Tokyo, January 22, 2002 - Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., Japan's leading paper and pulp manufacturing firm and a member of the Nippon Unipac Holding Group, today announced the investment of 2.9 billion yen at the Yatsushiro Mill to introduce an elementary chlorine free (ECF) bleaching process in its kraft pulp (KP)-producing facilities. One of the two KP production lines involved will employ the environmentally friendly ozone beaching method. Yatsushiro's new ECF facilities are scheduled to be ready in January 2003 and May 2003, respectively, and their completion will make Yatsushiro the second mill after the Yufutsu Mill to institute the ECF ozone bleaching method.

 

With its conversion to an ECF operation, the Yatsushiro Mill will substantially reduce its emissions of organic chlorine compounds in wastewater, while simultaneously reducing the overall volume of wastewater and rendering it nearly colorless. Under the same development plan, Nippon Paper Industries will introduce Japan's first acid treatment to the Yatsushiro ECF facility in order to improve its bleaching efficiency. This process will employ a sulfuric acid solution in the heating of pulp at high temperatures.

 

The investment at the Yatsushiro Mill is a part of the company-wide program to convert its KP production to an ECF operation. The program was fist outlined in the Environmental Charter of April 1993 and later revised in the Charter of March 2000. In 1996, ECF bleaching facilities became Japan's first in KP production when they were established at the Kushiro Mill. Since then, Nippon Paper Industries has upgraded its Asahikawa and Yufutsu Mills and is currently in the process of conversion of its Ishinomaki Mill. The company is actively pursuing its goal to be a leading global pulp and paper manufacturer, and it continues to be committed to investing in environmentally kinder production and recycling technologies.