Characterisation of the Fine Structure and Properties of Papermaking Fibres Using New

COST Action E54

Characterisation of the fine structure and properties of papermaking fibres using new technologies

Draft Minutes of the 8th Management Committee Meeting

Friday, 10 October 2009, 13:30 – 15:00

Venue: CENTRE TECHNIQUE DU PAPIER

Domaine Universitaire / 341 rue de la Papeterie (BP 251)

38400 Saint Martin d’Hères / France
Tel.: 33 (4) 76 15 40 69

0. Welcome to participants

The Chairman of COST Action E54, Prof. Arnis Treimanis, opened the meeting at 13:30 by welcoming the representatives from the following 13 signatory countries:

Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal.

1. Adoption of agenda

The agenda was approved as send out.

2. Minutes of last meeting

The Minutes of the last meeting were accepted as send out.

3. Matters arising

In order to further promote the needs of research in the pulp and paper section that is still underrepresented in the COST committees, there will be a Strategic workshop (preliminary title: “What can COST do for paper?”) on November 17th 2009 to the occasion of the Paper Week in Brussels to raise awareness of the pulp and paper as well as biorafinery subjects. Young scientists are encouraged to apply for a travel grant dedicated to this event. Arnis Treimanis will participate and represent the COST E54. The participants recognized the need to inform upper administrative levels to positively influence upcoming Forestry Products calls.

4. Report from the COST Office

- News from the COST Office

Prof. A.Treimanis informed the participants about the starting COST Actions and other news available on the COST web site http://www.cost.esf.org.

- Status of Action, including participating countries

In an ongoing evaluation process of the Action E54 the overall result is satisfying, however, it was stated that STSM should be encouraged. The next FPS Annual Conference will be held in March 2010 in Rome.

- Budget Status, budget planning and allocation process

In order to meet the request for more STSM and being able to budget upcoming STSMs those missions that are planned in the moment should be announced as soon as possible.

The upcoming meeting in Coimbra (Portugal) will be supported financially, also the task groups (“new projects” and “book”) should be promoted.

5. Progress report of working groups

WG1

Deputy Coordinator: Paul Ander (Sweden)

Secretary: Ute Henniges (Austria)

Participants:

András Víg (Hungary)

István Lele (Hungary)

Mariann Lele (Hungary)

David Ambrus (Hungary)

Arnis Treimanis (Latvia)

Anna Andersone (Latvia)

Antje Potthast (Austria)

Marjeta Cernic (Slovenia)

Pedro Fardim (Finland)

Action’s further activities

At the Papiertechnische Stiftung PTS (Germany) the joint pulp samples have been refined and a mail was sent out to inform the participants about the availability of these samples. Person in charge: Tiemo Arndt (PTS, Germany). Interested persons: Marjeta Cernic (Pulp & Paper Institute, Slovenia).

Concerning STSMs, several suggestion within WG1 have come up:

Ute Henniges (BOKU, Austria) plans to visit TU Graz, Austria (persons to contact: W. Bauer, R. Eckhart). The visit will take two weeks at the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010.

Pedro Fardim (Abo Akademy, Finland) plans to send one of his students (C. Lange) to Riga, Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry.

Anna Andersone (Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, Latvia) also intends to do a STSM.

Laura Vikele (also LS Institute of Wood Chemistry) has preliminary agreement with Dr. Raphael Passas (PAGORA, Grenoble, France) on STSM in December, 2009.

Arnis Treimanis encouraged the participants to continue networking in order to broaden the framework of the action. He reported that South Africa’s application was approved in the FPS Domain Committee, while Russia is still waiting for necessary documents. Pedro Fardim reported that Monash University (Australia) was interested in joining the COST action.

Planning of the next meetings

It was agreed upon the suggestion that the next meeting in May 2010 should take place in Coimbra, Portugal. As far as the WG1 was concerned, the task group meetings should be attached to this meeting to avoid extra travelling for those who join the task groups.

The final meeting will take place in March 2011 in Cambridge.

In order to further promote the needs of research in the pulp and paper section that is still underrepresented in the COST committees, there will be an event on November 17th 2009 to the occasion of the Paper Week in Brussels to raise awareness of the pulp and paper subjects. Young scientists are encouraged to apply for a travel grant dedicated to this event.

