Method for producing paper product and system for producing paper product

Abstract

A method (200) and system for producing a paper product by processing a continuous flow of material is described. The method comprises: virtually discretizing a material into a plurality of material portions (110); generating a material portion representation (120) associated with the material portion, wherein generating the material portion representation (120) includes generating a respective property (124) of each of the material portion representations (120); for at least some of the process steps of the process, a corresponding virtual process step function (130-132; 135) to modify the material portion representation. The method further comprises a splitting process stage comprising splitting a portion of the downstream material portion representation (122) into a split resource material portion representation (123) and a remaining material portion representation (124). The method further comprises a merging process phase comprising merging the mergeable resource material portion representation (127) with the upstream material portion representation (121).

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method for producing a paper product. Other embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a system for producing a paper product and a computer-readable medium for executing the method for producing a paper product. More specifically, the method and system according to embodiments of the present disclosure may relate to producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material. Background Art

[0002] Process industries such as the pulp and paper industry are major consumers of resources and emitters of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. There is a desire to better understand the impact of paper product processes on environmental issues such as climate change. Further, manufacturers want to provide products with a smaller environmental footprint and customer demand for such products is increasing. However, in conventional pulp production, the footprint of a process or a product relative to environmental or other costs can only be estimated to a very rough extent, taking into account, for example, the multiple process steps or the various starting materials.

[0003] In particular, attempts are made to reduce energy consumption, since the paper industry is a very energy-intensive industry. Currently, about one third of the energy in the paper production process is consumed as electrical energy, while two thirds of the energy is consumed as thermal energy (e.g. as steam). Additionally, the energy consumption during paper production and the generation of wastewater have not been significantly reduced in recent years. Often, it is not even known which paper consumes how much energy. In order to be able to reduce the energy consumption during the paper production process, one would like to know how much energy is consumed in which process step.

[0004] For example, expensive sensors / equipment are needed to track material properties of the pulp and paper (P&P) process in order to optimize CO2 emissions and energy consumption. Currently, the paper production process is automated, but for many process values, no online values ​​are measured. This also generally applies to the input products (here usually pulp, waste paper and chemicals). Resources may have different types of qualities, which are currently not taken into account, only estimated or given by suppliers. Therefore, one does not know whether all ingredients have the required quality / energy / CO2 emissions, and there is currently no product certificate for the output product. Summary of the invention

[0005] In view of the foregoing, the present disclosure relates to a method and system for producing paper products by processing a continuous flow of material and a computer-readable medium that can provide an accurately determined footprint with respect to environmental aspects, emissions, energy consumption or other aspects in the industrial process of pulp and paper.

[0006] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for 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 an embodiment 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 representations respectively associated with the material portions, wherein generating the material portion representations includes generating corresponding attributes of each material portion representation in the material portion representations, the attributes indicating the characteristics of the corresponding material portion; and, for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modifying the material portion representations by corresponding virtual process step functions representing the corresponding process steps, wherein the modification includes modifying at least one attribute of the material portion representations. According to an embodiment described herein, the at least two process stages include a merge process stage and a split process stage, wherein the merge process stage is upstream of the split process stage and includes merging a mergeable resource material portion into the material, and wherein the split process stage includes splitting a split resource material portion from the material. The method includes targeting a splitting process stage, whereby a downstream material portion in the material portion is processed in the splitting process stage: a portion of the downstream material portion representation in the material portion representation is split into a split resource material portion representation associated with the split resource material portion and a remaining material portion representation for the remaining downstream material portion, the downstream material portion representation being associated with the downstream material portion. The method includes targeting a merging process stage, whereby an upstream material portion in the material portion is processed in the merging process stage: a mergeable resource material portion representation associated with the mergeable resource material portion is merged with an upstream material portion representation in the material portion representation, the upstream material portion representation being associated with the upstream material portion.

[0007] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a system for producing paper products by industrially processing a continuously flowing material is described. The industrial processing includes at least two process stages, including a plurality of process steps. According to the embodiments described herein, the system includes a processor and a data system, and is configured to: by the processor, represent the material as a virtual material, and virtually discretize the material into a plurality of material portions; by the processor, generate a material portion representation in the data system, wherein the material portion representation includes a corresponding attribute of each material portion representation in the material portion representation, the attribute indicating a characteristic of the corresponding material portion; and for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modify the material portion representation by a corresponding virtual process step function representing the corresponding process step, wherein when modifying the material portion representation, the system is configured to modify at least one attribute of the material portion representation. Further, the system is configured to perform a process stage including a merge process stage and a split process stage, wherein the merge process stage is upstream of the split process stage and includes merging a mergeable resource material portion into the material, and wherein the split process stage includes splitting a split resource material portion from the material. According to the embodiments described herein, the system is configured for the split process stage to split, by a processor, a portion of the downstream material portion representation in the material portion representation into a split resource material portion representation associated with the split resource material portion and a remaining material portion representation for the remaining downstream material portion, the downstream material portion representation being associated with the downstream material portion processed in the split process stage. Further, for the merge process stage, the system is configured to merge, by a processor, the mergeable resource material portion representation associated with the mergeable resource material portion with the upstream material portion representation in the material portion representation, the upstream material portion representation being associated with the upstream material portion.

[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 that, when executed by a processor of a system for producing paper products by industrially processing a continuous flow of material, cause the system to perform a method according to embodiments described herein.

[0009] In order to be able to reduce energy and CO2 consumption in the pulp and paper (P&P) process, it is desirable to know which process steps lead to which emissions and to understand the impact of different input properties (e.g. different pulps, other chemicals, ...) and which resulting products lead to which emissions. According to some embodiments described herein, with the help of a virtual material flow digital twin (MF-DT) that models the process, soft sensors can be implemented to measure currently unknown but relevant values ​​(e.g. material properties) within the entire P&P process, taking into account both external (e.g. current electricity prices) and internal information.

[0010] The embodiments described herein involve building and running a digital twin for the material flows in a P&P production process and using it to implement soft sensors to track the input parameters of the process and measure and optimize the energy and CO2 consumption of the production. Different resources such as input materials (such as pulp, chemicals, etc.) as well as energy and output are modeled as representations through different models within MF-DT. The concept of slicing (or splitting) and merging of representations is also used in the embodiments.

[0011] Typically, soft sensors can be supported by different models, which can be implemented as FMUs (Functional Model Units) that hold various model quotes and represent different assets within the P&P process. Typically, the granularity and accuracy of the model can determine the later accuracy and usability of the soft sensor results. These models can be modularized using the Functional Model Interface (FMI). According to some embodiments, these models can be validated with historical data and can therefore be used for fine-grained predictions. This enables tracking of input attributes throughout the process and measuring and optimizing the energy and CO2 consumption of the process, and calculating / providing trends at the final consumer product level (particularly in support of the Manufacturing Execution System MES). It can also generate product certificates for paper products and remind (e.g., recipes) of missing input resources and optimal trimming plans.

[0012] In addition, the embodiments described herein provide solutions that include a concept of how to model resources, energy, orders, and products as representations and how these representations can be sliced ​​(or split) and merged. Modeling is used to represent continuous processes (including, for example, continuous cut-offs and / or mixed continuous inputs) for P&P processes, but in the embodiments described herein, discrete values ​​are used for modeling and calculations.

[0013] Specifically, the embodiments described herein build and operate a system that is capable of tracking relevant characteristics to monitor energy consumption, emissions such as CO2, and resources used (e.g., added chemicals), including their quality. For example, for each order entering an enterprise resource planning ERP system, a virtual (order) representation is created in the material flow digital twin (MF-DT) with relevant information about the system (e.g., paper quality attributes, quantity, expiration date). MES schedules are represented as orders for tasks, information is added to the representation, and operators are required to start production via a distributed control system (DCS) according to the established schedule. In the pulp and paper industry, the start (or change) of a new production may be carried out by a grade change to adapt to the paper properties.

