the merging process step of merging a mergeable resource material part to the material. The same applies for the term “located downstream.” In other word, the terms “upstream” and “downstream” only refer to the section of the processing described in the context of the terms “upstream” and “downstream.” Typically, other sections of the processing not referred to in the context remain unaffected (e.g. processing sections referring to watering wastepaper and removing plastic therefrom, or the addition of water or another solvent to the material at the start of the processing). Typically, the merging process stage includes merging a mergeable resource material part to the material. More typically, the merging process stage may include the process step of merging a mergeable resource material part to the material. According to some embodiments, the splitting process stage includes splitting a split resource material part from the material. Typically, the splitting process stage includes the process step of splitting a split resource material part from the material.

[0030] According to some embodiments, a material portion representor is present (and is especially worked on) in at least one of the process stages. According to some embodiments, a representor as described herein may be present (and may thus be worked on) in only one of the process stages. For instance, a first material portion representor being in the splitting process stage may not be present in the merging process stage (and vice versa). Typically, the material portion being present in the merging process stage (which is typically upstream of the splitting process stage) may be associated with another (or a new) representor than the representor being present in the splitting process stage. It may be understood that a representor being present in only one (or, according to some embodiments, in at least of one the at least two) process stages may be treated in several process steps at the same time. Typically, it may be possible to treat a representor in several (especially different) process steps at the same time due to the size of the material portion the representor is associated with.

[0031] It may be understood that the terms “mergeable resource material part” or “mergeable resource material portion”, or “mergeable resource material portion representor” may not necessarily refer to the ability of the material to be merged. According to some embodiments, almost all material parts or material portions can be merged, especially in the pulp & paper processes. According to some embodiments, the mergeable material may include the meaning of a material to-be-merged.

[0032] According to embodiments, for each process step of the plurality of process steps a history data set may be generated. In particular, the history data set can be indicative of the process step, the material portion representor, and/or of one or more key performance indicators (KPIs). The history data set may be generated in a data system, e.g. a database or a table. The history data may include metadata such as a timestamp, metadata indicative of a system of origin or attributes of the representor of the material portion (especially including parameter of special interest, such as emission data, environmental data, data about energy consumption and the like).

[0033] According to embodiments, an aggregated value (e.g. of a KPI) can be determined based on the history data sets. In embodiments, the aggregated value may be determined based on history data sets associated with or indicative of the material portion representor. The aggregated value may be determined based on values of history data sets, wherein the history data sets are associated with or indicative of the material portion representor.

[0034] According to some embodiments, splitting of a material portion representor in a splitting process stage can include generating at least two split material portion representors (especially a split resource material portion representor and a remaining material portion representor), each of the at least two split material portion representors being associated with a material sub-portion of the material portion. In embodiments, splitting includes associating each of the at least two split material portion representors with the attributes (or even with the history data sets) of the material portion representor. In particular, splitting includes associating each of the at least two split material portion representors at least partially (such as proportionate) with the attributes (or the history data sets) of the material portion representor being split.

[0035] Typically, splitting includes generating split attributes of the split material portion representors. Generating the split attributes may include proportionally allocating values of extensive attributes of the material portion representor to extensive split attributes of the split material portion representors. For example, if each of two material sub-portions are defined as half of the material portion, half of a mass value of an extensive attribute indicative of the mass of the material portion may be allocated to an extensive split attribute of each of the split material portion representors.

[0036] In some embodiments, generating split attributes of the split material portion representors may include generating an intensive split attribute for each of the split material portion representors. The intensive split attribute can have the same value as an intensive attribute of the material portion. In particular, the intensive split attributes of the split material portion representors can have the same values. For example, a material portion representor associated with a material portion may have an intensive attribute indicative of a density of the material. Split material portion representors may be generated, each having an intensive split attribute indicative of the density value. In some embodiments, an intensive split attribute can have different values for each of the split material portion representors. An intensive split attribute can have a different value with respect to the intensive attribute of the material portion. For example, a material part (such as an edge part of the material) may have a lower density than a middle part of the material. Splitting an edge part from the material may generate two split material portion representors having different density values.

[0037] According to some embodiments, a material portion representor (such as the mergeable resource material portion representor) can be merged with a further material portion representor (such as an upstream material portion representor) in a merging process stage. Typically, the upstream material portion representor is associated with an upstream material portion of the material. In particular, merging includes generating a merged material portion representor, the merged material portion representor being associated with the upstream material portion and the mergeable resource material portion. In embodiments, merging includes associating the merged material portion representor with the attributes indicative of the upstream material portion representor and with further attributes indicative of the mergeable resource material portion representor.

[0038] In some embodiments, merging includes generating merged attributes of the merged material portion representor. Generating the merged attributes may for instance include generating merged values of KPIs. Generating the merged attributes may include for instance adding an extensive attribute of the upstream material portion representor and a corresponding extensive attribute of the mergeable resource material portion representor. For example, extensive attributes indicative of the respective masses of the upstream material portion representor and of the mergeable resource material portion representor may be added to obtain a merged extensive attribute of the merged material portion representor.

[0039] In some embodiments, generating merged attributes of the merged material portion representor may include generating an intensive merged attribute for the merged material portion representor. In particular, an intensive merged attribute may be obtained by calculating an average of corresponding intensive attributes of an upstream material portion representor and a mergeable resource material portion representor. For example, an intensive merged attribute indicative of the density of a merged material portion may be calculated as an average of the intensive attributes indicative of density of the upstream material portion representor and the mergeable resource material portion representor.

[0040] According to some embodiments, a mergeable resource material portion representor may include some attributes (or a corresponding portion of the attributes) based on the attributes of a downstream material portion representor. In some embodiments, the mergeable resource material portion was formerly split from a previous or former downstream material portion, and may, thus, be a split portion of a former downstream material portion. In particular, a former downstream material portion may be a material portion, which was treated by the process before the actual or observed process takes place (for instance immediately before or any time before). The attributes of the mergeable material portion may include split parts of a downstream material portion.

