02 Apr From fundamental research to the industry of the future: the INFN–Tetra Pak collaboration
How plasma physics can improve industrial sterilization processes
At the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, scientific excellence and technology transfer converge toward new solutions for industry. It is from this perspective that the INFN-Tetra Pak collaboration took shape, aimed at developing advanced monitoring systems for sterilization processes based on high-dose electron beams and X-rays. The first contact with INFN dates back to May 2023, when the company identified INFN—and in particular the plasma physics and technology group at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud—as a potential scientific partner capable of developing new solutions to monitor in real time the radiation doses delivered during the sterilization processes of packaging materials.
A few months later, the interactions materialized into a research contract in which the objective is to adapt and optimize tools and methodologies born in INFN’s basic research to meet a specific application need of Tetra Pak.
The INFN group involved in the collaboration brings with it a scientific heritage developed over years of activity in fundamental physics experiments: high-performance sensors, fast electronics, advanced signal acquisition and analysis, electromagnetic noise mitigation techniques. These are skills born to study extreme phenomena of the Universe or physical processes at the limits of knowledge, but which increasingly find applications in complex industrial contexts.
The technologies now transferred to industry have their roots in over thirty years of research and development activities conducted at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in the fields of ion sources, plasma diagnostics, and the development of detectors and electronics dedicated to monitoring radioactive materials.
A decisive role in the development of the skills later adopted during the technology transfer phase was played by the PANDORA experimental program, funded by INFN’s CSN3 and dedicated to measuring the radioactivity of isotopes produced by stellar nucleosynthesis in a plasma environment. The skills developed within PANDORA provided a solid foundation for successfully addressing the industrial challenge, once again demonstrating how basic research, though seemingly distant from everyday life, can generate application solutions of great impact.
This journey has highlighted the value of cross-fertilization: basic research provides operating principles for innovative sensors, while the industrial context drives toward robust, reliable, and reproducible solutions. At every stage, technical constraints, stringent construction standards, and often difficult operating conditions in environments rich with electromagnetic interference were addressed. The result is a set of technologies with a significantly elevated maturity level and ready for further development toward industrial-scale applications.
The Tetra Pak–INFN collaboration demonstrates how investing in knowledge and people generates value for society as a whole. Techniques born to study ionized matter or the origin of chemical elements in our galaxy have the potential to concretely contribute, one day, to making the products we bring to our tables daily safer. It is concrete evidence of the transformative potential of scientific research when it meets industry’s capacity for innovation.
