The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is turning to artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing, and advanced materials science to transform an industry that has changed little in decades.

A newly launched national initiative, the Center for Research and Advancement of Forest Product Technologies (CRAFT), will develop next-generation technologies to modernize the country’s pulp, paper, and packaging sector, an industry that supports thousands of manufacturing jobs but still relies on aging mill infrastructure.

The initiative is led by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The program will bring together multiple national laboratories, universities, and industry partners to improve manufacturing efficiency and help domestic producers remain globally competitive.

Rather than focusing on building new mills, CRAFT aims to extract more value from existing facilities through digital transformation. Researchers will use AI-driven process improvement, complex modeling, automation, and data analysis to identify operational bottlenecks, reduce downtime, improve yields, and cut production costs.

“The U.S. pulp and paper industry is critical to thousands of rural communities, like the one where I grew up in Maine, but much of the existing infrastructure is decades old,” said Daniel Coughlin, executive director of CRAFT and a senior research and development staff member at ORNL.

The center is funded by the Industrial Technologies Office within DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation. It is supported by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and the newly established National Laboratory of the Rockies, alongside a network of industrial partners.

Beyond digital tools, the research program will tackle some of the industry’s most energy-intensive manufacturing stages, including next-generation pulping, chemical recovery, dewatering, and drying.

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