Journal articles on the topic 'Wood-pulp industry Costs'

Forests play a vital role in the social, economic, and environmental development of any country. Paper, composed principally of wood fiber, is an essential commodity in promoting literacy, communication, documentation, and packaging. However, there is much concern about the world's forests being over-utilized. This has led to serious repercussions, not only to humanity, but also to the earth's biodiversity as a whole. It is now time that forests be used in a more responsible and ethical manner. Because of reduced forest area, increasing pulpwood costs, and an increasing demand for pulp and paper products, it might be expected that the focus would shift to high yield pulping processes or to the use of cellulosic non-wood raw materials. Non-woods are available in good supply all over the world, but are currently under-utilized. It is estimated that replacing 5–10% of wood pulp with non-wood pulp would have an important impact on the conservation of forests and the environment. This replacement of wood pulp by non-wood pulp could be environmentally and economically acceptable even in developed countries. By doing so, pulp and paper mills would have a lead role in reducing their dependency on forests for fiber. This determination and commitment would enhance the long-term sustainability of forests and the pulp and paper industry. Above all, it would be a sustainable step towards "our common future." Key words: forest, sustainable development, fiber supply, pulp and paper, non-woods

Bamboo is one of the world’s fastest growing feedstocks and represents a promising nonwood resource that can be utilized in the pulp and paper industry. The timber varieties offer low feedstock costs, can be processed similarly to trees from a logistics standpoint, and have useful fiber properties for papermaking. Plantations have not yet been established due to propagation costs, limiting adoption of bamboo as a pulp feedstock to smaller pulp mills primarily in China, where there are native forests. Recent advances in micropropagation may allow lower establishment costs, but gradual introduction into the supply chain will be required. One concept is to gradually include bamboo feedstock into an established pulp mill as plantations are established, using co-cooking with a wood species. Previous work has shown that bamboo cooks fairly easily using the kraft process with conditions similar to hardwood species.

This study introduces an activity-based costing (ABC) method for a kraft pulp mill. Our ABC model defines the production resources and costs for each process in a chemical pulp mill and allocates the costs to pulp, energy, bark, turpentine, and crude tall oil. The production processes include receiving, unloading and debarking of pulpwood, chipping, chip screening, chip storing, cooking and in-digester washing, pulp washing and screening, oxygen delignification, bleaching, drying, and chemical recovery. We also tested the effect of Scots pine pulpwood properties on the profitability of a virtual greenfield pulp mill located in Finland, where it produced 600000 air-dried (a.d.) metric tons of bleached market pulp annually. Total annual production costs were approximately EUR 216 million (USD 285 million), of which chemical recovery comprised the biggest share (almost 39%). According to the results, the price of market pulp had the most significant effect on the profitability of the mill. The pulpwood properties did not clearly affect pulp production costs; the wood procurement costs had more influence on the profitability of the value chain. Our results also indicate that the profitability of pulp making is strongly dependent on the prices of electricity and heat. This is because the mill is customer and seller in energy markets. ABC proved to be a useful tool and accurate method for cost calculation in this highly competitive branch of the forest industry.

Although there are opportunities to reduce electrical energy demand in unit processes of mechanical pulp-based paper and paperboard production, this may not be financially beneficial. This is generally because energy optimization opportunities connected to reduced refiner electricity demand in mechanical pulping systems also results in less steam available for the drying of the paper. As modern high consistency refiner systems produce approximately one ton of steam for each MWh of electricity when producing one ton of pulp, a reduction in electric energy demand leads to increased fuel demand in steam boilers to compensate for the steam shortage. In this study, we investigated what the financial and environmental situation would look like if we were to expand the system border from a paper mill to a larger system consisting of a mechanical pulp-based paper or paperboard mill, a district heating system with an incineration boiler and a chemical pulp mill. Mechanical pulp production has a wood to product yield of >90%, a high electric energy demand to separate woodchips to pulp and is a net producer of heat and steam while chemical pulp-based production has a wood to product yield of 50%, a low electric energy demand and is a net heat and electricity producer due to the combustion of dissolved wood polymers. The aim of this research is to create useful and robust models of how to use excess heat from certain industry sites to cover the steam shortage in other industry sites by means of utilizing and optimizing the district heating systems connecting these sites. For this purpose, we used a simulation tool which dynamically allows us to evaluate different scenarios. Our results shows that there is great potential to reduce both carbon dioxide emissions and production costs for industry sites and society by means of these tools.

As one of the main emission sources of PCDD/Fs, the pulp and paper industry has always been public concerns. In China, the consumption of non-wood fiber as raw material of pulp accounts for a relatively larger proportion in the total productivity. Here, the unintentionally produced PCDD/Fs emissions of five Chinese non-wood pulp and paper mills were investigated. The results showed that the increment of PCDD/Fs after bleaching with chlorine was about 1.71-28.19 times in pulp and 3.96-28.82 times in wastewater based on the existing technologies. In order to reduce the unintentional production of PCDD/Fs, the BAT/BEP transformation program was proposed as cleaner production initiatives featured by less or free use of chlorine in bleaching process, and evaluated by reduction effects and costs. The study showed the application of Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) sequences in bleaching process with improving technologies in other production stages would effectively decrease the generation of PCDD/Fs, other pollutant load as well as the water consumptions.