[0041] Typically, in a P&P process, the attributes - both internal like different asset parameters as well as external like a different electricity price or different pulp source - might change as the order (of one product) is being processed. According to some embodiments, every time one of the relevant attributes change, a new representor may be created to reflect the changed attributes. In addition, events can trigger a new representor or the split into two representors like a paper break or when a reel is full and needs to be changed. [0042] Typically, the method according to embodiments described herein may include generating additional representors, which may be merged and/or split from the material portion representors during the plurality of process steps. For instance, some process steps may use additional resources (such as fibers, pulp, wastepaper, water, solvents), chemicals (e.g. bleach, ink, fillers, chemicals for inducing defined properties of the paper product, such as color, light resistance, absorption properties, stability, and the like), or energy (such as electrical energy, heating energy, energy for steam, energy for transporting and the like) for processing the material. In some embodiments, water may be replaced by another solvent (such as alcohol or the like). According to some embodiments, additional representors as described herein may include additional material portion representors (e.g. resource material portion representors, recycled material portion representors, fiber material portion representors, pulp material portion representors), input material portion representors (especially for materials being put in the process from the beginning, such as pulp, and chemicals), chemical portion representors (especially for chemicals used in the course of the processing), energy portion representors (especially for electrical energy, heating energy and the like), CO2 portion representors (being especially representors for the CO2 emission produced during the processing), and product order representors (including especially data regarding the order of the paper product, e.g. coming from the MES, as explained in detail below).

[0043] According to embodiments, a system for industrial processing may be configured for a plurality of process steps, particularly at least two process stages including a plurality of process steps. For example, the system may include a distributed control system (DCS) for controlling and/or monitoring the plurality of process steps. For example, the system may include a manufacturing execution system (MES). For example, the system may include an enterprise resource planning system (ERP). In some embodiments, the method or system as described herein may include connecting the material flow digital twin to other information systems of the processing system, such as to at least one of the MES, the DCS, and the ERP. Especially, the material flow digital twin may be connected to the DCS for adapting the material flow digital twin to current processing data (such as sensor data, measurement data, feedback data, and the like) and, especially, for updating the material flow digital twin based on measured data. Typically, the material flow digital twin may be connected to the MES for retrieving information on current orders and in particular for giving feedback to the MES for scheduling the orders of the processing. In particular, data of the order coming from the MES may be part of the attributes of a representor as described herein. For instance, data of the order coming from the MES may include the time of order, the intended start of the processing, the intended end of processing, data about the desired properties of the paper product, data about the intended cost of the paper product, data about the acceptable emission of the process, data about the acceptable energy consumption, and the like. Typically, the material flow digital twin may be connected to the ERP for gaining information about input materials and orders of the processing system, such as data and attributes of the material used as resource or basis material, the water or solvent to be used, the source of energy to be used, the chemicals to be used, and the like.

[0044] According to some embodiments, the mergeable resource material part and the split resource material part as used in the production process may be parts of a resource material. Typically, the resource material may flow from the splitting process stage to the merging process stage (which may be considered an opposite direction of the material flowing through the process stages and steps, in particular from the process steps of the merging process stage to the process steps of the splitting process stage). The directions of the material flow and the resource material flow are explained in detail with respect to the figures below. Typically, the resource material may be a kind of accumulative resource, which can provide resource material for the process of producing a paper product. In some embodiments, the resource material may be a kind of storage or recirculation of material, which is not part of the completed paper product. In some embodiments, resource material may appear, when a part of the material is taken out of the process steps leading to the completed paper product. For instance, edge parts of a (nearly completely) processed material may be cut off and may be provided to the (or as) resource material. In some embodiments, a paper product, which does not meet the standards of the order (e.g. regarding thickness, color, roughness, size, or any other property) may be input to the resource material (or may form the resource material). According to some embodiments, the resource material (or parts thereof) may be merged with or added to the continuously flowing material for producing the paper product.

[0045] According to some embodiments, which may be combined with other embodiments described herein, the resource material may be represented as a virtual resource material comprising a plurality of resource material portions (similar to the material being virtually represented as material portions). Typically, the plurality of resource material portions may respectively be associated with a plurality of resource material portion representors. According to some embodiments, resource material portion representors may be generated by splitting a resource material portion representor from a respective material portion representor. For instance, a resource material portion representor may be split from a downstream material portion representor (which may - in some examples - be associated to an edge part of a material being cut off the material for obtaining the completed paper product having exact edges). According to some embodiments, the plurality of resource material portion representors may include (among others or only) the mergeable resource material portion representor and the split resource material portion representor as described in embodiments above.

[0046] Additionally, or alternatively, the resource material may be represented by a bulk resource material. For instance, a bulk resource material may be understood as a kind of pool representor accumulating the resource material portions in some embodiments. The method as described in embodiments herein may include merging the split resource material portion representor with the bulk resource material representor. For instance, the split resource material portion representor is split from the downstream material portion representor and then merged with the bulk resource material representor. The method according to embodiments described herein may also include splitting the mergeable resource material portion representor from the bulk resource material representor. For instance, the mergeable resource material portion representor is firstly split from the bulk resource material representor and then merged to an upstream material portion representor (or, more generally, to the material portion representors).

[0047] According to embodiments described herein, the system for producing a paper product as described herein can include a processor. The system can include a data system. The data system may include one or more databases and/or tables. The data system may be provided on a memory device.

[0048] In embodiments, a processor may include a central processing unit (CPU). To facilitate performing operations according to embodiments described herein, the processor may be one of any form of general-purpose computer processor that can be used in an industrial setting. The memory device containing the data system and/or a computer- readable medium may be coupled to the processor. The memory device and/or the computer readable medium may be one or more readily available memory devices such as randomaccess memory, read only memory, floppy disk, hard disk, or any other form of digital storage either local or remote. The processor may be coupled to support circuits for supporting the processor in a conventional manner. These circuits may include cache, power supplies, clock circuits, input/output circuitry and related subsystems, and the like. For example, the processor may be configured to receive process sensor data and/or user input data via input circuitry.

