Research Projects

Tetra Pak cartons are primarily made of paperboard, which accounts for 75% of the carton's weight and gives the packaging its mechanical stability and strength. While making up 20% of the total weight of the packaging, the LDPE serves as an adhesive between the different parts of the material and shields the contents from outside moisture. Aluminium, which makes up only 5% of the packaging, is extremely important for the thermal stabilisation of the food product since it keeps light and oxygen out. In 2021 more than 192 billion packages were sold in more than 160 countries. However, the global recycling rate of tetra Pak packaging was only 26% in the year 2019. Environmental contamination can result from this buildup in landfills and incineration, but more crucially, the polyethylene polymer contained in the packaging material is thought to have harmful deleterious effects on both human and animal health. Concerning the large quantities of the tetrapack waste, we are proposing a novel single pot process to convert all the organic fraction to bio-oil with characteristics similar to bio-diesel and inorganic fraction as nanocomposite of Alumina. With solvlysis at supercritical conditions, the implemented ethanol can promote the degradation through two liquid products are attained where they can act as direct fuel additives to B20 (converted fraction) and E20 (recycled fraction). The residue majorly comprises of Al2O3 in the nanoform with other elements like carbon forming a stable nanocomposites for reforming/controlled oxidation reactions.