Fast-growing biomass, such as bamboo, has the potential to serve an important future role in the pulp and paper industry with potential to both lower resource costs and improve a product’s sustainability. Moso bamboo is particularly interesting due to its fast growth and size, which allows it to be handled and chipped similarly to wood resources. In this study, we will share results of the chip preparation, kraft cooking, and ECF bleaching of this bamboo species and compare its pulpability, bleachability, and physical properties to a fast growing hybrid poplar tree. Results indicate that the bamboo chips cooked and bleached similarly to the poplar hardwood, allowing for co-cooking. The resulting pulps had superior tensile properties at low refining, but did have higher fines that lowered drainability as measured by Canadian Standard Freeness. The bamboo fiber morphology was also measured, indicating the fiber to have length weighted average fiber lengths and coarseness values to be greater than the poplar wood studied, which should allow this material to be used in many paper grades.

Abstract Pulpwood constitutes the largest component of the annual timber harvest in Wisconsin. A study was conducted in 1983-84 to determine how pulp mills in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan obtain their pulpwood supplies and how pulpwood procurement practices have changed over the past two decades. Results indicate that mills rely strongly upon public and private sources of timber, that they are highly dependent on truck transportation of wood supplies, and that they have built up strong procurement departments with links to a broad base of pulpwood producers. Competition and the emphasis on better business practices have increased in recent years as evidenced by the consolidation of woodsheds and greater attention to inventories and promotion of company-sponsored tree farms, especially among those firms that rely on the relatively more scarce long-fibered softwoods. Future procurement strategies suggest possible greater reliance on short-haul rail transportation in those situations where favorable rates can be obtained and expanded use of satellite chipping plants as a vehicle for ensuring a regular wood supply and reducing inventory costs. North. J. Appl. For. 3:10-14, Mar. 1986.

This paper analyses various aspects of the economics of logging high conservation value native forests. After outlining the multiple uses of these forests, evidence is reviewed that suggests that subsidisation of logging is extensive. Next the paper reviews work that indicates that when account is taken of the environmental values lost due to logging (including the value of water with alternative uses) there are net social costs from logging high conservation native forests. Finally, changes to the structure of the wood products industry are analysed and it is argued that the growth of plantation timber, although rapid, has been constrained by subsidisation of native forests logging. Despite this, the data show that plantation-sourced wood will capture most of the market for sawn timber and pulp within a decade. There is thus the opportunity for Australia to have its timber needs met without the environmental costs associated with logging of native forests.

Abstract Generally, development in the pulp and paper industry requires extensive cutting of trees, which in effect contributes to deforestation. The dramatic growth in demand for wood supply, combined with the increasingly increasing cost of timber, has created a surge of interest in the use of non-wood plant fibres for paper production in widely developed countries. The use of waste material in pulping and paper-based industries could be beneficial as it helps prevent the need for disposal, which currently increases agricultural costs and causes environmental deterioration due to pollution and fires. In this research, the sugarcane bagasse was dry and chopped into 5 cm in lengths. The fibre and pulp were separated and put in a pulp disintegrator then it was weighed and mixed with water. The paper that fabricates will be irradiated with gamma-ray and then followed by characterizing with Scanning Electron Microscope- Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (SEM-EDX) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The SEM-EDX result shows that the weight and atomic percentage of the ferrite (Fe) increase after the irradiation. While for the FTIR, the entire sample exhibit the absorption range of 3400 to 2400 cm−1 region. The paper will be compared with the properties of multipurpose paper.

Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion is raising new interest in using renewable biomass for energy. Modest-scale cogeneration systems using air-blown gasifiers coupled to aeroderivative gas turbines are expected to have high efficiencies and low unit capital costs, making them well-suited for use with biomass. Biomass-gasifier/gas turbine (BIG/GT) technology is not commercial, but efforts aimed at near-term commercialization are ongoing worldwide. Estimated performance and cost and prospects for commercial development of two BIG/GT systems are described, one using solid biomass fuel (e.g., wood chips), the other using kraft black liquor. At an energy-efficient kraft pulp mill, a BIG/GT cogeneration system could produce over three times as much electricity as is typically produced today. The mill’s on-site energy needs could be met and a large surplus of electricity would be available for export. Using in addition currently unutilized forest residues for fuel, electricity production would be nearly five times today’s level. The total cost to produce the electricity in excess of on-site needs is estimated to be below 4 cents per kWh in most cases. At projected growth rates for kraft pulp production, the associated biomass residue fuels could support up to 100 GW of BIG/GT capacity at kraft pulp mills worldwide in 2020 (30 GW in the US). The excess electricity production worldwide in 2020 would be equivalent to 10 percent of today’s electricity production from fossil fuels.