[0049] Instructions for industrial processing according to embodiments described herein, particularly according to methods as described herein, may be stored in the computer- readable medium as a software routine typically known as a recipe. The software routine, when executed by the processor, transforms the general-purpose computer into a specific purpose computer, and can cause the system to carry out a method or any operations of industrial processing according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Although the method of the present disclosure may be implemented as a software routine, some of the method operations that are disclosed herein may be performed in hardware as well as by the software. As such, the embodiments may be implemented in software as executed upon a computer system, and hardware as an application specific integrated circuit or other type of hardware implementation, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0050] According to embodiments described herein, the methods of the present disclosure can be conducted using computer programs, software, computer software products and/or a system for industrial processing, which can have a processor, a computer-readable medium, a memory device, a user interface, and/or input and output devices being in communication with corresponding components of the system for industrial processing.

[0051] In embodiments, a software conducting methods or operations of embodiments described herein may run concurrently with the industrial processing, particularly in real time. The software may conduct operations of the method in an event-triggered manner, e.g. upon completion of a process step, or upon elapsing of fixed time increments. Some embodiments may enable simulating industrial processing, e.g. as a discrete-event simulation or as a fixed-increment time simulation, to run what-if scenarios or for determining optimal processing setpoints for given scenarios.

[0052] Embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a comprehensive and transparent view of emissions and environmental aspect and impacts in industrial processing of paper and pulp. Embodiments may allow to determine precise information about KPIs (key performance indicators) associated with processing of the material. In particular, embodiments may allow to determine precise information about emission and environmental aspects of the process per single product unit. Embodiments may be beneficial for legislators to set up and enforce regulations in a meaningful way. Embodiments may enable producers to comply with regulations, to certify their products, to advertise their products, to improve emissions or to improve their environmental footprint. For example, similar products produced under different conditions may have a different environmental footprint. In particular, the products might be advertised and sold based on environmental footprint and other costs. Customers may get a transparent view of the environmental footprint of the paper product they buy.

[0053] Further aspects, benefits, and features of the present disclosure are apparent from the claims, the description, and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0054] The accompanying drawings relate to embodiments of the disclosure and are described in the following:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a method of producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an aspect of a method of producing a paper product according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates an aspect of a method of producing a paper product according to embodiments of the present disclosure; FIGS. 4 and 5 show flow charts of a method of producing a paper product according to embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIGS. 6 to 9 schematically illustrate systems and processes for producing a paper product according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0055] Reference will now be made in detail to the various embodiments of the disclosure, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the figures. Within the following description of the drawings, the same reference numbers refer to same components. Generally, only the differences with respect to individual embodiments are described. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the disclosure and is not meant as a limitation of the disclosure. Further, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment can be used on or in conjunction with other embodiments to yield yet a further embodiment. It is intended that the description includes such modifications and variations.

[0056] Fig. 1 shows a schematic view of a process for producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein. Fig. 1 especially shows a virtual process having a virtual material 105. The virtual material 105 is discretized into a plurality of virtual material portions 110. Each of the virtual material portions 110 is associated with a corresponding material portion representor 120. As explained above, each of the representors contains one or more attributes of the material portion, which may be changed and modified in at least two process stages 300 and 301. According to embodiments described herein, process stage 300 may be denoted as merging process stage and process stage 301 may be denoted as splitting process stage. Each of the process stages may include several process step functions 130, 131, 132 corresponding to respective process steps of the real process. For the sake of simplicity (but not limiting embodiments of the present disclosure), process stage 300 includes only one process step function 130 in the example of Fig. 1. Process stage 301 includes two process step functions 131 and 132 in the example of Fig. 1.

[0057] According to embodiments described herein, the material portion representors 120 are modified by each of the process step functions 130, 131, 132, while “going” through the production process in a direction shown by the arrows between the process step functions 130, 131, and 132. The direction shown by the arrows between the single process steps may be denoted as the “flowing” direction and the terms “upstream” and “downstream” are to be considered in this direction, when material portion representors are referred to. For instance, process step function 132 is downstream of process step functions 130 and 131. Accordingly, process step function 130 can be denoted as being upstream of process step function 132. The same applies for the process stages, wherein the merging process stage 300 is upstream of the splitting process step function 301. Typically, the terms “upstream” and “downstream” may be understood in the direct context they appear and especially relative to the process steps or process stages they are described with (as explained in detail above). In some embodiments, the order of material portion representors 120 may change, e.g. if the material portion representors are treated in a process step, in which a reel of material is unwound (e.g. for cutting purposes).

[0058] According to some embodiments, the material portion representors undergo the process step functions and come to a splitting process step function 132 (being typically part of the splitting process stage 301). In the splitting process step function 132, the downstream material representor 122 is split into a remaining material portion representor 124 (which may - for instance - correspond to a paper product, or a precursor of a paper product) and a split resource material portion representor 123. The split resource material potion representor 123 may be denoted as a portion of the downstream material portion representor 122 in some embodiments.

[0059] Typically, the split resource material portion representor 123 may be sent in a loop 125, in particular to be recycled. According to some embodiments, the split resource material portion representor 123 may be a part of a plurality of resource material portion representors 128. In the example shown in Fig. 1, the resource material is represented by a plurality of resource material portion representors 128 being especially in a recycling loop 125. Additionally, or alternatively, the resource material may be represented as a bulk resource material representor, and the split material portion representor 123 may be merged with the bulk resource material representor.

[0060] As shown in the example of Fig. 1, the loop 125 leads the resource material portions 128 to a process step function 130 upstream of the process step function 132. Typically, the resource material portion representors 128 flow from the splitting process stage 310 to the merging process stage 300 (and thus, in particular, in a direction opposite to the previous flowing direction of the continuously flowing material flowing from one process step function to the next process step function in the processing).

