Day 10 – Never Seen Before – Machine Gloss Papel at Smurfit Kappa

Day 10 – by Megan Yang and Mary Kathryn Wallace

Wednesday morning, on May 22nd, we departed from the Zenit Pamplona Hotel to travel to the Smurfit Kappa Sangüesa Mill. This paper company has over 46,000 employees with 350 facilities in 35 different countries. The Sangüesa mill has a little over 240 employees and produces over 80,000 metric tons of virgin unbleached mechanically glazed Kraft. Prior to the tour, Pedro Mendarozketa (mill manager) and Javier Sáenz (speaker) emphasized the innovations and growth of paper in becoming a sustainable and environmentally conscious competitor to plastic for multiple industries. They informed us of how their machine glazed kraft products fit into the circular economy and the many potential uses of their product. As Pedro Mendarozketa said, “brown is the new green.”

For the tour, the students were split into two groups led by Raquel Espuelas and Inigo Larrión. By the wood yard we saw logs being loaded into the debarking drum, the screening process for woodchips, and where fines and rejects were deposited. Next, we went up to the control room of the boiler (biomaterial boiler – bark, fines and lignin). The older technology in the control room was much different from what students typically see during their industry experiences. Afterward, we saw two operating paper machines that utilized enormous yankee rolls. This was very unusual because many of us relate the yankee roll with tissue and towel instead of bag paper production. The Smurfit Kappa mill capped off our mill visits perfectly by giving us experience with a process and product that were definitely something different for all of us!

After the mill visit, we loaded back up on the bus to travel to San Sebastián. We arrived late in the afternoon, and a large group of students walked to the beach to take advantage of the good weather. Relaxing on the beach and swimming in the Bay of Biscay was a great way to unwind after a long day of travel.

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