The forest users' needs can be stated simply: "A continuous and sustained supply of wood at a constant real cost".Forest manufacturing is highly capital intensive. A pulp mill costing $500 million needs five 65-million-dollar sawmills and five 35-million-dollar logging operations to supply the necessary volume of chips. The total costs $1 billion and $150 million per year must be put back into the business. To obtain the money, there must be not only a secure forest tenure, but for Crown lands, an incentive for wood users to make a solid commitment to forest management.The logger needs a year-round operation with relatively consistent timber types and topography. The sawmiller needs wood of consistent size and quality at an economical hauling distance from the mill. Mills will go under if hauling distances increase year by year, hence the need for total regeneration and rehabilitation of the backlog of NSR Land. The pulp mills require raw material of consistent quality to sell pulp on the open market.Threats to these requirements are lack of regeneration of denuded lands, ever decreasing annual allowable cuts with increased haul distances, and withdrawal of forest land from production.The solution is to provide incentives for the user to manage the forests under contract with the owner. Then there will be long-term management — a time frame not compatible with the fiscal policies of politicians and hence governments. Key words: forest management, forest industry, financial requirements, forest economics.

Forestry industry macroeconomic assessments typically concentrate on the production, harvesting, and earliest processing of wood products, underestimating the full range of forests impacts in regional economies. This work proposes a broader concept – forestry products value chain – that ponders the contribution of the downstream activities relying (directly and indirectly) on Silviculture and Forestry products. The paper adopts a methodology based on a Multi-Regional Input-Output framework. We apply this approach to the Portuguese economy. Results clarify the role of eucalyptus in “Pulp”, “Paper and Cardboard” and “Paper and Cardboard Articles”. Finally, the projected wider macroeconomic consequences from a reduction of these productions is evaluated.

Biopulping has the potential to improve pulp quality, paper properties and to reduce energy costs and environmental impact relative to traditional pulping approaches. The technology has focused on the white rot fungi that are known to be degrader of wood constituents. This group of fungi have complex extracellular ligninolytic enzyme systems that can selectively degrade/ alter lignin structure and allow cellulose fibres to be relatively unaffected. It colonizes either on living or dead wood and decomposes almost all plant cell wall polymers including lignin and extractives making it to be extremely potential to be used in biopulping. Biopulping reduces the chemical load in paper industry and thus partially limiting environmental threats caused by conventional pulping. It has been advised that energy savings alone could make the process economically viable. Other benefits include improved burst strength and tear indices of product and reduced pitch deposition.

Abstract The objective of this work was to develop a log loading simulator of the wood room in pulp and paper industry. In the first stage the log loading process is modelled. Then the criteria for evaluating the effects of log loading on the wood room performance are defined. The motivation for the research is that log loading can be identified as playing a central role if the production and cost-effectiveness of the wood room is to be increased. The lack of reliable process measurements and changes in raw material quality, which are not measured on-line, make the data-based modelling of an industrial log loading process difficult. For these reasons, the research was performed via mathematical modelling of the process. The simulated results confirm that the same production can be obtained in many ways, but there can be differences in costs. Especially too high speed of the infeed conveyor in relation to capacity leads to several drawbacks, which typically result in increased wood loss and decreased chip quality. For this reason it is important to consider all aspects of log loading for the best performance. The results give insight into the log loading process and may help to improve the log loading process.

The cost of raw materials continues to be a limiting factor in the production of bio-ethanol from traditional raw materials, such as sugar and starch. At the same time, there are large amount of agricultural residues as well as industrial wastes that are of low or negative value (due to costs of current effluent disposal methods). Dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment of elephant grass and wood residues for the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose has been investigated in this study. Elephant grass (agricultural residue) and sawdust (Pulp and Paper Industry waste) with a small particulate size were treated using different dilute sulfuric acid concentrations at a temperature of 140-170°C within 0.5-3 hours. The appropriate pretreatment conditions give the highest yield of soluble saccharides and total reducing sugars.

Disposal of large volumes of textile waste is an escalating problem for textile industries. Sisal spinning industry is the one of the textile industries releasing large volumes of textile waste in the landfills. The rising costs, and reduction of available space together with increasing stringent environmental measures are making burying and land filling of textile waste, a declining option. This study therefore explores recycling options where the potential of using sisal fiber waste produced during sisal spinning processes as raw materials for the production of paper pulp was investigated. Sampling was done at 21stCentury Holdings Limited allocated at Chang’ombe industrial street Dar es Salaam mainly dealer of sisal yarns production. Materials were prepared and cut into small pieces of about ½ inches to reduce the fiber into unit lengths so as to achieve pulping required performance. Pulping process was achieved through Soda pulping techniques with two different effective alkali charges (EA-20% and EA-24%) for 240 minutes under maximum temperature 140 C, and liquor to fiber ratio 4:1by using Mathis Labomat dyeing Machine. The kappa number obtained was (25.5, 34.5) for material treated under EA 24% and EA 20% respectively, Percentage pulp yield were (47.1, 54.4) for EA 24% and EA20% pulp respectively. Freeness (630CFS, 555CSF) after refining at 4500rpm. Finally, the resulting pulp was used for hand sheet making and the sheets were tested for their mechanical properties; Grammage (61.1, 61.1) g/m2, Tensile index (9.9, 22.3) Nm/g, Tear index (13.3, 17.4) Nm2/g, burst index (1.7, 3.7 and 1.6) k.pa.m2/g and Elongation at break (2.02, 2.22) % for EA24% pulp, EA20% pulp respectively. The findings shows that sisal fiber wastes have a promising potential for paper pulp production compared to other non-wood raw material.