[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 example, the material may be represented as a virtual material by modeling, defining, and calculating the parameters of the material in a virtual space. According to some embodiments, representing a material as a virtual material may include, for example, modeling the material by a numerical model. According to some embodiments, virtually discretizing a material into a plurality of material portions may be accomplished in one step with representing the material as a virtual material, or in a continuous step after representing the material as a virtual material. In an embodiment, a material portion in a plurality of material portions may include different amounts of material for a paper product. The material may be (purely) virtually discretized while existing as a continuous material, with no corresponding separators between (at least some) material portions in the real world (e.g., no real-world tags such as RFID, and no real-world separators between different material portions).

[0015] In some embodiments, material portions may be defined by virtually discretizing the material based on or taking into account a real discretization of the material. Such a real discretization may be a division of the material into batches or rolls, etc. A batch may be a load of a processing step, such as a transport or material transformation step. For example, in paper processing, a paper roll may be defined as a material division, for example. In some embodiments, the virtual discretization of the material may be finer than the real discretization of the material (e.g., so that a batch contains multiple virtual material portions, with no real-world separators between material divisions of the batch).

[0016] In some embodiments, the material portion as used herein may be defined by virtually discretizing a continuous flux of the bulk material. Specifically, a continuous flux may be understood herein as an uninterrupted flux, in particular a flux that is uninterrupted over a period of time, such as uninterrupted over a period of time of at least 10 minutes, in particular at least 30 minutes or at least 1 hour. For example, the amount of material transported in a continuous material flux during a specified amount of time may be defined as a material portion, such as the amount of processed material transported by a conveyor during a period of time. According to some embodiments, the uninterrupted flux may be interrupted depending on the order situation or other process parameters, and may specifically not depend on a predetermined time interval.

[0017] The continuous flow material used herein may be understood as a material that flows substantially continuously. Specifically, the continuous flow material used herein may be understood as a material that passes substantially continuously through a process step. According to some embodiments, the term "continuously flowing material" may include a material that flows substantially continuously through the process in sections. For example, the material may flow substantially continuously in a section (the section may be a process section or a section of the material that includes some process steps). Specifically, "continuously flowing material" does not exclude large batches such as reels, in which materials are continuously processed. In addition, in this context, "continuous flow" may include different speeds at which materials pass through different process steps. According to some embodiments, the continuously flowing material may be virtually split into individual parts, for example, for reasons of representability or computability.

[0018] According to some embodiments, the material referred to herein may be a raw material for producing paper products, such as pulp, fiber, wood, wood blocks, wood fibers, waste paper, precursors of paper products, paper, cellulose, recycled cloth, and the like.

[0019] According to an embodiment, a material part representation associated with a material part may be generated. The material part representation may be generated in a data system, such as a database or a table. According to some embodiments, depending on the type of representation, the material part representation may be a data container including data of the material part and / or storing a collection of related information. In some embodiments, the representation used herein may be described as a database or a (data) storage device, such as a file storage device or a representation storage device, for example, the material part representation may be a database of material parts. According to some embodiments that may be combined with other embodiments described herein, the representation may be a sub-database or a partial database of a database of a processing system.

[0020] In an embodiment, generating the material portion representation associated with the material portion comprises generating properties of the material portion representation, the properties being indicative of characteristics of the material portion.

[0021] In some embodiments, the property comprises an extensional property indicating an extensional property of the material portion. The extensional property may depend on the material amount of the material portion, in particular be proportional to the material amount. For example, the extensional property may indicate at least one of: the mass of the material portion, the volume of the material portion, the length of the material portion (e.g. the length or thickness of a paper), or any combination thereof.

[0022] According to some embodiments, the attributes include an included attribute indicating an included property of the material portion. The included property may be at least substantially independent of the amount of the material. For example, the included attribute may indicate the density of the material portion, the particle size of the material portion (e.g., the particle size may refer to the fiber size of pulp), the viscosity of the material portion, the chemical composition of the material portion, the mechanical characteristics of the material portion (such as tensile strength), the color, the surface condition (e.g., smooth or convenient), or any combination thereof. The attributes, in particular the included attributes, may be generated depending on the type of industrial processing or the type of operation performed on the material portion. For example, the chemical composition of the material portion and / or the mechanical characteristics of the material portion may change during processing in different process steps. In an embodiment, the attributes may include a time attribute. For example, the time attribute may indicate the time, in particular the date and time, when the material portion representation was generated and / or the industrial processing of the material portion was started.

[0023] According to some embodiments, the properties of the material portion representation may include order information for an order of paper products. For example, the material portion representation described herein may include expected start and end times for processing, information about urgency and / or process priority, and / or desired characteristics of the paper product (such as thickness, density, color, etc.). According to some embodiments, the order information for the material portion representation may come from an MES (Manufacturing Execution System) and may be transmitted to the material portion representation, in particular to each material portion representation individually.

[0024] Typically, the properties of the material portion representation may include data on environmental aspects of the P&P process, such as CO2 emissions, energy consumption, energy consumption costs (particularly regularly updated energy consumption costs), used resources (such as pulp, fiber, water, solvents, chemicals, in particular additional information on the quality of chemicals), the concentration of recycled materials, and the recyclability of the actual materials, etc. Specifically, the properties may include environmental information based on greenhouse gas (such as carbon dioxide or methane) emissions and / or based on environmental pollution. The environmental information may include energy consumption. The energy consumption may indicate the fuel energy consumed and / or the electrical energy consumed. The environmental information may include information on the source of the energy used. The environmental information may include process efficiency, which may, for example, indicate the efficiency of processing the material portion in the process step. According to some embodiments, the data of the material portion representation may include monetary costs, such as indicating the monetary costs of the energy consumed and / or the monetary costs associated with the wear and tear of the machines used in the process step. The costs may specifically include one or any combination of environmental costs, energy consumption costs, fuel costs, carbon emission costs, process efficiency costs, and monetary costs.

[0025] According to some embodiments, the attribute may include a location attribute indicating the current location of the material portion. Specifically, the location attribute may be associated with a process step currently being performed on the material portion. In some embodiments, the material portion representation may include a code for identifying the material portion, in particular for uniquely identifying the material portion. The code may include, for example, a number or a string of characters.

[0026] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a 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 or any combination of the following: transporting a material portion, storing a material portion, a process of changing the intrinsic properties of a material portion, and a process of changing the extrinsic properties of a material portion. Other examples of process steps may be the generation of pulp, a drying process step, a cutting process step, a winding process step, an unwinding process step, and the like. Typically, the process of changing the intrinsic properties of a material portion may include a process of changing the density, grade or fiber size of the material portion or the material composition, the humidity in the material, or the proportion of water (or solvent), and the like. Typically, the process of changing the extrinsic properties of a material portion may include a process of changing the volume or mass of a material portion. For example, a drying process may result in a change in mass.

[0027] According to an embodiment, the properties of the material portion representation may be updated in at least some of the plurality of process steps. Typically, the properties of the material portion representation may be modified by a corresponding virtual process step function representing the corresponding process step. According to some embodiments, the modification comprises modifying at least one property of the material portion representation.