Further meetings and conferences of interest for the COST action have been mentioned:

o  November 2009, PTS, Dresden

o  March 2010, ACS San Francisco

o  June 2010, Zellcheming, Wiesbaden

o  August 2010, EWLP, Hamburg

o  November 2010, Portugal

Publications (book on COST E54 contributions)

Paul Ander suggested a table of contents for the planned book on COST E54 meetings contributions. The participants of the WG1 agree upon compiling all data that are available on the common pulp samples in an annex within this book. There should be a table and pictures to summarize the results.

It would be strongly appreciated if next to the internal referees for this book some additional external referees could add some value to this publication and increase the possible impact.

The members of WG1 discussed on how to distribute the planned book:

o  Print 1000 books and distribute them among the participating countries institutions.

o  Distribute via “print on demand” – however, in this case copyrights are not clear (Paul Ander will ask at COST office)

o  Print few copies (100) then use open access to further distribute via internet.

WG2

Coordinator: Sabine Heinemann

Participants:

Ramesh-Babu Adusumalli (CH)

Jean-Marc Breguet (CH)

Harald Grossman (DE)

Pasi Kallio (FI)

Lisbeth Kappel (AT)

Johannes Kritzinger (AT)

Manuel Mikczinski (DE)

Raphael Passas (FR)

Pooya Saketi (FI)

Zhou Quan (FI).

New COST and FP 7 project proposals

WG2 could contribute their competences to following research proposals:

-  “Understanding factors controlling cell wall ultra structure and chemical composition and their impact on single fibre properties” (Ph.Turner, T.Larsson, W.Bauer, P.Kallio)

-  “Recycled paper” (A.Treimanis).

WG2 members are invited to use Wolfgang Bauer’s template “Letter of Interest” and to send their ideas to Sabine, deadline 15.11.2009. Sabine assembles the collected ideas for distribution within WG2 to be further discussed; final refined contributions will be sent to Philip with copy to Arnis.

Publications, dissemination

The papers titles will be asked from the WG2 members separately and assembled in the Action E54 Progress Report.

WG2 has updated Paul’s list of publications related to the Working group and discussed how to combine suitable publications into one. Sabine announced to take responsibility for part 3 “Results of standard pulp and paper tests”.

STSM – status and plans

Sabine (VTT) plans to go to Oldenburg University (Manuel) and to INNOWEP GmbH on the topics “Single fibre characterisation based on common pulp samples”;

Also Raphael (PAGORA) intends to visit Oldenburg University (Manuel) preferably in January 2010;

Exchange of visits PAGORA-EMPA- TU Graz with fibres of common samples and topic “Microindentation of different chemical pulp fibres”

Information about single fibre measurements by INNOWEPINNOWEP GmbH is a German company, founded in 1990 in Würzburg. It established itself as a world-leading expert in surface and material testing. Dr. Wolfgang Weinhold from INNOWEP has promised to present the equipment UST=Universal Surface Tester, if possible, in connection with a presentation about single fibre testing results during next meeting or latest during Cambridge Conference as invited speaker. The material will be submitted also to Publication Task group.

Next meetings

Possible contributions at Coimbra Workshop:

-  Pooya, about flexibility measurements;

-  Results of the STSMs;

-  Lisbeth, final publication about bonding areas of refined fibres.

AOB

Information about the conferences:

-  COST Action FP0802 Workshop in Stockholm, 4-5 November 2009. There will be a participant from PAGORA, Grenoble, and two participants from TU Graz.

-  PTS Pulp Symposium in Dresden, 24-25 November 2009. WG2 will give the presentation by E.Saharinen, S.Heinemann and T.Hjelt “Fibre length and sheet properties – some new considerations”.

-  International Pulp and Paper Conference in Lisbon, October 2010.

WG3

Deputy coordinator: Rene Eckhart

The next meeting in Coimbra in 2010 was discussed. Paulo Ferreira gave some information on location, program and possible dates for the meeting (these topics were addressed as well later on in the MC-meeting).

Possible contributions from WG3 to the scientific program on the first day of the meeting were discussed. There are 3 to 4 possible presentations out of this workgroup:

·  Bulgaria (Ivo Valchev)

·  France (Michael Lecourt)

·  Latvia (Laura Vikele)

·  Spain (Ana Moral Rama)

Additionally the participants discussed the possibility of a presentation which includes the results of all measurements performed on the common samples (and maybe some evident correlations). Paul Ander was addressed in absence as the possible presenter as he has the most information on the two pulp samples. Maybe he would agree to do this if all members provide him with their results.

Paulo Ferreira showed interest in the STSM of a member of his group to Trondheim, to Gary Chinga if the host will agree. Laura Vikele from Riga, LS IWCh will go to Dr. Raphael Passas, PAGORA, and Dr. Michael Lecourt, CTP-FCBA, Grenoble, for a week from 29th November to 5th of December 2009.