This paper discusses the latest data on the production of selected paper and paperboard, plastic, glass, wood and metal packaging. During the study period 2016-2020/2021, there was an increase in the production of selected paper and paperboard packaging compared to 2016. There has been an increase in the production of paper sacks and bags, cartons made of paper or paperboard other than corrugated and cartons made of paper or paperboard. Among plastic packaging, the production of plastic bags and sacks played a significant role and has been growing steadily since 2016. The production of glass packaging (clear glass bottles with a capacity of less than 2.5 liters for beverages and food) increased between 2016 and 2021. Flat pallets were the dominant product among wood packaging in 2020. The decline in box pallet production was significant not only relative to 2019, but also relative to 2016. In the group of metal packaging with a capacity not exceeding 300 liters, the highest production was recorded for barrels and similar containers for any material (excluding gas), made of aluminium. It reached 93228 tonnes in 2020 and was 2.4% higher than in 2019. The packaging market in Poland and worldwide has been gradually increasing its value over the past years. The production of packaging in Poland in the coming years should grow dynamically, although not as fast as before. Undoubtedly, today the biggest challenge for the packaging industry is the rising prices of raw materials, which can negatively affect the profitability and liquidity situation of manufacturers. In particular, the prices of plastics have gone up considerably, but the costs of pulp, metals, wood and glass are also increasing, so the raw material pressure is now affecting the entire packaging industry.

The conflicts that arise between natural resources consumption and the desire to preserve them make the multicriteria decision theory necessary. Brazil, one of the 10 largest timber producers globally, uses optimization models that represent the growth of forests integrated with decision support systems. Brazilian forest plantation managers often face conflicts when continuously seeking efficiency gains (higher productivity at lower costs) and efficacy (higher profits with minimum social and environmental impacts). Managers of leading producing countries on timber, pulp, and fiberboard constantly interact to fine-tune industry processing demands vis-a-vis the demands of highly productive fast-growing forest plantations. The decision process in such cases seeks a compromise that accommodates short-term industry productivity optimization and long-term forestry production capacity. This paper aims to apply a forest management decision support system (FMDSS) to a case study that represents the challenges that industrial plantations in Brazil usually face. A vertically integrated pulp company situation was simulated to provide a real scenario. In this scenario, forest managers tend to shorten the rotations due to Brazil’s usually high-interest rates; meanwhile, industrial managers tend to ask for longer ones due to the positive correlation between age and wood density. Romero®, a Forest Management Decision Support System, developed by following the multi-criteria decision theory, was used to process the case study. Expressly, the hypothesis that mill managers initially have, that older ages rotation could improve mill production, was not confirmed. Moreover, mill managers lean towards changes in the short term, while the case study shows that changes in rotation size and genetic material take time, and decisions have to be made involving both interests: forest and mill managers.

Biomass can be considered an alternative to coal in the production of heat and electricity. Many types of biomass are waste from agriculture and the food industry. This waste is cheap, readily available, and replenished annually. However, most agricultural and food industry wastes (sugar cane pulp, olive and sunflower oil production wastes, straw, etc.) have ash with a low melting point. This leads to a rapid growth of ash deposits on the heating surfaces of boilers; as a result, the actual efficiency of boilers in which waste from agriculture and the food industry is burned is 45–50%. Known biomass pre-treatment technologies that allow for the fuel characteristics of biowaste. For example, leaching of biowaste in water at a temperature of 80–240 °C makes it possible to drastically reduce the content of alkali metal compounds in the ash, the presence of which reduces the melting point of the ash. However, this biomass pre-treatment technology is complex and requires additional costs for drying the treated biomass. We proposed to use torrefaction for pre-treatment of biomass, which makes it possible to increase the heat of combustion of biomass, increase the hydrophobicity of biomass, and reduce the cost of grinding it. However, we are not aware of studies that have studied the effect of torrefaction on the chemical composition of ash from the point of view of solving the problem of preventing the formation of agglomerates and reducing the growth rate of ash deposits on the convective heating surfaces of boilers. In this paper, the characteristics of sunflower husk subjected to torrefaction in an environment of superheated steam at a temperature of 300 °C and in an environment of gaseous products at a temperature of 250 °C are studied. All experiments were conducted using fluidized bed technology. The resulting biochar has a calorific value of 14.8–23% higher than the initial husk. To assess the behavior of sunflower husk ash, predictive coefficients were calculated. Torrefaction of sunflower husks does not exclude the possibility of slagging of the furnace but reduces the likelihood of slagging by 2.31–7.27 times. According to calculations, the torrefaction of sunflower husks reduces the likelihood of ash deposits on the convective heating surfaces of the boiler by 2.1–12.2 times. According to its fuel characteristics, the husk, after torrefaction in an environment of superheated steam, approaches wood waste, i.e., can be burned separately without additives or mixtures with other fuels with refractory ash.