[0028] Specifically, the attributes can be updated based on the process step and the corresponding virtual process step function, such as a process model based on the process step, process sensor data of the process step and / or user input data based on the process step. The process model or virtual process step function may include a mathematical function or a lookup table for determining updated attributes, in particular updated attributes indicating material properties, which change during the process step. In general, the virtual process step function can follow different modeling paradigms, such as from simple linear models to partial differential equations. The process model or virtual process step function can use processing conditions as input to determine the updated attributes. The process model or virtual process step function can specifically use process sensor data and / or user input data as input to determine the updated attributes. The process sensor data and / or user input data can be received, for example, by a processor configured to update the attributes through a distributed control system (DCS) or a fleet management system. For example, the included attributes can be updated in response to a process that changes the included characteristics of the material part. In some embodiments, before updating the attributes of the material part representation, one or more attributes can be recorded in the attribute history associated with the material part representation.

[0029] Typically, at least two process stages of the processing of the continuous flow 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 (particularly in the material flow direction or in the material flow direction from the beginning of the process to the paper product). According to some embodiments, in this context, the term "located upstream" can be understood as relative to the named process step. For example, the merging process step located upstream of the splitting process step only refers to the splitting process step, in which the material part being processed is split into a split resource material part and a remaining material part. Therefore, the merging process step located upstream of the described splitting process step refers to the merging process step in which the mergeable resource material part is merged into the material. The same applies to the term "located downstream". In other words, the terms "upstream" and "downstream" only refer to the processing sections described in the context of the terms "upstream" and "downstream". Typically, other processing sections not cited in the context are not affected (for example, the processing section refers to watering the waste paper and removing plastics therefrom, or adding water or another solvent to the material at the beginning of the process). Typically, the merging process stage includes merging the mergeable resource material part into the material. More typically, the merging process stage can include the process step in which the mergeable resource material part is merged into the material. According to some embodiments, the splitting process stage comprises splitting the split resource material parts from the material. Typically, the splitting process stage comprises the process step of splitting the split resource material parts from the material.

[0030] According to some embodiments, the material portion representation is present in (and specifically processed in) at least one process stage. According to some embodiments, the representation described herein may only be present in (and therefore can be processed in) one process stage. For example, the first material portion representation in the split process stage may not be present in the merge process stage (and vice versa). Typically, the material portion present in the merge process stage (typically upstream of the split process stage) may be associated with another (or new) representation outside the representation present in the split process stage. It is understandable that a representation that is only present in one process stage (or, according to some embodiments, present in at least one of at least two process stages) can be processed in several process steps at the same time. Typically, due to the size of the material portion associated with the representation, it may be possible to process the representation in several (especially different) process steps at the same time.

[0031] It is to be understood that the term "mergeable resource material portion" or "mergeable resource material portion" or "mergeable resource material portion representation" does not necessarily refer to the ability of a material to be merged. According to some embodiments, almost all material portions or material portions can be merged, especially in pulp and paper processes. According to some embodiments, a mergeable material may include the meaning of a material to be merged.

[0032] According to an embodiment, for each process step in a plurality of process steps, a historical data set may be generated. Specifically, the historical data set may indicate a process step, a material portion representation, and / or one or more key performance indicators (KPIs). The historical data set may be generated in a data system, such as a database or a table. The historical data may include metadata, such as a timestamp, metadata indicating the origin system, or properties of the representation of the material portion (specifically including parameters of particular interest, such as emissions data, environmental data, data on energy consumption, etc.).

[0033] According to an embodiment, an aggregate value (e.g., a KPI) may be determined based on a historical data set. In an embodiment, the aggregate value may be determined based on a historical data set associated with or indicative of a material portion representation. The aggregate value may be determined based on values ​​of the historical data set, wherein the historical data set is associated with or indicative of a material portion representation.

[0034] According to some embodiments, splitting the material portion representation in the splitting process stage may include generating at least two split material portion representations (in particular a split resource material portion representation and a remaining material portion representation), each of the at least two split material portion representations being associated with a material sub-portion of the material portion. In an embodiment, splitting includes associating each of the at least two split material portion representations with a property of the material portion representation (or even with a historical data set). In particular, splitting includes associating each of the at least two split material portion representations at least partially (such as proportionally) with a property of the material portion representation (or with a historical data set).

[0035] Typically, the splitting includes generating a splitting property of the split material portion representation. Generating the splitting property may include assigning a value of an extensional property of the material portion representation to the extensional splitting property of the split material portion representation in proportion. For example, if each of the two material sub-portions is defined as half of a material portion, half of the mass value of an extensional property indicating the mass of the material portion may be assigned to the extensional splitting property of each of the split material portion representations in the split material portion representation.

[0036] In some embodiments, generating the splitting attributes of the split material portion representation may include generating an included splitting attribute for each split material portion representation in the split material portion representation. The included splitting attribute may have the same value as the included attribute of the material portion. Specifically, the included splitting attribute of the split material portion representation may have the same value. For example, the material portion representation associated with the material portion may have an included attribute indicating the density of the material. Split material portion representations may be generated, each of which has an included splitting attribute indicating a density value. In some embodiments, for each split material portion representation in the split material portion representation, the included splitting attribute may have different values. Relative to the included attribute of the material portion, the included splitting attribute may have different values. For example, the density of a material portion (such as an edge portion of a material) may be lower than that of a middle portion of the material. Two split material portion representations with different density values ​​may be generated from the material split edge portion.

[0037] According to some embodiments, during the merging process stage, a material portion representation (such as a mergeable resource material portion representation) can be merged with another material portion representation (such as an upstream material portion representation). Typically, the upstream material portion representation is associated with the upstream material portion of the material. Specifically, the merging includes generating a merged material portion representation, the merged material portion representation being associated with the upstream material portion and the mergeable resource material portion. In an embodiment, the merging includes associating the merged material portion representation with an attribute indicating the upstream material portion representation and other attributes indicating the mergeable resource material portion representation.

[0038] In some embodiments, the merging includes generating a merged attribute of the merged material portion representation. Generating the merged attribute may, for example, include generating a merged value of a KPI. Generating the merged attribute may include, for example, adding an extensional attribute of the upstream material portion representation and a corresponding extensional attribute of the mergeable resource material portion representation. For example, an extensional attribute indicating the corresponding quality of the upstream material portion representation and the mergeable resource material portion representation may be added to obtain a merged extensional attribute of the merged material portion representation.

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

[0040] According to some embodiments, the mergeable resource material portion representation may include some attributes (or corresponding portions of attributes) based on the attributes of the downstream material portion representation. In some embodiments, the mergeable resource material portion was previously split from a previous or preceding downstream material portion and may therefore be a split portion of a previous upstream material portion. Specifically, the previous downstream material portion may be a material portion that was processed by the process before the actual or observed process occurred (e.g., at any time immediately before or before). The attributes of the mergeable material portion may include a split portion of the downstream material portion.

[0041] Typically, during the P&P process, attributes (internal, such as different asset parameters, and external, such as different electricity prices or different pulp sources) may change as an order (for a product) is processed. According to some embodiments, each time one of the related attributes changes, a new representation may be created to reflect the changed attribute. Additionally, events may trigger a new representation, or a split into two representations, such as when a sheet breaks or a roll is full and needs to be changed.

