Tuesday February 10, 2026 / Detailed program

PaperWeek Detailed Program

08:00 – 10:30

BIOFOR / Energy Joint Session

Session Chairs: Victor Padilla, FPInnovations & Luciana Savulescu, NRCan – CanmetENERGY

Enhancing Pulp & Paper Industry Competitiveness through Energy Efficiency

This session explores emerging approaches to energy integration and low-carbon solutions to strengthen pulp and paper industry competitiveness. The speakers bring diverse expert perspectives, offering insights into innovation-driven pathways that boost energy efficiency, enable clean technology solutions, leading to increase market competitiveness and maximize the use of existing assets and resources.

08:00 – 09:00 Keynote: “Future Opportunities in Improving Energy Efficiency and Flexibility”, Jussi Manninen, VTT

09:00 – 10:30  BIOFOR & Energy joint presentations

Panelists:

“Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization in Pulp and Paper Plants: How to Connect Ambition with Reality”, Hooman Rezaei, Domtar
“Resource and Pathways Analysis for Decarbonizing the Pulp and Paper Sector in Quebec” Marie-Hélène Talbot, Hydro-Quebec’s Research Center
“Decarbonization of Kraft Mills: Role of Water-Energy Reduction”, Enrique Mateos-Espejel, FPInnovations
“Aligning Decarbonization and Competitiveness of Kraft Mills: Exploring Green Ammonia Energy Integration”, Hakim Ghezzaz, Natural Resources Canada/CanmetENERGY

11:00 – 12:30

PAPERMAKING – Innovation in Papermaking Chemistry

Session Chair : Przem Pruszynski, Pruszynski Paper Chemistry Consulting

11:00 “Methodological approaches for the development of new contaminant control agents for felt and Wire Passivation Applications”, Nina Shivyari & David Sharoyan, Solenis
11:25 “Improving dry strength properties utilizing chemistry”, Bruce Barker, Nalco 

11:50 “New Strength Additive for Towel”, Jia-Yu Wang, Nalco

12:15 “Future of Paper Sustainability ”, Rasmus Pinomaa, Kemira

12:30 – 14:00

Mills for Mills – Understand It, See It, Trust It

Session Chair : Jean Fahmy & Sean Terriah, Kruger

AI in manufacturing is everywhere—but in mill conditions, value only shows up when we stay practical. This session will give the audience a clear, credible way to talk about AI without hype, then show what “good” looks like in real operations, and present a practical risk-and-controls approach tailored to mill realities (safety, reliability, security, and adoption), showing how to deploy AI responsibly with clear decision rights, human-in-the-loop guardrails, and auditability.

14:00 – 15:30

TISSUE / ENERGY – Electrification, Water Reduction & Decarbonization of Tissue Production

Session Chair : Michel Houde, Kruger Products

14:00 “Electrification, Reduction & Decarbonization of Tissue Production”, Ulf Johnson, Valmet
14:30 “Powering the Future of Tissue – the technology behind the first fully electric tissue machine”, Stefano Pecchia, Toscotec
15:00 “Harnessing Digital Waste Heat to Transform Energy Efficiency and Grid Resilience”, Pascal Perreault, First Block

15:00 – 17:00

PAPERMAKING – Barrier Coating I – Driving Quality and Performance

Session Chair : Shaune Hanley, Domtar

15:00 “Creating oil and grease resistance barriers using size press application”, Didier Delnoye, AVEBE
15:30 “Flexographic Applied Coating Study: advancing Sustainable Packaging Through Strategic Partnerships”, Scott Peplinksi, Solenis
16:00 “Roll-to-roll Laboratory Coating for Barrier Grade Development”, Lyne Cormier, FPInnovations
16:30 “Beyond Anti-Slip: How Technical Paper Coatings are Redefining Performance & Sustainability”, Marc-Antoine Auger, CGP Expal

15:30 – 17:00

ENERGY – Improving Energy Efficiency through Operation Excellence

Session Chairs : Luciana Savulescu & Milad Aghabararnejad, Natural Resources Canada/Canmet ENERGY