A major part of residues from pulp industry are deposited as waste at high disposal costs. Thispaper summarizes a five-year research project concerning implementation of an industrial,automatic roll-pelletizing method at a heating plant in the city of Kalmar, Sweden and presentsthe visions of the newly initiated research project where pulp industry residues are recycledtogether with wood ash. Also combustion issues are included.

AbstractMicrobial enzymes are green and clean alternatives for several processes in the pulp and paper industry. Enzyme treatment decreases the energy requirement and minimizes the wood losses during drum debarking. Lipophilic wood extractives are known as pitch. Pitch deposition adversely affects the pulp quality and increases equipment maintenance and operating costs during paper manufacturing. Several chemical additives have been used to remove pitch deposits. Natural seasoning of wood is used to minimize pitch content in wood, but it has some disadvantages including yield losses and decreased brightness. Controlled seasoning with white-rot fungi or albino strains of sapstain fungi is an effective tool for degradation and removal of wood extractives. Enzymes including lipase, laccase, sterol esterase, and lipooxygenase have also been used to minimize pitch-related problems. Enzymatic retting has been proved an eco-friendly and economical solution for chemical degumming and traditional retting.

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to identify the best regions for allocation of a forestry outgrower scheme, and the most efficient transportation system, using a mathematical programming model to minimize the wood supply costs in three Brazilian states. The forest outgrower scheme is a partnership between producers and forest companies, without land acquisition by the companies. Forest producers are recognized as an important source of growth for forest production. In order to achieve successful partnerships, the company needs to plan its hiring. In this study, the partnerships are made through formal contracts and the model does not allow breach of contract. Six scenarios were modeled and evaluated based on the total cost of the objective function, average wood cost (USD/m3), average transport distance (km) and processing time. The mathematical model showed its efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility in generating scenarios to support company managers in the decision-making and to avoid breach of contract. Hiring planning benefits both sides as it ensures the company’s production and provides financial security to forest producers. In addition, the model suggests alternatives such as the differential pricing of wood according to the location of the regions and the formation of homogeneous blocks of contracting/renewal of outgrower schemes around the pulp mill.

This paper aims to empirically examine the relations between energy consumption, R&D costs and capital expenditures on the profitability of manufacturing companies in the paper and allied industry. The main focus in this article is on the companies, which are operating in the manufacture of pulp from wood and the paper production industry. Multiple regression analysis was used to test if the energy consumption, R&D costs and capital expenditures significantly predict EBITDA profitability. The results of the regression analysis indicated that all used predictors explained (R2) 35.7% of the company profitability variance (R2 = 0.357, F (3; 80) = 14.82, p-value < 0.01). The performed regression analysis also shows that energy consumption has a significant contribution to the profitability of the company. The results also indicate that only energy consumption explains 12.1% of the profitability variance (R2 = 0.121, F (1; 101) = 13.86, p-value = 0.01). The results of the regression analysis show that EBITDA profitability will increase by about 3.7 · 10–7% for each 1 000 GJ energy consumed.