[0042] In general, methods according to embodiments described herein may include generating additional representations that may be combined and / or separated from material portion representations during various process steps. For example, some process steps may use additional resources (such as fibers, pulp, waste paper, water, solvents), chemicals (e.g., bleach, inks, fillers, chemicals for inducing defined properties of paper products, such as color, light fastness, absorption properties, stability, etc.), or energy (such as electrical energy, thermal energy, steam energy, transportation energy, etc.) to treat the material. In some embodiments, water may be replaced by another solvent (such as alcohol, etc.). According to some embodiments, the additional representations described herein may include additional material portion representations (e.g., a resource material portion representation, a recycled material portion representation, a fiber material portion representation, a pulp material portion representation), an input material portion representation (particularly for materials that are put into the process from the beginning, such as pulp and chemicals), a chemical portion representation (particularly for chemicals used in the processing), an energy portion representation (particularly for electrical energy, thermal energy, etc.), a CO2 portion representation (particularly a representation of CO2 emissions generated during processing) and a product order representation (specifically including data about orders for paper products, for example from an MES, as explained in detail below).

[0043] According to an embodiment, a system for industrial processing may be configured for multiple process steps, in particular at least two process stages including multiple process steps. For example, the system may include a distributed control system (DCS) for controlling and / or monitoring multiple 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 described herein may include connecting the material flow digital twin to other information systems of the processing system, such as being connected to at least one of the MES, DCS, and ERP. Specifically, the material flow digital twin may be connected to the DCS to adapt the material flow digital twin to current processing data (such as sensor data, measurement data, feedback data, etc.), in particular for updating the material flow digital twin based on measurement data. Typically, the material flow digital twin may be connected to the MES for retrieving information on the current order, in particular for giving feedback to the MES to schedule processing orders. Specifically, the order data from the MES may be part of the representation attributes described herein. For example, order data from the MES may include order time, expected start of processing, expected end of processing, data on desired properties of paper products, data on expected costs of paper products, data on acceptable emissions of the process, data on acceptable energy consumption, etc. Typically, the material flow digital twin may be connected to the ERP to obtain information about input materials and orders to the processing system, such as data and properties of materials used as resources or base materials, water or solvents to be used, energy to be used, chemicals to be used, etc.

[0044] According to some embodiments, the mergeable resource material portion and the split resource material portion used in the production process can be parts of resource materials. Generally, resource materials can flow from the split process stage to the merge process stage (this can be considered as the opposite direction of the material flow through the process stages and steps, especially from the process steps of the merge process stage to the process steps of the split process stage). The direction of the material flow and the resource material flow is explained in detail with respect to the following figures. Generally, resource materials can be a cumulative resource that can provide resource materials for the process of producing paper products. In some embodiments, resource materials can be a storage or recycling of a material that is not part of a complete paper product. In some embodiments, resource materials may appear when a part of the material is taken out from the process steps leading to a complete paper product. For example, the edge portion of the (almost complete) processing material can be cut off and can be provided to (or as) resource materials. In some embodiments, paper products that do not meet order standards (e.g., regarding thickness, color, roughness, size or any other characteristics) can be input to resource materials (or can form resource materials). According to some embodiments, resource materials (or parts thereof) can be merged with or added to the continuously flowing material to produce paper products.

[0045] According to some embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, resource materials can be represented as virtual resource materials (similar to materials represented as material parts virtually) including multiple resource material parts. Typically, multiple resource material parts can be associated with multiple resource material part representations, respectively. According to some embodiments, resource material part representations can be generated by splitting resource material part representations from corresponding material part representations. For example, resource material part representations can be split from downstream material part representations (in some examples, downstream material part representations may be associated with edge portions of the material, which are cut from the material to obtain complete paper products with precise edges). According to some embodiments, multiple resource material part representations may include (among other things or only include) the mergeable resource material part representations and split resource material part representations described in the above embodiments.

[0046] Additionally or alternatively, resource material can be represented by main resource material.For example, in some embodiments, main resource material can be understood as a pool representation of a cumulative resource material portion.The method described in the embodiments herein may include merging split resource material portion representation with main resource material representation.For example, split resource material portion representation is split from downstream material portion representation, and then merged with main resource material representation.The method according to the embodiments described herein may also include splitting mergeable resource material portion representation from main resource material representation.For example, mergeable resource material portion representation is first split from main resource material representation, and then merged into upstream material portion representation (or more generally, merged into material portion representation).

[0047] According to embodiments described herein, the system for producing paper products described herein may include a processor. The system may 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 an embodiment, the processor may include a central processing unit (CPU). In order to facilitate the operation of the embodiments described herein, the processor may be a general-purpose computer processor in any form of a general-purpose computer processor that can be used in an industrial setting. A memory device containing a 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 easily available memory devices, such as a random access memory, a read-only memory, a floppy disk, a hard disk, or any other form of local or remote digital storage device. The processor may be coupled to a support circuit to support the processor in a conventional manner. These circuits may include cache, power supply, clock circuit, input / output circuit system and related subsystems, etc. For example, the processor may be configured to receive process sensor data and / or user input data via an input circuit system.

[0049] According to the embodiments described herein, in particular according to the methods described herein, instructions for industrial processing can be stored in a computer-readable medium as software routines, generally referred to as recipes. When executed by a processor, the software routine transforms a general-purpose computer into a special-purpose computer, and can cause the system to perform the method or any operation of industrial processing according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Although the method of the present disclosure can be implemented as a software routine, some method operations disclosed herein can be performed in hardware and by software. Therefore, the embodiments can be implemented in software executed on a computer system, and can be implemented in hardware as a dedicated integrated circuit or other type of hardware implementation, or in a combination of software and hardware.

[0050] According to the embodiments described herein, the methods of the present disclosure may be performed using a computer program, software, a computer software product and / or a system for industrial processing, which may have a processor, a computer-readable medium, a memory device, a user interface and / or input and output devices that communicate with corresponding components of the system for industrial processing.

[0051] In embodiments, software that performs the methods or operations of the embodiments described herein may run concurrently with the industrial process, particularly in real time. The software may perform the operations of the method in an event-triggered manner, such as upon completion of a process step or upon passage of a fixed time increment. Some embodiments may enable simulation of industrial processes, such as as discrete event simulations or as fixed increment time simulations, to run what-if scenarios or determine optimal process set points for a given scenario.

[0052] Embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a comprehensive and transparent view of emissions and environmental aspects and impacts in the industrial processing of paper and pulp. Embodiments may allow for the determination of precise information about KPIs (key performance indicators) associated with material processing. Specifically, embodiments may allow for the determination of precise information about emissions and environmental aspects of the process for each individual product unit. Embodiments may be beneficial to legislators in setting and enforcing regulations in a meaningful way. Embodiments may enable producers to comply with regulations, certify their products, promote their products, improve emissions, or improve their environmental footprint. For example, similar products produced under different conditions may have different environmental footprints. Specifically, products may be promoted and sold based on environmental footprint and other costs. Customers may get a transparent view of the environmental footprint of the paper products they purchase.

[0053] Other aspects, advantages and features of the disclosure are apparent from the claims, the description and the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0054] The attached drawings relate to embodiments of the present disclosure and are described below:

[0055] Figure 1 schematically illustrates a method of producing a paper product according to an embodiment described herein;

[0056] Figure 2 Schematically illustrates one aspect of a method for producing a paper product according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0057] Figure 3 Schematically illustrates one aspect of a method for producing a paper product according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0058] Figure 4 and 5 A flowchart showing a method of producing a paper product according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0059] Figures 6 to 9 A system and process for producing paper products according to an embodiment of the present disclosure are schematically illustrated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0060] Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the present disclosure, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the drawings, the same reference numerals refer to the same components. Generally, only the differences relative to the various embodiments are described. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the present disclosure and is not intended to be a limitation of the present disclosure. For example, a feature illustrated or described as a part of one embodiment may be used in other embodiments or used in combination with other embodiments to produce yet another embodiment. The description is intended to include such modifications and variations.