[0061] According to some embodiments, a mergeable material portion representor 127 may also be part of the resource material portion representors (or, in some embodiments, the bulk resource material representor). Typically, the mergeable material portion representor 127 may be merged to a material portion representor in the merging process stage 300, especially in the merging process step function 130. In particular, mergeable material portion representor 127 may be merged to an upstream material portion representor 121. In this way, resource material (especially recycled resource material coming from the same process) can be added to the material for the process. According to some embodiments described herein, the attributes of the merged material portion representor are added to and get present in the respective material portion representor.

[0062] Fig. 2 shows an enlarged view of an example of a material portion representor 120 having several attributes 129 stored in it. According to some embodiments, the representor may be understood as a kind of data container. It may also be understood that the attributes 129 shown in Fig. 2 typically are different attributes as described above. For instance, the attributes may refer to the mass, the density, order details, emission details, details about energy consumption, surface conditions, mechanical properties (such as tensile strength) and so on.

[0063] Fig. 3 show a more detailed view of process step function 131. In the shown example, three material portions 110 and their respective material portion representors 120 are treated in process step function 131. In Fig. 3, additional representors 126 are merged with the material portion representors 120 present in process step function 131. For instance, the additional representors 126 may represent energy being put in the process (e.g. for drying purposes), or a chemical, or additional material like water or a solvent.

[0064] Although more than one representor is treated in the view of Fig. 3, only one representor may be treated per process step function and/or no representor may be treated in process step function 131, while the representors are treated in other process step functions and/or one representor may be so large as to be present in more than one process step function at the same time (depending on the size of the virtual material portion). According to some embodiments, the size of the material portions, (and, thus, the size of the material portion representors) may depend on one or more attributes. For instance, attributes like order details or energy costs may change, and a change in one of these attributes (especially attributes being linked to KPIs) may incur the generation of a new material portion representor (thereby delimiting the size of the previous representor).

[0065] Figs. 4 and 5 show a flow chart of a method of processing a material for producing a paper product. According to embodiments described herein, the method 200 includes in block 210 representing the material as a virtual material and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions. Typically, content of block 210 may be compared to the generation of the virtual material 105 and the discretization of the virtual material 105 into a plurality of material portions 110, as shown in Fig. 1. In block 220, the method typically includes the generating material portion representors 120 respectively associated with the material portions 110. This is also schematically shown in Fig. 1 by representors 120 being shown coupled or associated to respective material portions. Typically, the generation of the material portion representors 120 includes generating or assigning respective attributes 124 of each of the material portion representors 120. As explained in detail above, the attributes 124 are indicative of properties of the respective material portions 110. According to some embodiments, the attributes may refer to properties of interest, such as KPIs (for instance emission data, energy consumption data, properties of the product, goals of the process, which may be part of the order, and the like).

[0066] According to embodiments described herein, block 230 includes modifying the material portion representors 120 by a virtual process step function 130-132 representing the respective process steps 150-152 (exemplarily shown in Figs. 6 to 9 and explained in detail with respect to these figures). Typically, modifying a material portion representor may mean modifying at least one attribute 124 of the material portion representor. Typically, modifying may mean modifying the value of the respective attribute, especially corresponding to the outcome of a process step function performed with the attributes of the material portion representors. [0067] As shown in Fig. 1, the process according to embodiments described herein typically includes a merging process stage 300 including merging a mergeable resource material part to the material 140, and a splitting process stage 301 including splitting process stage includes splitting a split resource material part from the material. According to some embodiments described herein, the method 200 includes in block 240 splitting a portion of a downstream material portion representor 122 associated with the downstream material portion into a split resource material portion representor 123 associated with the split resource material part and a remaining material portion representor 124 for the remaining downstream material portion. For instance, the remaining portion representor 124 may be a representor for the paper product obtained by the process. According to some embodiments, the portion being split from the downstream material portion representor may correspond to a material part being split from the material in the real process. For instance, edges of a paper reel may be cut off and may form the split material part. In some embodiments, parts of the paper product may not meet quality standards and are not permitted as paper product. In some embodiments, such parts not meeting the quality standards may form the split material part. According to some embodiments, split material may be split off the material at any point in time in the process, e.g. a point of time, where the paper product is not yet readily processed. For instance, a part of a material may be split off in a precursor stadium of the paper product.

[0068] In block 250, the method 200 includes merging a mergeable resource material portion representor 127 with an upstream material portion representor 121 associated with an upstream material portion, as exemplarily shown in Fig. 1. According to some embodiments, merging the mergeable resource material portion representor with an upstream material portion representor may correspond to the addition of recycled material into the material for the processing. The recycled material is especially material from the same process. According to some embodiments, the recycled material may at least partially be or contain parts of the split material split from the paper product or the material processed before. Accordingly, the mergeable resource material portion representor may include parts of the split material portion representor, or parts of a split material portion representor coming from an earlier point of time in the process. [0069] Fig. 5 shows the method 200 as described with respect to Fig. 4, but shows the loop 125 for leading split material portion representors to the material. According to some embodiments, the mergeable resource material portion representor may be merged to the upstream material portion representor for instance in a process step, which prepares the pulp for the pulp and paper process. In some embodiments, the mergeable resource material portion representor may be merged to the upstream material portion representor in a process step adding additional representors to the material. It may be understood that the arrow of loop 125 can end in another block of the method than the first block of the method 200 as exemplarily shown in Fig. 5. According to some embodiments, the arrow of loop 125 may start in another block of method 200 than the last block.