Introduction 2021 was the year that NFTs got big—not just in value but also in terms of the cultural consciousness. When digital artist Beeple sold the portfolio of his 5,000 daily images at Christie’s for US$69 million, the art world was left intrigued, confused, and outraged in equal measure. Depending on who you asked, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) seemed to be either a quick cash-grab or the future of the art market (Bowden and Jones; Smee). Following the Beeple sale, articles started to appear indicating that the film industry was abuzz for NFTs. Independent filmmaker Kevin Smith was quick to announce that he planned to release his horror film Killroy Was Here as an NFT (Alexander); in September 2021 the James Bond film No Time to Die also unveiled a series of collectibles to coincide with the film’s much-delayed theatrical release (Natalee); the distribution and collectible platforms Vuele, NFT Studios, and Mogul Productions all emerged, and the industry rumour mill suggests more start-ups are en route (CurrencyWorks; NFT Studios; NewsBTC). Blockchain disciples say that the technology will solve all the problems of the Internet (Tewari; Norton; European Business Review); critics say it will only perpetuate existing accessibility and equality issues (Davis and Flatow; Klein). Those more circumspect will doubtless sit back until the dust settles, waiting to see what parts of so-called web3 will be genuinely integrated into the architecture of the Internet. Pamela Hutchinson puts it neatly in terms of the arts sector: “the NFT may revolutionise the art market, film funding and distribution. Or it might be an ecological disaster and a financial bubble, in which few actual movies change hands, and fraudsters get rich from other people’s intellectual property” (Hutchinson). There is an uptick in the literature around NFTs and blockchain (see Quiniou; Gayvoronskaya & Meinel); however, the technology remains unregulated and unstandardised (Yeung 212-14; Dimitropoulos 112-13). Similarly, the sheer amount of funding being put into fundamental technical, data, and security-related issues speaks volumes to the nascency of the space (Ossinger; Livni; Gayvoronskaya & Meinel 52-6). Put very briefly, NFTs are part of a given blockchain system; think of them, like cryptocurrency coins, as “units of value” within that system (Roose). NFTs were initially rolled out on Ethereum, though several other blockchains have now implemented their own NFT frameworks. NFTs are usually not the artwork itself, but rather a unique, un-copyable (hence, non-fungible) piece of code that is attached, linked, or connected to another digital file, be that an image, video, text, or something else entirely. NFTs are often referred to as a digital artwork’s “certificate of authenticity” (Roose). At the time of writing, it remains to be seen how widely blockchain and NFT technology will be implemented across the entertainment industries. However, this article aims to outline the current state of implementation in the film trade specifically, and to attempt to sort true potential from the hype. Beginning with an overview of the core issues around blockchain and NFTs as they apply to film properties and adjacent products, current implementations of the technology are outlined, before finishing with a hesitant glimpse into the potential future applications. The Issues and Conversation At the core of current conversations around blockchain are three topics: intellectual property and ownership, concentrations of power and control, and environmental impact. To this I would like to add a consideration of social capital, which I begin with briefly here. Both the film industry and “crypto” — if we take the latter to encompass the various facets of so-called ‘web3’ — are engines of social capital. In the case of cinema, its products are commodified and passed through a model that begins with exclusivity (theatrical release) before progressing to mass availability (home media, streaming). The cinematic object, i.e., an individual copy of a film, is, by virtue of its origins as a mass product of the twentieth century, fungible. The film is captured, copied, stored, distributed, and shared. The film-industrial model has always relied on social phenomena, word of mouth, critical discourse, and latterly on buzz across digital social media platforms. This is perhaps as distinct from fine art, where — at least for dealers — the content of the piece does not necessarily matter so much as verification of ownership and provenance. Similarly, web3, with its decentralised and often-anonymised processes, relies on a kind of social activity, or at least a recorded interaction wherein the chain is stamped and each iteration is updated across the system. Even without the current hype, web3 still relies a great deal on discourse, sharing, and community, particularly as it flattens the existing hierarchies of the Internet that linger from Web 2.0. In terms of NFTs, blockchain systems attach scarcity and uniqueness to digital objects. For now, that scarcity and uniqueness is resulting in financial value, though as Jonathan Beller argues the notion of value could — or perhaps should — be reconsidered as blockchain technology, and especially cryptocurrencies, evolve (Beller 217). Regardless, NFT advocates maintain that this is the future of all online activity. To questions of copyright, the structures of blockchain do permit some level of certainty around where a given piece of intellectual property emerged. This is particularly useful where there are transnational differences in recognition of copyright law, such as in France, for instance (Quiniou 112-13). The Berne Convention stipulates that “the subsistence of copyright does not rest on the compliance with formal requirements: rights will exist if the work meets the requirements for protection set out by national law and treaties” (Guadamuz 1373). However, there are still no legal structures underpinning even the most transparent of transactions, when an originator goes out of their way to transfer rights to the buyer of the accompanying NFT. The minimum requirement — even courtesy — for the assignment of rights is the identification of the work itself; as Guadamuz notes, this is tricky for NFTs as they are written in code (1374). The blockchain’s openness and transparency are its key benefits, but until the code can explicitly include (or concretely and permanently reference) the ‘content’ of an NFT, its utility as a system of ownership is questionable. Decentralisation, too, is raised consistently as a key positive characteristic of blockchain technology. Despite the energy required for this decentralisation (addressed shortly), it is true that, at least in its base code, blockchain is a technology with no centralised source of truth or verification. Instead, such verification is performed by every node on