Monday, May 12
Kendeda Building for Sustainable Design
| 12:30 p.m. | Workshop Registration |
| Introduction & Overview | |
| 1 p.m. - 1:10 p.m. | Welcome Carson Meredith, Executive Director, Georgia Tech, Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) |
| 1:10 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. | APPTI and RBI: Overview & Positioning on Energy Efficiency and GHG Goals to Net Zero Chris Luettgen, Executive Director, Alliance for Pulp & Paper Technology Innovation (APPTI); Georgia Tech, Professor of the Practice and Strategic Initiative Lead, RBI Carson Meredith |
| 1:50 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | Paper Manufacturing Carbon Accounting Jose Gonzalez, AFRY |
| Energy Reduction in Pulping | |
| 2:30 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. | Membrane Separations and Their Integration in Pulping Processes Sankar Nair, Georgia Tech, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering |
| 3:10 p.m. - 3:40 p.m. | Networking Break |
| 3:40 p.m. - 4:20 p.m. | Advancing Sustainability Through Energy Efficiency, Electrification, and Low-Carbon Fuels in the U.S. Pulp and Paper Industry Lokendra Pal, North Carolina State University, Department of Forest Biomaterials |
| 4:20 p.m. - 5 p.m. | Electrochemistry's Role in Electrifying Pulp and Paper Processing Marta Hatzell, Georgia Tech, Sustainable Materials and Engineering |
| 5 p.m. - 6 p.m. | RBI Fellows' Poster Session and Reception with Heavy Hors d'oeuvres |
Tuesday, May 13
Paper Tricentennial Building
| 8 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. | Continental Breakfast & Welcome |
| Reduced Drying Demand in Papermaking | |
| 8:30 a.m. - 9 a.m. | Overview of Multi-Phase Forming Facility Moderator: Carson Meredith Cyrus Aidun, Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Sridhar Ranganathan, R&D Technical Director, Kimberly Clark Corporation Terry Bliss, Solenis Consultant |
| 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. | Ribbon Cutting and Tour of Multi-Phase Forming Facility President Angel Cabrera; Executive Vice President for Research Tim Lieuwen; Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research Julia Kubanek; Cyrus Aidun, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering; Carson Meredith, Executive Director, RBI; Devesh Ranjan, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair |
| 10 a.m. - 10:20 a.m. | Networking Break |
| 10:20 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. | APPTI Projects in Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization Chris Luettgen |
| 10:50 a.m - 11:20 a.m. | Displacement Pressing Update Dave Beck, Beck Displacement Press, LLC |
| 11:20 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. | Advanced Dewatering and Its Process Implications Victor Breedveld, Georgia Tech, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering |
| 11:50 a.m. | Networking Lunch & Departures |
| 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. | RBI Member Industry Advisory Board meeting - invitation only* |
| For more information on the Industry Advisory Board, please contact Belinda Vogel bvogel30@gatech.edu |
Local Hotels
Speaker Bios
Dave Beck
Dave is a Chemical Engineer and has been in the paper industry since 1978, first at Appleton Mills/Voith fabrics as Manager of Research and Technology and then at Georgia Pacific as Research Fellow. He holds 31 patents. In 2022, he came out of retirement to form Beck Displacement Press LLC with the intent of trialing a new method of displacement pressing, which is wet pressing paper with air augmentation. He was awarded a DOE ‘cooperative agreement’ to pursue the design, build and pilot trialing of his displacement press. He has assembled a team of highly experienced helpers who will help trial the process on the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point pilot paper machine.
Victor Breedveld
Victor Breedveld is the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies and Professor and Frank Dennis Faculty Fellow in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His reasearch areas include
- Structure and rheology of complex fluids
- The local rheology of bioengineering materials, such as tissue engineering scaffolds
- High-throughput applications for systems where screening and optimization of rheological properties is of importance
Jose Gonzalez
Jose has over 25 years in the industry and has significant experience in business analysis and strategic direction for Wood Products, Packaging, Hygiene, Paper and Coating based companies. He supervises strategic and complex engagements in North America and Latin America, and advises CEO and Board/Senior level executives. Jose is the liaison with AFRY engineering teams.
Marta Hatzell
Marta Hatzell is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to starting at Georgia Tech in August of 2015, she was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. During her post doc, she worked in the Braun Research Group on research at the interface between colloid science and electrochemistry. She completed her Ph.D. at Penn state University in the Logan Research Group. Her Ph.D. explored environmental technology for energy generation and water treatment. During graduate school she was an NSF and PEO Graduate Research Fellow.
Currently her research group focuses on exploring the sustainable catalysis and separations, with applications spanning from solar energy conversion to desalination. She is an active member of the American Chemical Society, the Electrochemical Society, ASEEP, and ASME. Hatzell was awarded the NSF Early CAREER award in 2019 for her work on distributed solar-fertilizers, attended the 2019 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium through the National Academy of Engineering, and was awarded the 2020 Sloan Research Fellowships in Chemistry.