[0070] Fig. 6 shows a schematic view of a method or system for producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein. Fig. 6 exemplarily shows a material flow digital twin 160 of a paper machine. The material portion representors 120 may for instance be associated with different kinds of pulp. According to some embodiments, also a resource material portion representor 127 is used as material input to the material flow digital twin 160. Typically, the different material portion representors 120 and 127 may be merged into one merged material flow representor 520, which is led to the material flow digital twin 160 for modelling the process of paper production in a paper machine. Additionally, energy representors 320 (which may come from different energy sources) may be merged into one merged energy representor 420. The merged energy representor 420 is also lead to material flow digital twin 160 for modelling the process of paper production in the paper machine. After processing (or rather, after having modelled the process of paper production with the representors), the outcome is typically an emission energy representor 620, a paper product representor 621, and a waste representor 622. As exemplarily shown in Fig. 6, a loop 125 can lead a split resource material portion representor (split during one of the process step functions of the material flow digital twin) to the material portion representor, especially to the resource material portion representor 127.

[0071] For instance, the fringe of a paper reel is typically cut off to get a clean edge which causes broke. For instance, the paper may be sliced or split along cross-machine-direction. Alternatively, or additionally, the paper on a reel may be sliced or split along a machine - direction. The generated broke can typically be regarded as a new representor (e.g. a split resource material portion representor, sliced off from the existing material portion representor). According to some embodiments, as the split resource material portion representor may be fed back into the pulp and paper process again, this representor may be merged back into other representors (for example into the upstream material portion representor) as shown in Fig. 6.

[0072] According to some embodiments, when a reel is trimmed according to one or more orders, it may be cut along the machine direction. The representor attribute like the width of the paper is changed in this case while other attributes stay the same. In case different attribute values (e.g., of the paper thickness) are measured along the moving crossdirectional axis already during the creation of the paper, already at this point in time the representors may be split up along the machine-direction. Alternatively, the representor could get additional attributes that describe the differences along the cross-directional profile.

[0073] According to some embodiments described herein, representors may be sliced or split according to a fixed time interval, e.g., every 60 seconds. In addition (to the fixed timeinterval slicing), representors may be generated (by newly generating or by splitting) in case of an event (e.g. the change of an attribute): The changes from the event can either be considered immediately which causes smaller representors. Alternatively, the effects could be ignored until the new representor after the fixed time-interval is started. This is less precise but could be precise enough depending on the use-case.

[0074] Typically, merging (and typically splitting) of representors (or parts thereof) may be used to calculate the energy and CO2 consumptions properly. Merging of representors may also be useful in case the energy is modelled as representor. In this case, the energy representors may typically be merged and fed into the material portion representor as shown in Fig. 6. Depending on the input into the process (e.g., paper machine), different representors like different pulp representors and chemical representors may also be merged.

[0075] In some embodiments, as the representors are routed through the material flow digital twin, where they may be handed over from one model or process step function to the next (or parallel depending on the modelling network), the data inside the representors are manipulated according to the respective resolution scale. According to some embodiments, the paper machine might work faster than the models might take to finish the calculation. In one example, it may take about 8 seconds in total from wet end to dry end of a paper machine, but each of the several models may take 2-4 seconds to be calculated and, thus, the representor cannot flow through the material flow digital twin 160 in real-time as the model calculations may perhaps take about 12 seconds in total (depending on the number and kinds of process steps). In this case, the model calculations of the representors would be queued, meaning that the first model calculation would be started once the representor “arrives”, and the other calculations when the predecessor calculations are done. This works if the representors do represent a long-enough time-interval (here above 12 seconds). In case a representor would represent a shorter time-interval (e.g. due to some event), also the start of the calculations could get queued. In some embodiments, it may be considered that - in average - the calculation time is shorter than the time the representors represent in average so that the calculations can catch up. For instance, the material flow digital twin may run on an edge-device (as exemplarily shown as edge device 180 in Figs. 7 and 8). Data to and from the edge device may be passed via standardized interfaces and/or protocols, e.g., via OPC UA, REST, MQTT and be stored in a database, time-series database or in a file-based storage.

[0076] Fig. 7 shows a schematic view of a system and method for producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein. The process and system of Fig. 7 starts with the order 181, which may contain order data, such as details on the order, the desired paper product, the intended cost of the paper product, the time of processing, a time limit for processing, data of the intended emissions appearing during processing, data of the intended energy consumption and the like. According to some embodiments, the order may be represented as an order representor. The order 181 may typically be forwarded to the ERP 170 (enterprise resource planning) and, typically, to the MES 171 (Manufacturing Execution System). Typically, the ERP and the MES are systems or programs for planning the process and are, according to some embodiments, coupled to the digital twin of the process. According to some embodiments, the MES and the ERP generate requirements 182 for the material portion representors to be processed in the process. Typically, the requirements 182 may include data referring to the order and may, according to some embodiments, be added to the material portion representors as attributes. In some embodiments, the requirements 182 (coming typically from the order 181) may be check (e.g. in a regular or continuous way) and may updated, where appropriate. Typically, the requirements 182 are transmitted to the material flow digital twin 160 of the process. According to some embodiments, the material flow digital twin 160 may be understood as virtual representation that serves as the real-time digital counterpart of a physical object or process. In particular, the digital twin as used herein may include different models for representing the process including several process steps.

[0077] As can be seen in Fig. 7, an edge device 180 may be provided running the material flow digital twin 160. According to some embodiments, the models of the material flow digital twin can be realized as FMUs (Functional Mockup Units) and can typically be created by different software. In some embodiments, the FMUs may be designed to be compatible with each other so that they can be connected. According to some embodiments, an edgedevice might be chosen to have sufficient computation power (e.g. more than a typical controller) to execute the models, host the MF-DT simulator and is typically close to the process (closer than the cloud) to provide real-time execution of the models continuously based on the information retrieved from the DCS and/or directly from the assets or components of the Pulp & Paper process.