the chain. On the surface, for the film industry, this might mean modes of financing, rights management, and distribution chains that are not beholden to multinational media conglomerates, streamers like Netflix, niche intermediaries, or legacy studios. The result here would be a flattening of the terrain: breaking down studio and corporate gatekeeping in favour of a more democratised creative landscape. Creators and creative teams would work peer-to-peer, paying, contracting, servicing, and distribution via the blockchain, with iron-clad, publicly accessible tracking of transactions and ownership. The alternative, though, is that the same imbalances persist, just in a different form: this is outlined in the next section. As Hunter Vaughan writes, the film industry’s environmental impact has long been under-examined. Its practices are diverse, distributed, and hard to quantify. Cinematic images, Vaughan writes, “do not come from nothing, and they do not vanish into the air: they have always been generated by the earth and sun, by fossil fuels and chemical reactions, and our enjoyment of them has material consequences” (3). We believe that by watching a “green” film like Avatar we are doing good, but it implicates us in the dirty secret, an issue of “ignorance and of voluntary psychosis” where “we do not see who we are harming or how these practices are affecting the environment, and we routinely agree to accept the virtual as real” (5). Beyond questions of implication and eco-material conceptualisation, however, there are stark facts. In the 1920s, the Kodak Park Plant in New York drew 12 million gallons of water from Lake Ontario each day to produce film stock. As the twentieth century came to a close, this amount — for a single film plant — had grown to 35-53 million gallons per day. The waste water was perfunctorily “cleaned” and then dumped into surrounding rivers (72-3). This was just one plant, and one part of the filmmaking process. With the shift to digital, this cost might now be calculated in the extraction of precious metals used to make contemporary cameras, computers, or storage devices. Regardless, extrapolate outwards to a global film industry and one quickly realises the impact is almost beyond comprehension. Considering — let alone calculating — the carbon footprint of blockchain requires outlining some fundamentals of the technology. The two primary architectures of blockchain are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), both of which denote methods of adding and verifying new blocks to a chain. PoW was the first model, employed by Bitcoin and the first iteration of Ethereum. In a PoW model, each new block has a specific cryptographic hash. To confirm the new block, crypto miners use their systems to generate a target hash that is less than or equal to that of the block. The systems process these calculations quickly, as the goal is to be “the first miner with the target hash because that miner is the one who can update the blockchain and receive crypto rewards” (Daly). The race for block confirmation necessitates huge amounts of processing power to make these quick calculations. The PoS model differs in that miners are replaced by validators (or staking services where participants pool validation power). Rather than investing in computer power, validators invest in the blockchain’s coins, staking those coins (tokens) in a smart contract (think of this contract like a bank account or vault). When a new block is proposed, an algorithm chooses a validator based on the size of their stake; if the block is verified, the validator receives further cryptocurrency as a reward (Castor). Given the ubiquity and exponential growth of blockchain technology and its users, an accurate quantification of its carbon footprint is difficult. For some precedent, though, one might consider the impact of the Bitcoin blockchain, which runs on a PoW model. As the New York Times so succinctly puts it: “the process of creating Bitcoin to spend or trade consumes around 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, more than is used by Finland, a nation of about 5.5 million” (Huang, O’Neill and Tabuchi). The current Ethereum system (at time of writing), where the majority of NFT transactions take place, also runs on PoW, and it is estimated that a single Ethereum transaction is equivalent to nearly nine days of power consumption by an average US household (Digiconomist). Ethereum always intended to operate on a PoS system, and the transition to this new model is currently underway (Castor). Proof of Stake transactions use significantly less energy — the new Ethereum will supposedly be approximately 2,000 times more energy efficient (Beekhuizen). However, newer systems such as Solana have been explicit about their efficiency goals, stating that a single Solana transaction uses less energy (1,837 Joules, to be precise) than keeping an LED light on for one hour (36,000 J); one Ethereum transaction, for comparison, uses over 692 million J (Solana). In addition to energy usage, however, there is also the question of e-waste as a result of mining and general blockchain operations which, at the time of writing, for Bitcoin sits at around 32 kilotons per year, around the same as the consumer IT wastage of the Netherlands (de Vries and Stoll). How the growth in NFT awareness and adoption amplifies this impact remains to be seen, but depending on which blockchain they use, they may be wasting energy and resources by design. If using a PoW model, the more valuable the cryptocurrency used to make the purchase, the more energy (“gas”) required to authenticate the purchase across the chain. Images abound online of jerry-rigged crypto data centres of varying quality (see also efficiency and safety). With each NFT minted, sold, or traded, these centres draw — and thus waste, for gas — more and more energy. With increased public attention and scrutiny, cryptocurrencies are slowly realising that things could be better. As sustainable alternatives become more desirable and mainstream, it is safe to predict that many NFT marketplaces may migrate to Cardano, Solana, or other more efficient blockchain bases. For now, though, this article considers the existing implementations of NFTs and blockchain technology within the film industry. Current Implementations The current applications of NFTs in film centre around financing and distribution. In terms of the former, NFTs are saleable items that can raise capital for production, distribution, or marketing. As previously mentioned, director Kevin Smith launched Jay & Silent Bob’s Crypto Studio in order to finish and release Killroy Was Here. Smith released over 600 limited edition tokens, including one of the film itself (Moore). In October 2021, renowned Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai sold an NFT with unreleased footage from his film In the Mood for Love at