15:30 “Recovery Boiler Energy Efficiency Optimization: Automation Technologies”, Travis Conner, Valmet
16:15 “Mechanical Insulation Energy Assessments”, Joshua Sherrard, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers

*Please note all schedule is set on Eastern Time
Download PaperWeek Program

BIOFOR Detailed Program

08:00 – 10:30

BIOFOR / ENERGY Joint Session

Session Chairs: Victor Padilla, FPInnovations & Luciana Savulescu, NRCan – CanmetENERGY

Enhancing Pulp & Paper Industry Competitiveness through Energy Efficiency

This session explores emerging approaches to energy integration and low-carbon solutions to strengthen pulp and paper industry competitiveness. The speakers bring diverse expert perspectives, offering insights into innovation-driven pathways that boost energy efficiency, enable clean technology solutions, leading to increase market competitiveness and maximize the use of existing assets and resources.

08:00 – 09:00 Keynote: “Future Opportunities in Improving Energy Efficiency and Flexibility”, Jussi Manninen, VTT

09:00 – 10:30  BIOFOR & Energy joint presentations

Panelists:

“Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization in Pulp and Paper Plants: How to Connect Ambition with Reality”, Hooman Rezaei, Domtar
“Resource and Pathways Analysis for Decarbonizing the Pulp and Paper Sector in Quebec” Marie-Hélène Talbot, Hydro-Quebec’s Research Center
“Decarbonization of Kraft Mills: Role of Water-Energy Reduction”, Enrique Mateos-Espejel, FPInnovations
“Aligning Decarbonization and Competitiveness of Kraft Mills: Exploring Green Ammonia Energy Integration”, Hakim Ghezzaz, Natural Resources Canada/CanmetENERGY

11:00 – 12:30

Leveraging Biocarbon beyond Forest Ecosystems

Session Chair: Victor Padilla, FPInnovations & Luciana Savulescu, NRCan – CanmetENERGY

Focusing on how biomass can be transformed to high-value products and support decarbonization, this session examines potential cross-industry synergies to accelerate biocarbon innovation. Experts from research and production technologies to end-use applications share insights into emerging applications, scaling challenges and market drivers influencing biocarbon development in the current industrial context.

Panelists:

Daniel Liu, Researcher at Natural Resources Canada/CanmetENERGY
Pavel Hejsek, CEO at BC Biocarbon
Andrew White, CEO at CHAR Technologies
Patrick Lapointe, CCO at Airex Energy

13:30 – 15:00

Forest Carbon: A New Form of Value, Core to our Business

Session Chair: Liz Brennan, Domtar

Panelists:

“Introduction to Forest Carbon Concepts”, Liz Brennan, Manager Carbon and Climate Management – Domtar
“Weyerhaeuser’s GHG Inventory Principles and progress towards a workable standard for GHG inventory accounting in the forest sector”, Vaughan Andrews, Senior Program Manager Sustainability – Weyerhaeuser
“Lessons from West Fraser’s journey to develop a forest carbon inventory and considerations for the Canadian context”, Branden Beatty, Senior Manager Climate Programs – West Fraser
“Forest Carbon Management – Past, Present, and Future Trends”, Michael Buell, Senior Manager Sustainability and Carbon Forestry – KPMG

15:30 – 17:00

Digitalization Technology Supporting the Forest Sector — Walking on the bleeding edge of digitalization and automation in the forest sector

Session Chairs: Davis Chiu, Deloitte & Yaser Khojasteh, Concordia University

Explore the latest and greatest technologies that have been developed for forest and mill operations. This panel will explore technologies that allow for the automation of tree planting, optimization of forest fibre flows and the latest pulp and paper mill applications for industrial robotics. You don’t want to miss this session.

Panelists:

John Weiler, Associate Director, Boston Dynamics
Patrick Crawford, CEO, Fybr
Amir Soleimani, CEO, TreeTrack

*Please note all schedule is set on Eastern Time
Download BIOFOR Program