Model for transfer of contaminant during the coextrusion of three-layer food package with a recycled polymer. Effect on the time of protection of the food of the relative thicknesses of the layers

✍ Scribed by A. L. Perou; S. Laoubi; J. M. Vergnaud

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 189 KB
• Volume: 73
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19990906)73:10<1939::aid-app13>3.0.co;2-g

✦ Synopsis

The heat transfer and subsequent contaminant transfer between a threelayer film during its coextrusion is considered. The film is made of a recycled polymer layer with a contaminant in it located between two virgin polymer layers. The effect of the relative thicknesses of the three layers on the contaminant transfer is especially studied. The final package is thus placed in contact with a food of finite volume, and the contaminant transfer into the food is thus determined. This transfer is controlled by diffusion through the package and convection into the liquid food. The effect of the relative thicknesses of each layer is estimated. This theoretical approach is allowed by building two numerical models based on finite differences: the one concerned with heat transfer and mass transfer with a temperature-dependent diffusivity through the film during its coextrusion; the other with the contaminant transfer into the food by considering the diffusion through the package and convection into the food, as well as the initial profile of concentration of the contaminant that obtained at the end of the stage of coextrusion.