[0078] In Fig. 7, the real process is shown by process steps 150, 151, and 152 and the assets 140. The assets 140 may for instance include material, water, solvent, chemicals, pulp, old paper, resource material, and the like. Typically, the assets are used in the process in different process steps during the process (which is shown by arrows in Fig. 7). In addition, energy 141 is added to the process. Substantially corresponding to the real process with process steps 150, 151, and 152, the virtual process step functions 130, 131, and 132 are run. According to embodiments described herein, the process step functions 130, 131, and 132 are run with the representors 120, 126, which may include material portion representors 120 as well as additional representors 126 referring to additional means used for the process, such as chemicals, water, solvent, energy and the like.

[0079] According to some embodiments, the DCS 172 in Fig. 7 is connected to the material flow digital twin 160. For instance, the digital twin may connect and update its models based on DCS 172 and/or other online/offline information. For instance, in order to get online values, the DCS 172 is connected to the digital twin 160. In some embodiments, these onlinevalues may be used for updating and improving the digital twin over time.

[0080] According to some embodiments, the digital twin 160 may be able to calculate emissions (such as CO2) as well as energy trends based on the models. The emissions and energy trends may be provided as feedback to the MES 171. Thus, in some embodiments, the digital twin may have connections to both, the MES as well as the DCS. From the DCS, the FMUs (running inside the digital twin) may retrieve online data from the process as shown in Fig. 7. By measuring the outcoming attributes of the paper (online and offline) and feeding back online values of the process to the MF-DT, the models can iteratively learn which enables better prediction capability according to some embodiments described herein.

[0081] Fig. 7 exemplarily shows the representors 120, 126 passing through the material flow digital twin 160. According to some embodiments, the order (representor) 181 may be provided from a customer and may be led into the ERP-system 170 and is forwarded to the MES 171 where it may be scheduled. According to some embodiments, the MES 171 knows the requirements of the order and triggers the DCS 172 (or similar) that controls the assets and devices that produce the paper. Typically, for the paper production, different sections are used (e.g., forming, press section, dryer section). The used resources (represented as respective representors in the material flow digital twin 160) like pulp, chemicals and water or solvent are fed into the first section (or where required) and continue in the process. In addition, energy (represented as energy representor) in the form of electrical energy as well heat/steam is used for the process. According to some embodiments, a process stage as used herein may include one or mode process sections.

[0082] As can be seen in Fig. 7, the process yields a paper product 183, which may for instance be a paper reel. With the aid of the material flow digital twin, the virtual process function and the representors, a digital product pass 184 may be generated in some embodiment. For example, this may be done by considering the representors for materials, resources and energy contribution, as well as for each ordered product. Typically, the digital twin 160 may hold all energy related information, allowing to calculate KPIs like energy consumption per reel, per section within the reel or per ordered product and may thus contribute to a digital product pass. As explained in detail above, the representor’s attributes are changed influenced by each process step function (e.g., containing less water). At the end of the process, the representor (e.g. the former order representor) may be enriched to that extend with information from the process, that it represents the resulting product (e.g., a paper reel) as a digital product pass according to some embodiments described herein. Typically, all the information about energy consumption, CO2, material attributes from the paper and used chemicals and water gets collected within the material portion representor(s), and the material portion representor can be used as digital product pass for the resulting product.

[0083] Fig. 8 shows a view of a method and system for producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein. The system and method shown in Fig. 8 are similar to the system and method exemplarily shown in Fig. 7, but shows or includes more interaction between the real process steps 150, 151, 152, and the virtual process step functions 130, 131, 132. In Fig. 8, the interaction is shown as bold printed arrows between the process steps 150, 151, 152, and the virtual process step functions 130, 131, 132.

[0084] Apart from the interactions shown in Fig. 8, and additionally or alternatively to the MES influencing the content of a representor, the scheduling within the MES 171 can be influenced by the attributes of the input material representors as well as the ordered product so that the required output attributes/quality (collected in the product pass) is reached.

[0085] In the embodiment shown in Fig. 8, the material flow digital twin 160 contains different models 130, 131, 132, 133, and 134, which can be process step functions (as process step functions 130, 131, 132), models of assets (such as representors 120 associated with material, resources, chemicals, water, energy and so on), models that calculate the KPIs of the representors (such as model 134), models for certain techniques (such as slicing or splitting model 133) and/or models for scheduling the orders based on further optimization criteria as CCE-consumption or energy-consumption in general. According to some embodiments, the models can be derived from machine-learning or first principles. Typically, as the material flow digital twin 160 gets energy-information in the form of energy representors, these representors can carry information about the CO2 emission produced by that energy (during generation, transport). The energy-trend, both from the production as well as for the consumption side, may also play a role in that calculation. According to some embodiments, the CO2 information of the resources (pulp, chemicals. . .) plays a role in the CO2 -calculation as well. In order to apply with current regulations for CCh-calculation, a standard for CO2 -calculation and reporting may be used, such as an IEC standard.

[0086] As all the information about energy consumption, CO2, material attributes from the paper, used chemicals, water, and/or solvents gets collected within a material portion representor, this representor can be used as digital product pass for the resulting product in some embodiments. Typically, it might be stripped down to the desired information. Thus, according to some embodiments, the life cycle of a representor starts with the incoming customer order 181 and results in the product pass 184 handed over to the customer again. Depending on the KPI- values listed in the product pass 184, the values can be calculated in an own module or result from the representors passing through the models representing the assets. Especially, when using all meta steps in the material flow digital twin, a product pass with history is available up to the final consumer product level. It may provide input for a best trimming plan as well as may use product information to remind of missing input resources.

[0087] According to some embodiments, some of the calculated values resulting from the models can be material attributes describing the end product 183 or an intermediate product. By this, the input attributes of the resources used for the process (like pulp, waste paper and chemicals) can be traced and allow a prediction of resulting material attributes over time once the material flow digital twin is validated with historic data for fine-grained predictions. This results in a soft-sensor for material attributes which can be tracked in embodiments described herein without using an expensive device.