[0061] Figure 1A schematic diagram of a process for producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein is shown. Figure 1 Specifically, a virtual process with a virtual material 105 is shown. The virtual material 105 is discretized into a plurality of virtual material parts 110. Each of the virtual material parts 110 is associated with a corresponding material part representation 120. As explained above, each of the representations contains one or more properties of the material part, which can be changed and modified in at least two process stages 300 and 301. According to the embodiments described herein, the process stage 300 can be represented as a merged process stage, and the process stage 301 can be represented as a split process stage. Each of the process stages may include several process step functions 130, 131, 132 corresponding to corresponding process steps of the real process. For simplicity (but not limiting the embodiments of the present disclosure), in Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 3 , the process stage 300 includes only one process step function 130. Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 3 , process stage 301 includes two process step functions 131 and 132 .

[0062] According to the embodiments described herein, the material portion representation 120 is modified by each of the process step functions 130, 131, 132 while "conducting" the production process in the direction indicated by the arrows between the process step functions 130, 131 and 132. When referring to the material portion representation, the direction indicated by the arrows between the individual process steps can be represented as the "flow" direction, and the terms "upstream" and "downstream" should be considered in this direction. For example, the process step function 132 is located downstream of the process step functions 130 and 131. Therefore, the process step function 130 can be represented as the upstream of the process step function 132. The same applies to the process stage, in which the merge process stage 300 is located upstream of the split process step function 301. In general, the terms "upstream" and "downstream" can be understood in the direct context in which they appear, particularly with respect to the process steps or process stages they describe (as explained in detail above). In some embodiments, the order of the material portion representation 120 can be changed, for example if the material portion representation is processed in a process step in which a material roll is unwound (e.g., for cutting purposes).

[0063] According to some embodiments, the material portion representation undergoes a process step function and reaches a split process step function 132 (typically part of the split process stage 301). In the split process step function 132, the downstream material representation 122 is split into a remaining material portion representation 124 (which may correspond to a paper product or a precursor of a paper product, for example) and a split resource material portion representation 123. In some embodiments, the split resource material portion representation 123 may be represented as part of the downstream material portion representation 122.

[0064] Typically, split resource material portion representation 123 may be sent in circulation 125, in particular recycled. According to some embodiments, split resource material portion representation 123 may be part of multiple resource material portion representations 128. Figure 1 In the example shown, resource materials are represented by a plurality of resource material portion representations 128, particularly in recycling cycles 125. Additionally or alternatively, resource materials may be represented as a main resource material representation, and split material portion representations 123 may be merged with the main resource material representation.

[0065] like Figure 1 , loop 125 directs resource material portion 128 to process step function 130 upstream of process step function 132. Typically, resource material portion representation 128 flows from split process stage 310 to merge process stage 300 (thus, specifically, in a direction opposite to the previous flow direction of continuously flowing material from one process step function to the next in the process).

[0066] According to some embodiments, the mergeable material portion representation 127 can also be a part of the resource material portion representation (or, in some embodiments, the main resource material representation). Generally, the mergeable material portion representation 127 can be merged into the material portion representation in the merge process stage 300, particularly in the merge process step function 130. Specifically, the mergeable material portion representation 127 can be merged into the upstream material portion representation 121. In this way, resource materials (particularly recycled resource materials from the same process) can be added to the materials of the process. According to some embodiments described herein, the properties of the merged material portion representation are added to the corresponding material portion representation and exist therein.

[0067] Figure 2 An enlarged view of an example of a material portion representation 120 having a number of attributes 129 stored therein is shown. According to some embodiments, a representation may be understood as a data container. It may also be understood that Figure 2The attributes 129 shown are typically different attributes as described above. For example, the attributes may refer to mass, density, order details, emission details, details about energy consumption, surface condition, mechanical properties (such as tensile strength), etc.

[0068] Figure 3 A more detailed view of the process step function 131 is shown. In the example shown, three material portions 110 and their corresponding material portion representations 120 are processed in the process step function 131. Figure 3 In the process step function 131, the additional representation 126 is merged with the material portion representation 120 present in the process step function 131. For example, the additional representation 126 may represent energy input into the process (e.g., for drying purposes) or chemicals or additional materials such as water or solvents.

[0069] Despite Figure 3 , but each process step function can only process one representation and / or process step function 131 may not be able to process any representation while representations are processed in other process step functions and / or a representation may be large enough to exist 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 a material portion (and therefore the size of a material portion representation) may depend on one or more attributes. For example, attributes such as order details or energy costs may change, and a change in one of these attributes (particularly attributes related to a KPI) may result in the generation of a new material portion representation (thus defining the size of the previous representation).

[0070] Figure 4 and 5 A flow chart of a method for processing a material for producing a paper product is shown. According to an embodiment described herein, the method 200 includes representing the material as a virtual material in block 210 and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions. In general, the contents of block 210 can 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. Figure 1 In block 220, the method generally includes generating material portion representations 120 associated with the material portions 110, respectively. Figure 110 is also schematically illustrated by representations 120, which are shown coupled or associated with the corresponding material parts. Typically, the generation of the material part representations 120 includes generating or assigning corresponding attributes 124 to each of the material part representations 120. As explained in detail above, the attributes 124 indicate characteristics of the corresponding material part 110. According to some embodiments, the attributes may refer to characteristics of interest, such as KPIs (e.g., emissions data, energy consumption data, characteristics of a product, goals of a process that may be part of an order, etc.).

[0071] According to the embodiments described herein, block 230 includes modifying the material portion representation 120 (in the example of FIG. 1 ) by means of virtual process step functions 130 to 132 representing corresponding process steps 150 to 152. Figures 6 to 9 1 and explained in detail with respect to these figures). Generally, modifying a material part representation may mean modifying at least one property 124 of the material part representation. Generally, modifying may mean modifying the value of the corresponding property, in particular corresponding to the result of a process step function performed with the property of the material part representation.

[0072] like Figure 1 As shown, the process according to the embodiments described herein generally includes a merging process stage 300 (including merging the mergeable resource material portion into the material 140) and a splitting process stage 301 including a splitting process stage (including splitting the split resource material portion from the material). According to some embodiments described herein, the method 200 includes splitting a portion of the downstream material portion representation 122 associated with the downstream material portion into a split resource material portion representation 123 associated with the split resource material portion and a remaining material portion representation 124 for the remaining downstream material portion in box 240. For example, the remaining portion representation 124 can be a representation of a paper product obtained by the process. According to some embodiments, the portion split from the downstream material portion representation can correspond to the material portion split from the material in the real process. For example, the edge of the paper roll may be cut off and may form a split material portion. In some embodiments, a portion of the paper product may not meet the quality standards and is not allowed as a paper product. In some embodiments, such a portion that does not meet the quality standards can form a split material portion. According to some embodiments, the split material can be split from the material at any time point in the process, such as a time point when the paper product is not yet easy to handle. For example, during the precursor stage of a paper product, a portion of the material may be separated out.

[0073] At block 250, method 200 includes merging the mergeable resource material portion representation 127 with the upstream material portion representation 121 associated with the upstream material portion, such as Figure 1Shown exemplarily. According to some embodiments, merging a mergeable resource material portion representation with an upstream material portion representation may correspond to adding recycled material to the material for processing. The recycled material is in particular material from the same process. According to some embodiments, the recycled material may at least partially be or include portions of split material split from a paper product or previously processed material. Thus, the mergeable resource material portion representation may include portions of the split material portion representation, or portions of the split material portion representation from an earlier point in time in the process.

