Decarbonization pathways for the pulp and paper industry: A comprehensive review

Farhan Haider Joyo, Benedetto Nastasi and Davide Astiaso Garcia

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2025, vol. 223, issue C

Abstract: The world is experiencing the effects of climate change at an increasing rate, including rising average global temperature, caused primarily by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Energy-intensive industries (EIIs) are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. The pulp and paper industry (PPI) is among the top five most energy-intensive industries, and it accounts for approximately 6 % of global industrial energy use and 2 % of direct industrial CO2 emissions. Therefore, it is important to decarbonize this industrial sector to achieve the climate policy goal of achieving net-zero emissions as per the Paris Agreement. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the decarbonization options, also known as decarbonization pathways, for the pulp and paper industrial sector. These pathways are selected from available literature, and they mainly include energy efficiency measures (EEMs), paper recycling, switching to carbon-neutral fuels such as biomass and hydrogen, electrification of heat supply, and carbon capture & storage (CCS), among other emerging technologies. After identifying, each decarbonization pathway is discussed in detail with its drivers and barriers to implementation. The Analytical Hierarchy Process AHP, a multi-criteria decision-making MCDM technique, is carried out to rank the decarbonization pathways on five distinct criteria: cost, emission reduction potential, technological readiness level (TRL), implementation time, and scalability. The ranking is carried out in four distinct criteria weight regimes to present clear choices on different criterion weights. This review paper aims to add to the existing literature to provide clear indications in choosing the pathways toward the decarbonization effort in the pulp & paper industry under various strategic priorities.

Keywords: Pulp and paper industry; Industrial decarbonization; Climate change; Net-zero emission; Analytical hierarchy process (AHP); Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2025.116070

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