Project Description
The OnePly® project has been executed within the framework of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. The aim was to create a tissue product with softness equivalent to other structured tissue manufacturing techniques despite having a 63% reduction in energy usage and reduction of water consumption by more than one half.
Project Purpose
In order to reach those numbers, the product should consist of a single ply, unlike conventional tissue papers with two or three layers. As a result, the main challenge of the project was to rethink both the product and the manufacturing process, so that the tissue rolls would still be competitive in terms of quality. Reducing the energy usage of traditional manufacturing processes, without rethinking the product and the process, would severely affect the paper’s characteristics.
As this was an industry-first approach there was no state-of-theart technology available, so it was necessary to develop key aspects of the machine engineering in-house, and have very receptive partners to integrate existing machinery with the internally developed elements. LC Paper partnered with the machine industry company MTorres, starting a relationship of cooperation in the design of a disruptive tissue manufacturing technique that ultimately resulted in a product with the lowest CO2 footprint of its class.
Project Evaluation
LC Paper has transitioned from the classical 34 g/m2 tissue products to a new toilet product portfolio of 28 g/ m2. While a conventional toilet paper with 34 g/m2 has a manufacturing energy consumption of 0.102 kWh/ m2, the new OnePly® paper achieves consumption of 0.038 kWh/m2, a reduction of 63%. That of course means our new tissue manufacturing process also has substantially lower carbon dioxide emissions.