[0074] Figure 5 Shows relative to Figure 4 The method 200 described above is not limited to the loop 125 for directing the split material portion representation to the material. According to some embodiments, the mergeable resource material portion representation can be merged into the upstream material portion representation, for example, in a process step of preparing pulp for a pulping and papermaking process. In some embodiments, the mergeable resource material portion representation can be merged into the upstream material portion representation in a process step of adding an additional representation to the material. It is understood that the arrow of loop 125 can end in another block of the method, rather than as shown. Figure 5 The first block of the method 200 is shown by way of example. According to some embodiments, the arrow of the loop 125 may start in another block of the method 200 than the last block.

[0075] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a method or system for producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein is shown. Figure 6 A material flow digital twin 160 of a paper machine is shown exemplarily. The material portion representations 120 may, for example, be associated with different kinds of pulp. According to some embodiments, the resource material portion representation 127 is also used as material input for the material flow digital twin 160. Typically, the different material portion representations 120 and 127 may be merged into one merged material flow representation 520, which is directed to the material flow digital twin 160 for modeling the paper production process in the paper machine. Additionally, the energy representations 320 (which may come from different energy sources) may be merged into one merged energy representation 420. The merged energy representation 420 is also directed to the material flow digital twin 160 for modeling the paper production process in the paper machine. After processing (or more precisely, after modeling the paper production process with the representations), the result is typically an emission energy representation 620, a paper product representation 621 and a waste representation 622. As Figure 6As shown exemplarily, loop 125 may direct a split resource material part representation (split during one of the process step functions of the material flow digital twin) to a material part representation, in particular to a resource material part representation 127 .

[0076] For example, the edges of a paper roll are typically cut off to obtain a clean edge, resulting in a break. For example, the paper can be sliced ​​or split in the cross-machine direction. Alternatively or additionally, the paper on the roll can be sliced ​​or split in the machine direction. The resulting break can generally be considered as a new representation (e.g., a split resource material portion representation cut from an existing material portion representation). According to some embodiments, since the split resource material portion representation may be fed back into the pulping and papermaking process again, the representation may be merged back into other representations (e.g., merged into an upstream material portion representation), such as Figure 6 shown.

[0077] According to some embodiments, when the roll is trimmed according to one or more orders, the cuts may be made along the machine direction. In this case, representation properties such as paper width may change, while other properties remain unchanged. If different property values ​​(e.g., paper thickness) have been measured along the transverse axis of movement during paper creation, the representation may have been split along the machine direction at this point. Alternatively, the representation may acquire additional properties describing the differences along the transverse profile.

[0078] According to some embodiments described herein, representations may be sliced ​​or split according to fixed time intervals (e.g., every 60 seconds). Additionally (in addition to fixed time interval slicing), representations may be generated (either by new generation or splitting) in case of events (e.g., changes in attributes): the change in the event may be taken into account immediately, resulting in a smaller representation. Alternatively, these effects may be ignored until a new representation is started after a fixed time interval. This is less precise, but may be precise enough, depending on the use case.

[0079] Often, a combination (usually a split) of representations (or their parts) can be used to correctly calculate energy and CO2 consumption. In cases where energy is modeled as a representation, a combined representation may also be useful. In this case, the energy representation can often be combined and fed into the material part representation, such as Figure 6 Depending on the inputs in the process (eg paper machine), different representations (such as different pulp representations and chemical representations) may also be combined.

[0080] In some embodiments, as representations are routed through the material flow digital twin, where they may be handed off from one model or process step function to the next (or in parallel, depending on the modeling network), the data within the representation is manipulated according to the corresponding resolution scale. According to some embodiments, the paper machine may be faster than the model may need to complete the calculation. In one example, it may take about 8 seconds in total to go from the wet end to the dry end of the paper machine, but each of several models may take 2 to 4 seconds to calculate, so the representation cannot flow through the material flow digital twin 160 in real time because the model calculation may take about 12 seconds in total (depending on the number and kind of process steps). In this case, the model calculation of the representation will be queued, which means that once the representation "arrives", the first model calculation will start, and other calculations will start when the predecessor calculations are completed. This method works if the representation does represent a long enough time interval (here more than 12 seconds). If the representation represents a shorter time interval (for example, due to some event), the start of the calculation may also be queued. In some embodiments, it can be considered that, on average, the calculation time is shorter than the average time represented by the representation, so that the calculation can catch up. For example, a material flow digital twin can be run on an edge device (on Figure 7 and 8 exemplarily shown as edge device 180 in FIG. 1 ). Data entering and exiting the edge device can be transmitted via standardized interfaces and / or protocols, such as via OPC UA, REST, MQTT, and stored in a database, a time series database, or a file-based storage device.

[0081] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of a system and method for producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein is shown. Figure 7The process and system start with an order 181, which may contain order data, such as details about the order, the desired paper product, the expected cost of the paper product, the processing time, the processing time limit, data on expected emissions occurring during processing, data on expected energy consumption, etc. According to some embodiments, the order can be represented as an order representation. The order 181 can typically be forwarded to an ERP 170 (Enterprise Resource Planning) and is typically forwarded to an MES 171 (Manufacturing Execution System). Typically, ERP and MES are systems or programs for planning processes, and according to some embodiments, they are coupled to the digital twin of the process. According to some embodiments, the MES and ERP generate requirements 182 for material part representations to be processed in the process. Typically, the requirements 182 may include data related to the order, and according to some embodiments, may be added as attributes to the material part representation. In some embodiments, the requirements 182 (typically from the order 181) can be checked (e.g., in a regular or continuous manner) and updated where appropriate. Typically, the requirements 182 are sent to the material flow digital twin 160 of the process. According to some embodiments, the material flow digital twin 160 may be understood as a virtual representation used as a real-time digital counterpart of a physical object or process. Specifically, the digital twin used herein may include different models for representing a process including several process steps.

[0082] like Figure 7 As can be seen in , an edge device 180 may be provided to run the material flow digital twin 160. According to some embodiments, the model of the material flow digital twin may be implemented as an FMU (Functional Model Unit) and may typically be created by different software. In some embodiments, the FMUs may be designed to be compatible with each other so that they may be connected. According to some embodiments, an edge device may be selected to have sufficient computing power (e.g., more powerful than a typical controller) to execute the model, host the MF-DT simulator, and generally be close to the process (closer than the cloud) to continuously provide real-time execution of the model based on information retrieved from the DCS and / or directly from assets or components of the pulp and paper process.

[0083] exist Figure 7 In FIG. 1 , the actual process is illustrated by process steps 150, 151 and 152 and assets 140. Assets 140 may include, for example, materials, water, solvents, chemicals, pulp, waste paper, resource materials, etc. Typically, assets are used in the process in different process steps during the process (e.g., Figure 71 and 126). In addition, energy 141 is added to the process. Virtual process step functions 130, 131, and 132 are run that substantially correspond to a real process having process steps 150, 151, and 152. According to the embodiments described herein, process step functions 130, 131, and 132 are run with representations 120, 126, which may include material portion representations 120 and additional representations 126 that reference additional components for the process, such as chemicals, water, solvents, energy, etc.

[0084] According to some embodiments, Figure 7 The DCS 172 in the material flow digital twin 160 is connected to the material flow digital twin 160. For example, the digital twin can connect and update its model based on the DCS 172 and / or other online / offline information. For example, in order to obtain online values, the DCS 172 is connected to the digital twin 160. In some embodiments, these online values ​​can be used to update and improve the digital twin over time.

[0085] According to some embodiments, the digital twin 160 may be able to calculate emissions (such as CO2) and energy trends based on the model. Emissions and energy trends can be provided as feedback to the MES 171. Therefore, in some embodiments, the digital twin can be connected to both the MES and the DCS. Through the DCS, the FMU (running within the digital twin) can retrieve online data from the process, such as Figure 7 According to some embodiments described herein, by measuring the output properties of paper (online and offline) and feeding the online values ​​of the process back to MF-DT, the model can learn iteratively, thereby achieving better prediction capabilities.

