UPM operates two world-class pulp mills in Uruguay, UPM Fray Bentos and UPM Paso de los Toros, which together produce 3.4 million tonnes of bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp (BEK) annually. The company’s activities include sustainable forestry management, certified eucalyptus plantations, and state-of-the-art tree nurseries. The R&D team in Uruguay has been evaluating the quality of wood feedstock, especially eucalyptus, both at laboratory and industrial scale for over 30 years.
“Extensive and long-term studies allow us to reliably predict how new raw materials will behave in the mill and which papermaking properties it will have based on laboratory evaluations. Our database also helps the UPM mills in Uruguay to understand what to expect from the wood supply in both the short and long term,” says Ernesto De Los Santos, Researcher, R&D and Technology. He has been working at the UPM Fray Bentos mill in Uruguay since its start-up in 2007. With a background in chemistry and further MSc studies in cellulose and paper engineering, De Los Santos joined the R&D team in 2012.
The team of eight researchers and development engineers at the Fray Bentos and Paso de los Toros mills also collaborates closely with the UPM Pulp Technical Marketing and Services (TMS) team to ensure that the product offering matches our pulp customers’ needs and industry demands. TMS works in close technical cooperation with customers and ensures that they can use UPM’s pulp to their full potential. “TMS also works with us when addressing pulp quality questions and provides valuable customer feedback, highlighting what customers value most and which characteristics they would like to see further improved,” De Los Santos describes.
