Method of producing a paper product and system for producing a paper product

Abstract

A method and a system of producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material is described. The method incudes virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions; generating material portion representors associated with the material portions, wherein generating the material portion representors includes generating respective attributes of each of the material portion representors; for at least some of the process steps of the process, modifying the material portion representors by a respective virtual process step function. The method further includes a splitting process stage including splitting a portion of a downstream material portion representor into a split resource material portion representor and a remaining material portion representor. The method further incudes a merging process stage including merging with an upstream material portion representor a mergeable resource material portion representor.

The invention claimed is: 
     
         1 - 15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . A method of producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material, the processing comprising at least two process stages comprising a plurality of process steps, the method comprising:
 representing the material as a virtual material and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions;   generating material portion representors respectively associated with the material portions, wherein generating the material portion representors comprises generating respective attributes of each of the material portion representors, the attributes being indicative of properties of the respective material portions;   for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modifying the material portion representors by a respective virtual process step function representing the respective process step, wherein
 the modifying comprises modifying at least one attribute of the material portion representors, 
 the at least two process stages comprising a merging process stage and a splitting process stage, wherein the merging process stage is upstream of the splitting process stage and comprises merging a mergeable resource material part to the material, and wherein the splitting process stage comprises splitting a split resource material part from the material; 
   the method comprising for the splitting process stage, whereby a downstream material portion of the material portions is being processed in the splitting process stage:
 splitting a portion of a downstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the downstream material portion representor associated with the downstream material portion, into a split resource material portion representor associated with the split resource material part and a remaining material portion representor for the remaining downstream material portion, 
   the method comprising for the merging process stage, whereby an upstream material portion of the material portions is being processed in the merging process stage:
 merging, with an upstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the upstream material portion representor associated with the upstream material portion, a mergeable resource material portion representor associated with the mergeable resource material part. 
   
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 16 , wherein the mergeable resource material part and the split resource material part are parts of a resource material flowing from the splitting process stage to the merging process stage. 
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises:
 representing the resource material as a virtual resource material comprising a plurality of resource material portions;   generating a plurality of resource material portion representors respectively associated with the resource material portions;
 wherein the plurality of resource material portion representors comprises the mergeable resource material portion representor and the split resource material portion representor. 
   
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 18 , wherein generating the plurality of resource material portion representors comprises splitting at least some of the resource material portion representors from respective material portion representors. 
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 16 , wherein the split resource material portion representor comprises at least some attributes based on the attributes of the downstream material portion representor. 
     
     
         21 . The method according  claim 16 , wherein the mergeable resource material portion representor comprises at least some attributes based on the attributes of the downstream material portion representor. 
     
     
         22 . The method according to  claim 16 , further comprising merging the split resource material portion representor with a bulk resource material representor representing a bulk resource material, and splitting the mergeable resource material portion representor from the bulk resource material representor. 
     
     
         23 . The method according to  claim 16 , wherein the attributes of the material portion representors comprise at least one of emissions, CO 2  emission, energy consumption, cost of energy consumption, kind of energy used, concentration of recycled material, and recyclability. 
     
     
         24 . The method according to  claim 16 , further comprising: generating additional representors, which are merged and/or split from the material portion representors during the plurality of process steps. 
     
     
         25 . The method according to  claim 24 , wherein generating the additional representors comprises generating at least one of an additional material portion representor, an input material portion representor, a water representor, a solvent representor, a chemical portion representor, an energy portion representor, a CO 2  portion representor, and a product order representor. 
     
     
         26 . The method according to  claim 16 , wherein splitting of the downstream material portion representor into a split resource material portion representor and a remaining portion representor comprises:
 associating each of the split resource material portion representor and the remaining portion representor with respective parts of the at least one attribute of the upstream material portion representor.   
     
     
         27 . The method according to  claim 16 , further comprising generating a history data set, wherein the history data set is indicative of the at least one attribute, the process step and the material portion representor. 
     
     
         28 . The method according to  claim 27 , wherein generating a history data set comprises calculating an emission history for the emission management of the production of the paper product. 
     
     
         29 . The method according to  claim 16 , the method further comprises:
 generating a material flow digital twin for representing the industrial processing comprising a plurality of process steps, the material flow digital twin comprising the respective virtual process step functions of the process steps; and,   connecting the material flow digital twin to other information systems comprising at least one of a Distributed Control System for adapting the material flow digital twin to current processing data, a Manufacturing Execution System for retrieving information on current orders, and an Enterprise Resource Planning system for gaining information about input materials and orders of the processing system.   
     
     
         30 . The method according to  claim 29 , wherein connecting the material flow digital twin to a Manufacturing Execution System for retrieving information on current orders comprises and connecting the material flow digital twin to a Manufacturing Execution System for giving feedback to the MES for scheduling the orders of the processing. 
     
     
         31 . The method according to  claim 16 , wherein the industrial processing of a material for producing a paper product comprises a pulp-and-paper process. 
     
     
         32 . A system for producing a paper product by industrial processing a continuously flowing material, the industrial processing comprising at least two process stages comprising a plurality of process steps, wherein the system comprises a processor and a data system, the system being configured for:
 representing, by the processor, the material as a virtual material and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions;   generating, by the processor, material portion representors in the data system, wherein the material portion representors comprise respective attributes of each of the material portion representors, the attributes being indicative of properties of the respective material portions;   for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modifying the material portion representors by a respective virtual process step function representing the respective process step, wherein the system is configured for modifying at least one attribute of the material portion representors, when modifying the material portion representors;   wherein the system is configured to performing the process stages comprising a merging process stage and a splitting process stage, wherein the merging process stage is upstream of the splitting process stage and comprises merging a mergeable resource material part to the material, and wherein the splitting process stage comprises splitting a split resource material part from the material;   wherein the system is configured for the splitting process stage to:
 split, by the processor, a portion of a downstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the downstream material portion representor associated with a downstream material portion processed in the splitting process stage, into a split resource material portion representor associated with the split resource material part and a remaining material portion representor for the remaining downstream material portion; and 
   wherein the system is configured for the merging process stage to:
 merge, by the processor, with an upstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the upstream material portion representor associated with the upstream material portion, a mergeable resource material portion representor associated with the mergeable resource material part. 
   
     
     
         33 . The system according to  claim 32 , wherein the mergeable resource material part and the split resource material part are parts of a resource material flowing from the splitting process stage to the merging process stage. 
     
     
         34 . The system according to  claim 32 , wherein the system that is capable to track the relevant properties to monitor the energy consumption, emissions like CO 2  and resources used including the quality of the resources. 
     
     
         35 . A computer-readable medium comprising instructions which carry out the method according to  claim 16  when executed by a processor of a system for producing a paper product by industrial processing a continuously flowing material.