[0086] Figure 7 Representations 120, 126 through a material flow digital twin 160 are shown exemplarily. According to some embodiments, an order (representation) 181 may be provided from a customer and may be introduced into an ERP system 170 and forwarded to an MES 171 which may schedule the order. According to some embodiments, the MES 171 is aware of the requirements of the order and triggers a DCS 172 (or similar equipment) which controls the assets and equipment for producing paper. Typically, for paper production, different sections (e.g., forming, pressing sections, dryer sections) are used. Used resources such as pulp, chemicals, and water or solvents (represented as corresponding representations in the material flow digital twin 160) are fed into the first section (or where needed) and the process is continued. In addition, the process also uses energy in the form of electrical energy and heat / steam (represented as energy representations). According to some embodiments, the process stages used herein may include one or more process sections.

[0087] like Figure 7As can be seen in , the process produces a paper product 183, which can be, for example, a paper roll. In some embodiments, with the help of the material flow digital twin, the virtual process functions and the representation, a digital product certificate 184 can be generated. For example, this can be achieved by considering the representation of the material, resource and energy contribution and the representation of each ordered product. Typically, the digital twin 160 can save all energy-related information, allowing the calculation of KPIs such as the energy consumption of each roll, each section within a roll or each ordered product, which can help the digital product certificate. As explained in detail above, the properties of the representation will change (e.g., less moisture content) due to the function of each process step. At the end of the process, according to some embodiments described herein, the representation (e.g., the previous order representation) can be enriched with information from the process, and the resulting product (e.g., a paper roll) can be represented as a digital product certificate. Typically, all information about energy consumption, CO2, paper material properties, and used chemicals and water are collected in (multiple) material part representations, and the material part representations can be used as a digital product certificate for the resulting product.

[0088] Figure 8 Views are shown of systems and methods for producing paper products according to embodiments described herein. Figure 8 The system and method shown are similar to Figure 7 The system and method shown in the example of FIG. 1 may also include more interactions between real process steps 150, 151, 152 and virtual process step functions 130, 131, 132. Figure 8 In FIG. 1 , the interactions between process steps 150 , 151 , 152 and virtual process step functions 130 , 131 , 132 are shown with bold printed arrows.

[0089] Apart from Figure 8 In addition to the interactions shown, and additionally or alternatively to the MES affecting the content of the representation, scheduling within the MES 171 may also be affected by the input material representation and the attributes of the ordered product so that the required output attributes / quality (captured in the product certificate) are achieved.

[0090] exist Figure 8In the illustrated embodiment, the material flow digital twin 160 contains different models 130, 131, 132, 133 and 134, which can be process step functions (such as process step functions 130, 131 and 132), asset models (such as representations 120 associated with materials, resources, chemicals, water, energy, etc.), models for calculating representation KPIs (such as model 134), models of certain technologies (such as slicing or splitting model 133) and / or models for scheduling orders based on further optimization criteria (usually such as CO2 consumption or energy consumption). According to some embodiments, the models can be derived from machine learning or first principles. Typically, when the material flow digital twin 160 obtains energy information in the form of energy representations, these representations can carry information about the CO2 emissions generated by this energy (during power generation, transportation). Energy trends (whether from the production or consumption side) may also play a role in this calculation. According to some embodiments, CO2 information of resources (pulp, chemicals...) also plays a role in the CO2 calculation. In order to apply current CO2 calculation regulations, CO2 calculation and reporting standards such as IEC standards can be used.

[0091] Since all information about energy consumption, CO2, paper material properties, used chemicals, water and / or solvents is collected within the material part representation, in some embodiments, the representation can be used as a digital product certificate for the resulting product. Typically, it can be simplified to the desired information. Therefore, according to some embodiments, the life cycle of the representation starts with an incoming customer order 181 and leads to the product certificate 184 being handed over to the customer again. Depending on the KPI values ​​listed in the product certificate 184, these values ​​can be calculated in their own modules or can be derived by the representation through the model representing the asset. In particular, when all meta-steps in the material flow digital twin are used, a product certificate with history can be obtained until the final consumer product level. It can provide input for optimal pruning plans, and product information can be used to remind missing input resources.

[0092] According to some embodiments, some of the calculated values ​​derived from the model may be material properties describing the final product 183 or an intermediate product. In this way, the input properties of the resources used in the process (such as pulp, waste paper, and chemicals) can be tracked and, after validating the material flow digital twin with historical data for fine-grained predictions, allow for prediction of the resulting material properties over time. This results in soft sensors of material properties that can be tracked in the embodiments described herein without the use of expensive equipment.

[0093] Typically, the way materials (pulp, chemicals, water…) flow through the pulp and paper system is similar to the way representations flow through the material flow digital twin. In the end, each representation usually corresponds to a segment of the resulting paper roll. If the paper on the roll is cut into pieces, the representation may correspond to these pieces (rolls or packages). Typically, since one order may result in more than one product unit and one unit may have different segments within it, there may be an n-to-m relationship between representations and paper units.

[0094] Typically, the quality and different properties of the paper can be checked as it is being produced, or even during production. In some embodiments, the results of the checks can be compared with the results calculated by the model to verify and possibly fine-tune the model. Once the model is accurate enough, one can start to optimize paper production by using the model, just virtually trying different options and arriving at a better production process (e.g. less energy or CO2, better paper quality, less time). This optimization can be done offline, since no feedback from the DCS is needed.

[0095] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of a system and method for producing a paper product according to embodiments described herein is shown. Fig. 9 Some of the elements shown correspond to Figure 7 and 8 Elements that are shown and explained in detail in , and will not be mentioned in detail (such as order 181 to add attributes to material representation 120, etc.). Fig. 9 , several process step functions 130, 131, 132 and 135 are shown as examples. The result of running the different process step functions on the material representation 120 is a remaining material portion representation 124 (which may correspond to a paper product or a precursor of a paper product, for example) and a KPI representation 195, which in some embodiments may be used as a product certification. In general, the KPI representation 195 may be calculated, for example, from the attributes stored in the remaining material portion representation 124.

[0096] For a better overview, Fig. 9 The resource material portion representation 123 is not shown (see, for example, Figure 1 ),but Fig. 9 1 shows a loop 125 for directing resource material parts to process step functions, for adding split resource material parts to one or more process step functions. According to some embodiments, Fig. 9A second loop 125 / 2 is shown. Typically, the second loop 125 / 2 begins at a process step function different from the last process step function that produces a paper product (typically a residual material portion). More typically, the second loop 125 / 2 directs a portion of one of the process step functions (process step function 132 in this example) that is split into a process step function to (e.g., to any) a process step function (process step function 131 in this example) that is upstream of process step function 132. It will be appreciated that in any process step function of the process, resource material portion representations may be split, and in any process step function of the process, resource material portion representations may be merged.

[0097] According to some embodiments described herein, the pulp and paper process can be modeled as a material digital twin 160, taking into account external and internal resource representations, energy representations, etc., such as Fig. 9 As shown. Different assets within the P&P process are represented by different models or process step functions 130, 131, 132, 135, typically one model is used for each asset (physical or data-based asset). Typically, for complex assets such as paper machines, each section (e.g., press section, dryer section) can be represented by a model or process step function. According to some embodiments described herein, the model or process step function may also consider energy and emissions. The material flow digital twin may include a model that describes how the representation is transformed. Typically, and as described above, representations can be merged or split according to certain rules or models and depending on the type of representation, such as resource representations, order representations, energy representations. In some embodiments, and depending on the modeling, energy can also be modeled as an input parameter of the model instead of a representation. According to some embodiments, in addition to quantity, the attributes of energy can also be the current energy price, the source of energy (e.g., net or local electricity generation from photovoltaic power generation or combined heat and power plants), and CO2 consumption (green energy versus other energy).