[0088] Typically, the material (pulp, chemicals, water...) are being passed through the pulp & paper system in a similar way as the representors through the material flow digital twin. In the end, each representor typically corresponds to a section of the resulting paper reel. If the paper on the reel is cut into pieces, the representors may correspond to these pieces (paper roll or package). Typically, as one order can result in more than one product unit and a unit might have different sections within, there can be an n-to-m-relationship between representors and paper units. [0089] Typically, when the paper is produced or even during production, the quality and different attributes of the paper may be checked. In some embodiments, the result of the check can be compared with the result from the model calculation to validate and possibly fine-tune the models. Once the models are exact enough, one may start optimizing the paper production by using the models to only virtually try different options and come to a better (e.g. less energy or CO2, better paper quality, less time spent) production process. This optimization can be done off-line as no feedback from the DCS is required.

[0090] Fig. 9 shows a schematic view of a system and method for processing a paper product according to embodiments described herein. Some elements shown in Fig. 9 correspond to the elements shown and explained in detail in Figs. 7 and 8 and will not be referred to in detail again (for instance, the order 181 adding attributes to the material representors 120, and the like). In Fig. 9, several process step functions 130, 131, 132, and 135 are exemplarily shown. The result of the material representors 120 running through the different process step functions is a remaining material portion representor 124 (which may - for instance - correspond to a paper product, or a precursor of a paper product) and a KPI representor 195, which may - in some embodiments - serve as a product pass. Typically, the KPI representor 195 may for instance be calculated from the attributes stored in the remaining material portion representor 124.

[0091] For the sake of a better overview, the resource material portion representor 123 (see e.g. Fig. 1) is not shown in Fig. 9, but the loop 125 guiding resource material portions to a process step function for adding split resource material portions to one or more process step function is shown in Fig. 9. According to some embodiments, Fig. 9 shows a second loop 125/2. Typically, the second loop 125/2 begins at a process step function different from the last process step function yielding the paper product (typical as remaining material part). More typically, the second loop 125/2 leads a portion being split in one of the process step functions (in this example process step function 132) to a (e.g. to any) process step function (in this example process step function 131) being upstream of the process step function 132. It may be understood that at any process step function of the process, a resource material portion representor may be split and that at any process step function of the process, a resource material portion representor may be merged. [0092] According to some embodiments described herein, the pulp & paper process may be modelled as a material digital twin 160 considering external and internal resource representors, energy representors and more as shown in Fig. 9. The different assets within the P&P process are represented by different models or process step functions 130, 131, 132, 135, typically one model would be used per asset (physical or data-based asset). Typically, for complex assets like a paper machine, each section (e.g., press section, dryer section) of it could be represented by a model or process step function. According to some embodiments described herein, the models or process step functions may consider energy and emission as well. The material flow digital twin may include models describing how the representors are transformed. Typically, and as described above, the representors can be merged or split according to certain rules or models and depending on the type of the representor, e.g., resource representor, order representor, energy representor. In some embodiments, and depending on the modelling, energy might as well be modelled as input parameters to the models rather than as representor. According to some embodiments, attributes for energy might be, besides the amount, the current energy price, the source of the energy (e.g., from the net or locally generated by photovoltaic or a combined heat plant) and the CO2 consumption (green energy versus other energy).

[0093] According to some embodiments, the supplier management 190, the energy management 191, the CO2 management 192, and the resource management 193 may be part of the system shown in Fig. 9. For instance, the models, or the DCS 172 may be connected to the supplier management 190, the energy management 191, the CO2 management 192, and the resource management 193 for exchanging information about the process, the model, real measurement data and the like.

[0094] According to some embodiments, which may be combined with other embodiments described herein, the method and system may be specialized or focused on the CO2- management. The attributes tracked and the models that are executed may thus focus to calculate and minimize the CO2 footprint of the outcoming product. In some embodiments, a soft-sensor may be realized with the help of the MF-DT that measures the CO2. Especially, the CCh-concumption per process step/section as well as per product may be predicted. With the help of the prediction, optimizations could be made, products charged accordingly, the virtual product pass can show the CO2 and possibly upcoming CCh-regulations fulfilled. [0095] Typically, the paper that is contained within one reel does not have the same quality throughout the reel, and the quality of the paper is measured either continuously or for different sections. The paper or pulp flow being continuous naturally results in one digital twin for the whole reel with a certain quality profile or measurements. Currently, there is no concept to represent these different sections in separate (sub-) digital twins (representors) that already exist during the production of the paper and are kept up to date during the process. These sub-digital twins according to embodiments described herein allow to calculate KPIs more specifically, allowing a more detailed analysis. Currently, no digital twin for paper reels exists at all - the energy consumed is only roughly spread across the produced reels. Due to that, no product pass can be generated, not even for a whole reel with known techniques.

[0096] Paper industry already implemented a circular industry, paper is collected from end user and reused during production (e.g. in case the required quality was not met). As well, during the P&P process, paper from different stadiums is being reused, e.g., when there is a paper cut or a grade change where quality attributes are not met, or the fringe cut off to have a sharp edge at the side. Current concepts do not cover the modelling of this broke flow which would allow to keep the knowledge about the broke paper quality. Typically, only the operator would have the knowledge about when to add which broke flow to the process.

[0097] Embodiments described herein create representors for material, energy, resources and/or product order attributes. Further, embodiments described herein allow for predicting the outcoming quality, energy and CCh-consumptions and provide these predictions to the user. Further, embodiments described herein allow comparing the predictions to the measured values to improve the MF-DT as used in embodiments described herein. The underlying models may be validated with historic data for fine-grained predictions. The predictions might be used to influence the MES. According to some embodiments, with a prediction using all meta steps in the MF-DT a product pass with full history may be created up the final consumer product level. Thereby, it may provide input for a best trimming plan.

While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the disclosure, other and further embodiments of the disclosure may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.

