SBIR-STTR Award

By the year 2000, the law will require all paper to contain 50% recycled fiber content. Although mixed office waste provides an abundant source of desirable fiber, current deinking methods contaminate mill operations, degrade fiber quality, and increase the chemical burden of the wastewater. A key contaminant in mixed office waste is toner resin. Because resin is heat-fused to the paper during the xerographic or laser-printing process, it resists conventional deinking methods. Moreover, resin- fused fiber bundles trap additional fibers during the repulping operation. As a result, much prime fiber is recycled into low-value paper products; about 30% ends up in landfills as sludge. Aveka's "green" toner and repulping system incorporates novel toner components and formulation methods to achieve a unique solution to this recycling challenge. The process combines water- dispersible toner resins with an enhanced strategy for detaching resin-fused fibers. This integrated system minimizes both processing and environmental disadvantages associated with current deinking methods. The result is higher yields of high-value fibers with minimal capital expenditure. In this project, Aveka's innovative particle and toner technology is supported by materials and marketing expertise from H. B. Fuller Company and repulping R&D from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory.Applications:In the U.S., 75% of the 500 pulp and paper mills currently use recovered paper, and 200 of them depend entirely on recovered paper. The economic impact on this industry of contamination from toner resin and other "stickies" is estimated at nearly $700 million per year. A "green" toner can reduce these losses substantially. As a value-added product able to recover more high-quality fiber using standard repulping processes, Aveka's cost-effective system has market-potential among companies that make specialty toners, large toner manufactures, and major equipment manufactures In 1996, the worldwide market for toner resins was estimated at over $350 million.

Paper recycling continues to increase in the United States, with public support and legislative mandates helping boost recycling of all paper grades. Office waste paper is a significant source of high grade paper fiber for recycling, but is currently underutilized, due to the challenges of fully removing xerographic and laser printer toner. These so called "laser inks" are designed to fuse to the page during printing and tend to resist removal by conventional deinking processes. In a Phase I SBIR grant, AVEKA Inc. proposed the development of novel toners that would improve office paper deinking performance by reformulating the toner. The Phase I results indicate that toner deinking can be improved, in some cases dramatically, with this approach, which targets the active components directly to the toner-fiber interface. This "Near Field Effect" targeting improves deinking while minimizing additives already used by the recycling industry.This Phase II proposal lays out a research plan to 1) optimize the reformulated toners to achieve maximum deinking performance, and 2) work with xerographic copier manufacturers to develop and test a commercially viable, environmentally friendly toner.

Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research:
A toner that can more easily be removed from repulped paper will improve the quality of deinked pulp, increase yield of recycled pulp, and decrease the fiber waste from the current process, lowering waste disposal costs. Targeting the additives that aid deinking directly to the toner particle optimizes the use of these chemicals, lowering operating costs, removing process uncertainties, and lowering the chemical/biological oxygen demand of process water in the recycling plant. A "green" toner should prove to be attractive to environmentally conscious consumers and with public sector purchasers under legislative mandate to select products that support paper recycling.