Math Modeling of Oxygen through the Tetra Brik Aseptic Cartons.

Introduction
Oxygen diffusion activity in the liquid during storage can highly affect the quality of the
liquid food. In Ahrne paper, they have studied diffusivity of oxygen with the function of time in
different temperature. They develop (1) the mathematical model to describe the concentration
of dissolved oxygen during storage and (2) to asses the validity of the model at different
temperature.

Math Modeling
The oxygen concentration inside a package liquid food depends on three different
factors. (1) The initial concentration during packaging, (2) Oxygen permeation through the
multilayer material (3) Oxygen consumption by reaction. A mass balance equation as shown
below show V, the volume of the container; Co, dissolved oxygen concentration in the juice t a
time; M Mass Transfer, Mass Transfer Rate and M Kinetics, reaction rate.

(1.)
There are three different steps to mass transport of oxygen from atmosphere to the
liquid. First step, molecules of oxygen being absorbed into the material; second step, diffusion
of oxygen molecules through the multi layer material, and the last step consist of desorption of
the molecules from the material into the liquid and solubility of the oxygen into the liquid. New
variables are introduced into the following equation below, that shows the calculation of K overall
(Overall Mass Transfer Coefficient). Equation includes partition coefficient inside and outside
(kp1 and kp2) and D, Diffusion coefficient of oxygen through the material; d, thickness of the
material, and K int and K out , the mass transfer coefficient inside and outside the package.

(2.)
The mass transfer rate through the package is describe using this equation below. K d is the
oxygen mass transfer coefficient and A is the surface area of the packaging.

(3.)
where,

(4.) and (5.)

In this experiment, they also used another equation, shown below to describe the change in
concentration over time, where Kr is the reaction rate constant.
 (6.)
When equating equation 6 and equation 3, and integrating from t=0 to t=t, the concentration of
dissolved oxygen in the fluid inside the package is achieved.

(7.)
where, C02 equilibrium and the rate constant is described by the following equation.

(8.) and (9.)

Results and Conclusion
After performing the experiment using multiple different measuring equipment and tools, the
results were collected. During the first day of storage the concentration of dissolved oxygen
during storage changes drastically however after that it is approximately constant. The changes
as show in (fig 1.) can caused by the rapid consumption of oxygen by the oxidative reaction in
juice and reaches equilibrium. In the end, the equilibrium oxygen concentration was found not
to be significantly dependent on the temperature and initial value of dissolved oxygen
concentration.

fig 1.
A model combining the oxygen transfer through the package and consumption of oxygen into
the juice, assuming no oxygen in the juice, shows that the level of oxygen changes in packaged
orange juice stored at temperatures from 4 – 50 degree Celsius. It was found that the oxidative
reaction in juice packed in Tetra Pak, which has a very high resistivity of transporting oxygen
across the thickness. The packaging material permeability was much smaller compared to the
oxidative rate constant of the liquid.

Citation
Ahrné, L.m., F.a.r. Oliveira, M.c. Manso, M.c. Drumond, R. Öste, and V. Gekas. "Modelling of
Dissolved Oxygen Concentration during Storage of Packaged Liquid Doods." Journal of Food
Engineering: 213-24. Print.