Claims

1. A method (200) of producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material, the processing comprising at least two process stages (300; 301) comprising a plurality of process steps (130; 131; 132; 135), the method comprising:

- representing the material (140) as a virtual material (105) and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions (110);

- generating material portion representors (120) respectively associated with the material portions (110), wherein generating the material portion representors (120) comprises generating respective attributes (124) of each of the material portion representors (120), the attributes (124) being indicative of properties of the respective material portions (110);

- for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modifying the material portion representors (120) by a respective virtual process step function (130-132; 135) representing the respective process step (150-152), wherein the modifying comprises modifying at least one attribute (124) of the material portion representors (120), the at least two process stages (150; 152) comprising a merging process stage (300) and a splitting process stage (301), wherein the merging process stage (300) is upstream of the splitting process stage (301) and comprises merging a mergeable resource material part to the material (140), and wherein the splitting process stage comprises splitting a split resource material part from the material (140); the method (200) comprising for the splitting process stage, whereby a downstream material portion of the material portions is being processed in the splitting process stage: splitting a portion of a downstream material portion representor (122) of the material portion representors (120), the downstream material portion representor (122) associated with the downstream material portion, into a split resource material portion representor (123) associated with the split resource material part and a remaining material portion representor (124) for the remaining downstream material portion, the method (200) comprising for the merging process stage, whereby an upstream material portion of the material portions is being processed in the merging process stage:

- merging, with an upstream material portion representor (121) of the material portion representors (120), the upstream material portion representor (121) associated with the upstream material portion, a mergeable resource material portion representor (127) associated with the mergeable resource material part.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mergeable resource material part and the split resource material part are parts of a resource material flowing from the splitting process stage (301) to the merging process stage (300).

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises: representing the resource material as a virtual resource material comprising a plurality of resource material portions; generating a plurality of resource material portion representors (123, 127, 128) respectively associated with the resource material portions; wherein generating the plurality of resource material portion representors (123, 127, 128) comprises in particular splitting at least some of the resource material portion representors from respective material portion representors (120, 121, 122), and wherein the plurality of resource material portion representors (123, 127, 128) comprises the mergeable resource material portion representor (127) and the split resource material portion representor (123).

4. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the split resource material portion representor (123) comprises at least some attributes based on the attributes of the downstream material portion representor (122).

5. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the mergeable resource material portion representor (127) comprises at least some attributes based on the attributes of the downstream material portion representor (120).

6. The method according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising merging the split resource material portion representor (123) with a bulk resource material representor representing a bulk resource material, and splitting the mergeable resource material portion representor (127) from the bulk resource material representor.

7. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the attributes (124) of the material portion representors (120) comprise at least one of emissions, CO2 emission, energy consumption, cost of energy consumption, kind of energy used, concentration of recycled material, and recyclability.

8. The method according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising: generating additional representors (126), which are merged and/or split from the material portion representors (120, 121, 122) during the plurality of process steps (130; 131; 132; 135).

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein generating the additional representors (126) comprises generating at least one of an additional material portion representor, an input material portion representor, a water representor, a solvent representor, a chemical portion representor, an energy portion representor, a CO2 portion representor, and a product order representor.

10. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein splitting of the downstream material portion representor (122) into a split resource material portion representor (123) and a remaining portion representor (124) comprises: associating each of the split resource material portion representor (123) and the remaining portion representor (124) with respective parts of the at least one attribute of the upstream material portion representor (122).

11. The method according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising generating a history data set, wherein the history data set is indicative of the at least one attribute, the process step (130; 131; 132; 135) and the material portion representor (120, 121, 122); and wherein generating a history data set comprises in particular calculating an emission history for the emission management of the production of the paper product (183).

12. The method according to any of the preceding claims, the method (200) further comprises generating a material flow digital twin (160) for representing the industrial processing comprising a plurality of process steps (150-152), the material flow digital twin (160) comprising the respective virtual process step functions (130; 131; 132; 135) of the process steps (150-152); and, connecting the material flow digital twin to other information systems comprising at least one of a Distributed Control System (DCS; 172) for adapting the material flow digital twin to current processing data, a Manufacturing Execution System (MES; 171) for retrieving information on current orders (181) and in particular for giving feedback to the MES for scheduling the orders of the processing, and an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP; 170) for gaining information about input materials and orders of the processing system.

13. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the industrial processing of a material for producing a paper product comprises a pulp-and-paper process.

14. A system for producing a paper product by industrial processing a continuously flowing material, the industrial processing comprising at least two process stages (300; 301) comprising a plurality of process steps (130; 131; 132; 135), wherein the system comprises a processor and a data system, the system being configured for:

- Representing, by the processor, the material as a virtual material (105) and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions (110);

Generating, by the processor, material portion representors (120) in the data system, wherein the material portion representors (120) comprise respective attributes (124) of each of the material portion representors (120), the attributes (124) being indicative of properties of the respective material portions (110);

- for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modifying the material portion representors (120) by a respective virtual process step function (130- 132) representing the respective process step (150-152), wherein the system is configured for modifying at least one attribute (124) of the material portion representors (120), when modifying the material portion representors (120); wherein the system is configured to performing the process stages (300; 301) comprising a merging process stage (300) and a splitting process stage (301), wherein the merging process stage (300) is upstream of the splitting process stage (301) and comprises merging a mergeable resource material part to the material (140), and wherein the splitting process stage comprises splitting a split resource material part from the material (140); wherein the system is configured for the splitting process stage (301) to: split, by the processor, a portion of a downstream material portion representor (122) of the material portion representors (120), the downstream material portion representor (122) associated with a downstream material portion processed in the splitting process stage, into a split resource material portion representor (123) associated with the split resource material part and a remaining material portion representor (124) for the remaining downstream material portion; and wherein the system is configured for the merging process stage (300) to:

- merge, by the processor, with an upstream material portion representor (121) of the material portion representors (120), the upstream material portion representor (121) associated with the upstream material portion, a mergeable resource material portion representor (127) associated with the mergeable resource material part.

15. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor of a system for producing a paper product by industrial processing a continuously flowing material, cause the system to carry out the method (200) according to any one of claims 1 to 13.