A close relationship exists between forest product industries and the water cycle. Water as a natural resource is assumed to be a necessary and vital element in pulp and paper manufacturing as well as power generation in the related power plants. The objective of the current study is to determine the main factors affecting water consumption in recycled paper manufacturing companies using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Several questionnaires and related tables were forwarded to selected recycled paper manufacturing companies to evaluate the water reduction criteria in different sectors including the manufacturing process, final product, raw material, human resources, costs and expenditures, environmental regulations and technical modifications. The results were analyzed using Expert Choice 2000 software. The results indicated that the final product criterion was ranked first followed by manufacturing process, human resources, costs and expenditures, environmental regulations and technical modifications, in that order. Also among alternatives, final product, cooling water network, and water storage tanks were categorized in the first three priorities. The specified priorities would assist managers and production experts to achieve optimal water consumption with the minimum possible cost.

The three growing phenomena: Paper Mills, Review Mills, and Citation Mills, are known as the three sides of the triangle of scientific misconduct, have raised serious concerns about research credibility in societies. A report by the Committee on Publication Ethics and The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers states that 2% of articles submitted to journals may originate from paper mills. As researchers and faculty members face countless challenges to increase their number of articles and receive more citations, they have become the primary clientele trapped in the web of these unethical practices. The spread of such unethical behaviors in the processes of publishing and evaluating science is a serious threat to scientific research in the world, leading to a loss of public trust in science and destroying the credibility of knowledge. Countering these phenomena requires decisive measures and the development of clear regulations to protect scientific and ethical principles

Pulp and paper mills consider as a major wastewater producer industries in order to cellulosic pollution and also consuming high amount of water during the process. The wastewater treatment process is complicated because these kinds of effluents contain suspended & colloidal impurities and color & odor; so using chemical coagulants via the Jar test can be an appropriate alternative to remove the contaminants. In this research, different concentrations of Alum, PAC and FeCl3 coagulants were tested to reduce the contamination load of the effluent from three important major parts of fiber wastewater producers; that, according to the results FeCl3 was reported as the best chemical coagulants which removed 61%, 74/05 % and 58% of the COD from the three mentioned parts effluent. Therefore, chemical treatment by using of an appropriate coagulant with the optimum concentration can perform an important role in reducing the effluent contamination load.

Background and objectives: Contamination in pulp mill wastewater and subsequently surface and underground water sources contamination with heavy metals is one of the most important problems which threatens the health of human being and other creatures. These metals penetrate and pollute the soil and water. In this regard, this study investigated and determined heavy metals in the pulp mill wastewater before and after the wastewater treatment process. In this study the newspaper adsorbent was prepared and the efficiency of the adsorbent in the adsorption of copper, lead and cadmium metals was studied.Methodology: The adsorption experiments were performed to investigate the effect of the time of contact of the newspaper adsorbent and metals, and dose of the adsorbent. For this purpose, waste newspapers were first treated with sodium bicarbonate for one hour and then refluxed with 5% disodium hydrogen phosphate for 4 hours at 100 degrees Celsius and finally washed. Aqueous solutions with an initial concentration of 30 ppm for three metals lead, copper and cadmium were prepared by diluting the standard solution with distilled water. A specific amount of adsorbent was added to 10 ml of each solution and stirred in a mechanical shaker for specific times. Then they were filtered by filter paper purified and analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopic device. After drying, the solid phase of the wastewater sample was subjected to acid digestion with nitric acid at a ratio of one to five. Then, the digested samples were analyzed with an atomic absorption spectrometer after washing.​Results: The results of wastewater analysis in the basins before and after treatment showed that the amount of lead, copper and cadmium in the wastewater before treatment were 0.2129, 0.5983 and 0.0004 ppm, respectively. The amount of metals after the treatment process was 0.0469, 0.134 and 0.0001 ppm for lead, copper and cadmium, respectively. Also, according to the results, taking into account that the absorption rate was high and the same in the amount of absorbent used and the treatment times; the amount and time of the desired treatment in this experiment were not effective factors in the amount of metal absorption. Conclusion: The newspaper adsorbent is a good adsorbent for removing heavy metals from aqueous solutions due to high absorption capacity and low cost, which make the newspaper a potential adsorbent for the removal and wastewater treatment of the heavy metals. According to the results, the dosage and time of treatment with the newspaper adsorbent were not effective factors in metal removal.

Monitoring and evaluation of transformers are essential to prevent their insulation failure. In this paper, the use of 2-furan-carboxaldehyde (2-FAL) and methanol (MeOH) concentrations as the main products of paper insulation degradation, and insulation condition markers, has been studied. In order to study the degradation process and production of degradation products, the thermal aging process of the transformer insulation system was implemented in laboratory conditions. The results of laboratory studies show that in the early stages of degradation the amount of MeOH is significant compared to 2-FAL. Also, the estimation of the degree of polymerization (DP) in the early stages of degradation (DP>800) through MeOH concentration and with decreasing DP (DP <800) through 2-FAL concentration is closer to the real value. The results of studies performed on 35 distribution transformers confirm the production of significant amounts of MeOH in the early stages of degradation. Also, the estimated DP values for the studied transformers were obtained through 2-FAL and MeOH concentration. The results show that estimating the amount of DP through MeOH concentration is associated with a probability of error of about 9% compared to estimating DP through 2-FAL concentration.