Chris Luettgen
Chris Luettgen has 25 plus years of industry experience, with Scott Paper and Kimberly-Clark Corp., where he most recently served as head of North American Innovation the Kimberly-Clark Professional business sector. He has held positions in product development and innovation as well as in capital project management and manufacturing facility leadership.
For several years, Luettgen has served on the Georgia Tech Renewable Bioproducts Institute Industry Board of Advisors, and as the Chairman of the Board of the Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry (TAPPI). He earned his bachelor's degree in Paper Engineering at Western Michigan University (’85), his master’s degree at the Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, WI (’87), and his Ph.D. in Surface Chemistry at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology - now the Renewable Bioproducts Institute at Georgia Tech (’91).
He rejoined Georgia Tech in November 2014 as a Professor of the Practice in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Associate Director of Pulp, Paper, Tissue and Packaging at RBI. He also serves as the Director of the undergraduate Pulp and Paper Certificate Program and its Foundation.
Areas of research interest include: Recycling; renewable cellulosic feedstocks; replacing fossil-based products with bio-based materials; commercialization of nanocellulosic materials in consumer and packaging products; Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0; tissue/towel manufacturing and converting; and manufacturing leadership / operational excellence.
Carson Meredith
Dr. Meredith is the Executive Director of the Georgia Tech Renewable Bioproducts Institute, and the James Harris Faculty Fellow in ChBE. He holds a B.S. 1993, from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. 1998, University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Meredith's group researches the surfaces and interfaces of advanced materials. Their work aims to apply fundamentals of polymer, surface and colloid science to find new ways to engineer materials useful to society and industry. In particular, projects emphasize the utilization of renewable components and sustainable processing to achieve circular manufacturing and use of plastics, composites, foams and coatings, among others. Many of these materials are critical for food security, energy efficiency, and are closely connected to greenhouse gas reduction. Primary thrusts of Dr. Meredith’s work include:
• Development of biorenewable barrier materials using cellulose and chitin nanomaterials, sourced from plants and food waste, for utilization in packaging of food, medicine and electronics.
• Addressing challenges of current recycling methods by development of new circular processes such as upcycling of plastics and plastics from biomass.
• Enabling the development of higher-strength, lighter-weight composites and low volatile-organic compound paints and coatings.
• Development of surfactant-free foams and other multi-phase colloidal systems, with applications in energy, packaging, personal care, and food.
• Discovery of principles of natural particle adhesion, including pollen, cellulose, and chitin particles
carson.meredith@chbe.gatech.edu
Sankar Nair
Sankir Nair is the Professor, J. Harry and Myrtice K. Simmons Faculty Fellow, Mary Kathleen and Howard Lee Bulluck Jr. Faculty Fellow, and Associate Chair for Industry Outreach. He earned his B.Tech ChE in 1997 at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, an M.S. Physics in 2002 and his Ph.D. ChE 2002 from Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests include:
• Creating, understanding, and rationally engineering nanoporous materials and membranes through innovative chemical processing strategies.
• Manipulating the unique properties resulting from the reduction of material dimensions to the nanometer length scale or from the nanostructuring of a material.
• Basic and applied problems relating directly to renewable/clean energy, carbon capture advanced separations, catalytic membranes, and nanoscale sensors.
Lokendra Pal
Dr. Lokendra Pal is an EJ Woody Rice Professor of Sustainable Materials and Engineering in the Department of Forest Biomaterials at North Carolina State University. Dr. Pal has over 23 years of global experience in the research and technological advancement of bio-based materials and professional experience in managing and collaborating with industrial partners worldwide. Before joining NC State University, he spent 9 years working with Hewlett-Packard Company. Pal received a Ph.D. in Paper and Imaging Science and Engineering from Western Michigan University. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Black Belt and Quality System Assessment (QSA) Auditor.
Dr. Pal has filed 48 patent applications and been granted 24 patents. He was named NC State Faculty Scholar in 2021 for his outstanding contribution to research, excellence in teaching and student mentoring, and leadership in professional societies. He received the University Outstanding Teacher Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2022.
He teaches two courses on advanced process tools for manufacturing and a hands-on course on paper process analysis utilizing the paper pilot plant. He is the director of NCSU’s Paper Pilot Plant-Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center (P3-SMIC), which is supported by the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII). His team leverages a pilot paper machine and a high-speed creping simulator at NCSU. He is the co-founder of Tissue Pack Innovation Lab (TPIL).
PAL research group is focused on sustainable materials research and advanced manufacturing innovation by employing green and sustainable chemistry and engineering and artificial intelligence/machine learning to deliver top-class hygiene, smart packaging, and flexible electronics/3D printable materials and products that benefit society as well as the environment.
Pal is highly engaged in professional services to several organizations, including ACS, TAPPI, AIChE, AIMCAL, and has been active as a speaker, instructor, officer, committee chair, and member. He was named TAPPI Fellow in 2021 for the recognition of his meritorious service to the industry and Association.
