CD Laboratory for Mass Transport through Paper

This CD Laboratory investigates various issues relating to the porosity of paper. These range from the deaeration of paper bags during filling to the migration of microorganisms through paper in the area of food safety.

Paper is a frequently used packaging material as it combines mechanical stability with low-cost production and comprehensive sustainability. This CD Laboratory focuses on porosity as another key property of paper, which is of central importance for packaging, but also for printing paper.

This CD Laboratory aims to understand the paper's own pore structure and to explain the influence of this pore structure on the transport of, for example, air, solvents and packaging materials through paper. This fundamental understanding is an essential prerequisite for being able to quickly optimise the porosity of paper for a desired application. To achieve this, mathematical modelling is combined with practical experiments on corresponding model systems. The first step is to clarify the pore structure of paper on a microscopic level. Based on this, mathematical models will be developed to scientifically analyse various relevant transport processes of different types of particles through paper. The aim of this modelling is to predict how the individual transport processes are determined by the underlying pore structure. Such processes include, for example, oxygen exchange under storage conditions, the drying speed of ink droplets during printing, or deaeration processes when filling bulk goods into paper bags. As a result, the properties of the pore structure that are decisive for a desired packaging application can be named or predicted. For this reason, methods for measuring these properties are also being developed as part of this research project. The methods developed will also be transferred to the area of food safety. Central to this is the question of whether and under what circumstances organic contaminants or microorganisms move efficiently through paper. The knowledge gained in this way will enable the development of concepts for modifying paper to improve existing applications or for completely new products.