[0098] According to some embodiments, supplier management 190, energy management 191, CO2 management 192, and resource management 193 may be Fig. 9 Part of the system shown. For example, the model or DCS 172 can be connected to supplier management 190, energy management 191, CO2 management 192 and resource management 193 to exchange information about processes, models, actual measurement data, etc.

[0099] According to some embodiments, which may be combined with other embodiments described herein, the method and system may be specialized or focused on CO2 management. Thus, the attributes tracked and the models executed may be focused on calculating and minimizing the CO2 footprint of the output product. In some embodiments, soft sensors may be implemented with the help of MF-DTs that measure CO2. Specifically, the CO2 consumption of each process step / section and each product may be predicted. With the help of predictions, optimizations may be performed, products may be charged accordingly, and virtual product certificates may show compliance with CO2 and possible upcoming CO2 regulations.

[0100] Typically, the quality of the paper contained in one roll is not the same over the entire roll, and the quality of the paper is measured continuously or can be measured for different sections. The continuous flow of paper or pulp naturally leads to a digital twin of the entire roll, with certain quality profiles or measurements. Currently, there is no concept to represent these different sections as separate (sub) digital twins (representations), which already exist during paper production and are kept up to date during the process. According to the embodiments described herein, these sub-digital twins allow a more specific calculation of KPIs and thus allow a more detailed analysis. Currently, there is no digital twin of the paper roll at all - the energy consumed is only roughly distributed over the produced roll. Therefore, it is not possible to generate a product certificate even for the entire roll using known technology.

[0101] The paper industry has implemented a circular industry, where paper is collected from the end user and reused during production (e.g. in case the required quality is not met). Likewise, during the P&P process, paper from different ages is reused, e.g. when the paper cut or grade changes, quality attributes are not met, or the edges are cut off to have sharp edges on the sides. Current concepts do not cover the modeling of such break streams, which would allow to keep the knowledge of the quality of the broken paper. Usually, only the operator knows when which break stream is added to the process.

[0102] The embodiments described herein create representations of material, energy, resource and / or product order attributes. Further, the embodiments described herein allow predictions of output quality, energy and CO2 consumption, and provide these predictions to the user. Further, the embodiments described herein allow predictions to be compared with measurements to improve the MF-DT used in the embodiments described herein. The base model can be validated with historical data for fine-grained predictions. These predictions can be used to influence the MES. According to some embodiments, a product certificate with a complete history can be created up to the final consumer product level using all meta-steps in the MF-DT for prediction. From this, it can provide input for optimal pruning plans.

[0103] While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present 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 which follow.

Claims

1. A method (200) for producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material, the processing comprising at least two process stages (300; 301), the 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 representations (120) respectively associated with the material portions (110), wherein generating the material portion representations (120) comprises generating a corresponding attribute (124) of each of the material portion representations (120), the attribute (124) indicating a characteristic of the corresponding material portion (110); For at least some of the plurality of process steps, the material portion representation (120) is modified by respective virtual process step functions (130-132; 135) representing the respective process steps (150-152), wherein The modifying comprises modifying at least one property (124) of the material portion representation (120), The at least two process stages (150; 152) include 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 includes merging a mergeable resource material portion into the material (140), and wherein the splitting process stage includes splitting a split resource material portion from the material (140); The method (200) comprises, for the splitting process stage, whereby a downstream material portion of the material portions is processed in the splitting process stage: splitting a portion of a downstream material portion representation (122) in the material portion representation (120) into a split resource material portion representation (123) associated with the split resource material portion and a remaining material portion representation (124) for the remaining downstream material portion, the downstream material portion representation (122) being associated with the downstream material portion, The method (200) comprises, for the merging process stage, whereby an upstream material portion of the material portions is processed in the merging process stage: The mergeable resource material portion representation (127) associated with the mergeable resource material portion is merged with an upstream material portion representation (121) in the material portion representation (120), the upstream material portion representation (121) being associated with the upstream material portion.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mergeable resource material portions and the split resource material portions are portions of resource materials that flow from the split process stage (301) to the merge 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 representations (123, 127, 128) respectively associated with the resource material portions; wherein generating the plurality of resource material portion representations (123, 127, 128) specifically comprises splitting at least some of the resource material portion representations from the corresponding material portion representations (120, 121, 122), and The plurality of resource material portion representations (123, 127, 128) include the mergeable resource material portion representation (127) and the split resource material portion representation (123).

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

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

6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: The split resource material portion representation (123) is merged with a subject resource material representation representing a subject resource material, and the mergeable resource material portion representation (127) is split from the subject resource material representation.

7. A method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the properties (124) of the material portion representation (120) include at least one of the following: emissions, CO2 emissions, energy consumption, energy consumption costs, type of energy used, concentration of recycled materials and recyclability.

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

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

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

11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: generating a historical data set, wherein the historical data set indicates the at least one attribute, the process steps (130; 131; 132; 135), and the material portion representations (120, 121, 122); and Wherein generating a historical data set specifically comprises calculating an emissions history for emissions management of said production of said paper product (183).

12. The method according to any of the preceding claims, the method (200) further comprising generating a material flow digital twin (160) for representing the industrial process comprising a plurality of process steps (150-152), the material flow digital twin (160) comprising corresponding virtual process step functions (130; 131; 132; 135) of the process steps (150-152); and, The material flow digital twin is connected to other information systems, including at least one of the following: a distributed control system (DCS; 172) for adapting the material flow digital twin to current process data; a manufacturing execution system (MES; 171) for retrieving information on current orders (181) and specifically for giving feedback to the MES to schedule the order for processing; and an enterprise resource planning system (ERP; 170) for obtaining information about input materials and orders to the processing system.

13. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the industrial processing of material for producing paper products comprises a pulp and paper process.

14. A system for producing a paper product by industrial processing of a continuously flowing material, the industrial processing comprising at least two process stages (300; 301), the 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 to: 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, a material portion representation (120) in the data system, wherein the material portion representation (120) includes a respective attribute (124) for each of the material portion representations (120), the attribute (124) indicating a characteristic of the respective material portion (110); for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modifying the material portion representation (120) by respective virtual process step functions (130-132) representing the respective process steps (150-152), wherein when modifying the material portion representation (120), the system is configured to modify at least one property (124) of the material portion representation (120); wherein the system is configured to perform said process phases (300; 301) comprising a merging process phase (300) and a splitting process phase (301), wherein said merging process phase (300) is upstream of said splitting process phase (301) and comprises merging a mergible resource material portion into said material (140), and wherein said splitting process phase comprises splitting a split resource material portion from said material (140); The system is configured for the splitting process stage (301) to: splitting, by the processor, a portion of the downstream material portion representation (122) in the material portion representation (120) into a split resource material portion representation (123) associated with the split resource material portion and a remaining material portion representation (124) for the remaining downstream material portion, the downstream material portion representation (122) being associated with the downstream material portion processed in the splitting process stage; and wherein the system is configured for the merging process stage (300) to: The processor merges a mergeable resource material portion representation (127) associated with the mergeable resource material portion with an upstream material portion representation (121) in the material portion representation (120), the upstream material portion representation (121) being associated with the upstream material portion.

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

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