Sotheby’s for US$550,000 (Raybaud). Quentin Tarantino entered the arena in January 2022, auctioning uncut scenes from his 1994 film Pulp Fiction, despite the threat of legal action from the film’s original distributor Miramax (Dailey). In Australia, an early adopter of the technology is director Michael Beets, who works in virtual production and immersive experiences. His immersive 14-minute VR film Nezunoban (2020) was split into seven different chapters, and each chapter was sold as an NFT. Beets also works with artists to develop entry tickets that are their own piece of generative art; with these tickets and the chapters selling for hundreds of dollars at a time, Beets seems to have achieved the impossible: turning a profit on a short film (Fletcher). Another Australian writer-producer, Samuel Wilson, now based in Canada, suggests that the technology does encourage filmmakers to think differently about what they create: At the moment, I’m making NFTs from extra footage of my feature film Miles Away, which will be released early next year. In one way, it’s like a new age of behind-the-scenes/bonus features. I have 14 hours of DV tapes that I’m cutting into a short film which I will then sell in chapters over the coming months. One chapter will feature the dashing KJ Apa (Songbird, Riverdale) without his shirt on. So, hopefully that can turn some heads. (Wilson, in Fletcher) In addition to individual directors, a number of startup companies are also seeking to get in on the action. One of these is Vuele, which is best understood as a blockchain-based streaming service: an NFT Netflix, if you like. In addition to films themselves, the service will offer extra content as NFTs, including “behind the scenes content, bonus features, exclusive Q&As, and memorabilia” (CurrencyWorks). Vuele’s launch title is Zero Contact, directed by Rick Dugdale and starring Anthony Hopkins. The film is marketed as “the World’s First NFT Feature Film” (as at the time of writing, though, both Vuele and its flagship film have yet to launch). Also launching is NFT Studios, a blockchain-based production company that distributes the executive producer role to those buying into the project. NFT Studios is a decentralised administrative organisation (DAO), guided by tech experts, producers, and film industry intermediaries. NFT Studios is launching with A Wing and a Prayer, a biopic of aeronaut Brian Milton (NFT Studios), and will announce their full slate across festivals in 2022. In Australia, Culture Vault states that its aim is to demystify crypto and champion Australian artists’ rights and access to the space. Co-founder and CEO Michelle Grey is well aware of the aforementioned current social capital of NFTs, but is also acutely aware of the space’s opacity and the ubiquity of often machine-generated tat. “The early NFT space was in its infancy, there was a lot of crap around, but don’t forget there’s a lot of garbage in the traditional art world too,” she says (cited in Miller). Grey and her company effectively act like art dealers; intermediaries between the tech and art worlds. These new companies claim to be adhering to the principles of web3, often selling themselves as collectives, DAOs, or distributed administrative systems. But the entrenched tendencies of the film industry — particularly the persistent Hollywood system — are not so easily broken down. Vuele is a joint venture between CurrencyWorks and Enderby Entertainment. The former is a financial technology company setting up blockchain systems for businesses, including the establishment of branded digital currencies such as the controversial FreedomCoin (Memoria); the latter, Enderby, is a production company founded by Canadian film producer (and former investor relations expert in the oil and uranium sectors) Rick Dugdale (Wiesner). Similarly, NFT Studios is partnered with consulting and marketing agencies and blockchain venture capitalists (NFT Investments PLC). Depending on how charitable or cynical one is feeling, these start-ups are either helpful intermediaries to facilitate legacy media moving into NFT technology, or the first bricks in the capitalist wall to bar access for entry to other players. The Future Is… Buffering Marketplaces like Mintable, OpenSea, and Rarible do indeed make the minting and selling of NFTs fairly straightforward — if you’ve ever listed an item for sale on eBay or Facebook, you can probably mint an NFT. Despite this, the current major barrier for average punters to the NFT space remains technical knowledge. The principles of blockchain remain fairly opaque — even this author, who has been on a deep dive for this article, remains sceptical that widespread adoption across multiple applications and industries is feasible. Even so, as Rennie notes, “the unknown is not what blockchain technology is, or even what it is for (there are countless ‘use cases’), but how it structures the actions of those who use it” (235). At the time of writing, a great many commentators and a small handful of scholars are speculating about the role of the metaverse in the creative space. If the endgame of the metaverse is realised, i.e., a virtual, interactive space where users can interact, trade, and consume entertainment, the role of creators, dealers, distributors, and other brokers and players will be up-ended, and have to re-settle once again. Film industry practitioners might look to the games space to see what the road might look like, but then again, in an industry that is — at its best — somewhat resistant to change, this may simply be a fad that blows over. Blockchain’s current employment as a get-rich-quick mechanism for the algorithmic literati and as a computational extension of existing power structures suggests nothing more than another techno-bubble primed to burst (Patrickson 591-2; Klein). Despite the aspirational commentary surrounding distributed administrative systems and organisations, the current implementations are restricted, for now, to startups like NFT Studios. In terms of cinema, it does remain to be seen whether the deployment of NFTs will move beyond a kind of “Netflix with tchotchkes” model, or a variant of crowdfunding with perks. Once Vuele and NFT Studios launch properly, we may have a sense of how this all will play out, particularly alongside less corporate-driven, more artistically-minded initiatives like that of Michael Beets and Culture Vault. It is possible, too, that blockchain technology may streamline the mechanics of the industry in terms of automating or simplifying parts of the production process, particularly around contracts, financing, licensing. This would obviously remove some of the associated labour and fees, but would also de-couple long-established parts and personnel of the industry — would Hollywood and similar industrial-entertainment complexes let this happen? 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