Recent advances in pulsed electric field and non-thermal plasma treatments for food and biorefinery applications

Abstract

In the last decays pulsed electric field techniques gained increasing importance in biotechnology and food production. Application of electric pulses to cells leads to increased permeability and conductivity of cell membranes and formation of pores in cell membrane - phenomenon called electroporation. Electroporation could be a very suitable technique for improvement of extraction or dying in both food processing and biorefinery. Non-thermal plasma treatment generates reactive species in the samples causing damage of the cell membrane and could be used for wastewater treatment, microbial inactivation and as a treatment prior to open fermentations on complex substrates. In this study, recent advances in pulsed electric field treatment of food, algal biomass and hospital wastewater as well as role of non-thermal plasma treatment in bio-decontamination of complex substrates will be addressed. Also, some environmental and economic aspects of these novel techniques in comparison to conventional treatments will be discussed.