It was discussed that Arnis Treimanis shall be informed of any publications related to the work in COST E54, as they have to be listed in the annual progress report.

Jean Francis Bloch, PAGORA, took part in the Working group meeting and possible measurements on the common pulp samples using the synchrotron facility were discussed. It appeared that such measurements seem not meaningful, as our COST E54 concentrates on characterisation on the fibre level and synchrotron measurements are currently performed on paper samples regarding the paper structure.

It was discussed if any of the workgroup members will attend the exploratory workshop “The future needs of the Pulp and Paper industry” on the 17th of November in Brussels. None of the members planned to do so.

6. Action planning

6.1 Annual Progress Conference (preparation and/or feedback from DC)

Arnis Treimanis reminded the Action participants to send the description of their publications related to the COST Action E54 to him by end of November 2009 to complete the annual progress report.

6.2 Action Budget Planning

It is planned that 40 participants will attend next Action E54 Workshop and 9th MC in Coimbra (Portugal) on 10th to 12th of May 2010 and the travel reimbursement for them amounts approx. EUR 34000. Also the requests for Workshop Support Grant at EUR 3000 and General Action Support Grant EUR 2000 for the Action Chair in 2010 are approved. Four to five STSMs are planned for the period from 1st of November 2009 to 31st of May 2010.

6.3 Action Planning (including meetings)

6.3.1 Location and date of next meeting

The next meeting will be held in:

Coimbra, Portugal, 10-12 May 2010.

A preliminary programme was presented by Prof. Paulo Ferreira, including 1 day with scientific programme (about 12 presentations), 1 day for administrative meetings (MC, WG, task groups) and several visits to the Universtity of Coimbra, to a Paper Mill, and to the Forest and Paper Research Institute. While the Publication Task Group mainly agreed to take this occasion for their next meeting, no clear decision has been made for the New projects Task group. It was mentioned that it might be more beneficial to meet earlier on a separate day.

As this period of the year is very busy, participants were encouraged to take care for early hotel booking.

The inscription and preparation of the scientific programme should be finished around end of March 2010.

6.3.2 Long-term planning (including anticipated locations and dates of future meetings)

Final E54 Conference in Cambridge, UK, March 2011

Philip Turner will examine the University possibilities and the precise dates. It is approved by the COST office that the final meeting will take place three months after the official end of the COST E54 action (end of the Action E54: 17th December 2010). Next to the meeting there will be a scientific programme and the final evaluation of the Action E54.

7. STSM status, applications

Three STSM have been approved by Arnis Treimanis and this was confirmed by MC:

Aleksandra Judasz (Centre of Competence Paper and Board, Netherlands) was hosted by Sabine Heinemann (TU Dresden, Germany)

Pooya Saketi and Joose Kreutzer (Tampere University of Technology) were hosted by Raphael Passas and Michael Lecourt (Grenoble INP-PAGORA and FCBA).

Further STSMs are encouraged to apply by submitting a short description of aim, participants and duration to Arnis Treimanis/Raphael Passas.

8. Publications, dissemination and outreach activities

Publication Task Group presented their decisions and further thoughts on the deadlines and dissemination strategies. However, some questions on copyright have remained open. Generally, the desire for printed books was expressed, an amount ranging from 200 – 500 copies have been discussed.

9. Request for new members

It was stated the more contacts to industry would be appreciated by the Action participants. There will be industrial representatives on the next E54 Workshop.

10. Promotion of gender balance and of Early Stage Researchers (ESR)

The gender balance and the support of ESR are considered to be appropriate in the present action. It was pointed out the ESR may apply for travel grants to attend conferences. The applications must be submitted three months before the conference will take place. There are also grants available from EUCEPA, Paris.

11. Non-COST country participations

South Africa: CSIR-UKZN Forestry and Forest Products Research Centre, approved by FPS DC meeting in Riga, September 2009.

Russia: Petrozavodsk University, Mr. D.Ekimov, approved by Action 54 MC meeting in Tampere, not yet approved by FPS DC due to the absence of the needed documents from Russia.

Australia: Monash University, interest, approved by MC.

12. Web news

It was noted that the renovated COST web page at http://www.cost.esf.org does not contain full information on the Action E54 Management Committee members. The names of Dr. Antje Potthast (Austria) and Dr. Michael Lecourt (France) are absent. Also another elected Vice-chair Raphael Passas (France) is not mentioned.