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Virtual modelling of air dryer - turn more waste into 100 % recycled & recyclable end-product
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Virtual modelling of air dryer - turn more waste into 100 % recycled & recyclable end-product

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Food packaging plays an essential role in providing food to people around the world, but when it is not collected and recycled, it can be a source of waste. The world needs to move away from the traditional linear economy, based on a “take-make-waste” model, towards a circular economy.

At Tetra Pak, we are continually improving the circularity of our packages through investments and collaborations to increase recycling capacity and strengthen the recycling infrastructure for our paper-based carton packages. Traditionally, beverage carton recycling predominantly focused on recovering fibres from used packages. Recoma is a local company in Hässleholm which unlocks the full potential of packaging material recycling, by leveraging the residual packaging material from our production and development in Lund. Recoma gives new life to carton packages and turns them into low-carbon, circular construction boards that can replace traditional boards since they are strong and stable, good for fastening screws and has a surface suitable for any treatment. 
 

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Figure 1 Residual from packaging material from Tetra Pak’s production and development in Lund. Recoma’s production line and construction boards

One challenge that Recoma faces when working with used beverage cartons and PolyAl – the layers of plastic and aluminum in beverage cartons – is managing moisture. To solve this and increase efficiency, the company is investing in an air-drying machine to be installed on their production line. 

The design and the performance of the dryer can be optimized by using virtual modelling. It is a cost- and time-efficient tool based on numerical simulations and which provides a realistic visualization of the drying process. Visualizing the air flow and evaluating the moisture transport are essential to understand the requirements on the dryer design and air flow properties, and to make informed decisions early in the design process.

The focus in this thesis work is to develop a realistic numerical simulation method of the flow in the air dryer (using CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics) and the moisture transport (using a coupled thermal-reaction flow solver). The model should account for the residual’s variations in shape and material properties based on relevant experimental material characterization (such as moisture sorption).

Scope: 
• Literature survey on air drying and moisture transport
• Create a virtual description of the air dryer in Recoma’s production line
• Perform experimental material characterisation on the residues and material calibration
• Perform numerical simulations of the air flow and the moisture transport 
• Determine and evaluate critical parameters for process and design optimisation


Supervisors
Aurelia Vallier, Tetra Pak® aurelia.vallier@tetrapak.com, 
Henrik Lennartsson, Recoma henrik.lennartsson@recoma.se

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2025 Master Thesis Proposal - Air Dryer at Recoma.pdf Download 2025 Master Thesis Proposal - Air Dryer at Recoma.pdf

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