Successful at Zellcheming-Expo 2025

Zellcheming-Expo opened its doors again at the beginning of July. Representatives from the international paper and pulp industry gather every year at this trade fair organized by the Association of Pulp and Paper Chemists and Engineers. This year marked a double anniversary: 120 years of the association and 75 years of the trade fair. The event program focused on innovation, networking, and promoting young talent. Modellfabrik Papier was prominently represented with its own booth in the Newcomer Pavilion and several contributions to the stage program.

Around 3,000 visitors attended the trade fair and accompanying conference at the RheinMain CongressCenter (RMCC). More than 140 companies presented themselves in the fully booked exhibition space, including numerous international players and new exhibitors from the energy sector. “For us, it’s an ideal platform to present our research work and intensify professional exchange with industry partners,” says MFP Managing Director Peter Bekaert.

On the first morning of the fair, the topic of artificial intelligence got things off to a forward-looking start. In the afternoon, the contributions from Modellfabrik Papier sent a clear signal for future-oriented topics: Peter Bekaert reported on the current status of research activities financed from own or government funds. In his presentation, MFP networking manager Dominic Laaf outlined how new innovations, methods, and processes are evaluated and validated. “Proactivity and goal orientation play an important role in the strategic development of our research activities,” explained Laaf, describing the process that will ensure the transfer and scale-up of disruptive basic research into industrial applications in the coming months and years.

Dry paper laying

FOMOP research group leader Steffen Flaischlen took the audience into the practical application and described the activities involved in dry paper formation. “The existing airlaid process serves as our technological starting point. However, fiber transport by air currents still requires a high amount of energy and generally results in lower strength than wet-laid papers,“ said the computational fluid dynamics expert, describing the weaknesses of the process. ”Our research approach addresses these challenges in two key areas: First, the fibers are chemically and physically modified to make them suitable for dry forming. Second, the machinery used for fiber deposition is optimized using advanced simulation methods to ensure uniform fiber distribution and controlled orientation.” In addition, the consolidation of the dry-laid web is being investigated with the aim to develop tailored fiber properties and machinery designs that support efficient and mechanically stable material formation.

Perspectives from the industry and from acadamia

During the panel discussion, a lively debate ensued between the representatives of the MFP shareholders, Harm Bergmann-Kramer, member of the Wepa Executive Board and deputy chairman of the MFP Shareholders’ Committee, and Moritz Strepp, Director of Global Product Management at Andritz Küsters GmbH and member of the MFP project committee, and Professor Markus Biesalski, Chairman of the Main Committee of Zellcheming and the Scientific Advisory Board of the MFP, with Peter Bekaert. Moderated by Professor Helga Zollner-Croll, Chairwoman of the Zellcheming Association and Vice Dean of Munich University of Applied Sciences, the discussion focused not only on the tension between production pressure, short-term cost focus, and long-term transformation. The discussion also focused on how concrete innovation ideas from the work of the Cell Chemical Engineering Technical Committee are incorporated into MFP’s research work and how science can respond even more specifically to the needs of industry without losing its independence.

New talents for future papermaking

The third day of the fair focused on promoting young talent. Two MFP researchers took part in the Science Flash. Luis Miguel Estrada Ospina, research assistant in the Modellfabrik Papier (FOMOP) research cluster, described his research work in the press section of the paper machine to sustainably reduce energy consumption. Ricardo Ortiz Cabrera, research assistant at the Nowum-Energy Institute at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences, presented the development of an evaluation system for assessing energy-saving innovations within the framework of the Modellfabrik Papier (FOMOP) research cluster for the paper industry. The task of the Science Flash speakers is to inspire a broad audience with their own research topic within a few minutes. The representatives of Modellfabrik Papier impressed the audience with exciting presentations and took second and sixth place.