Abstract
A pulsed electric field (PEF) produces pasteurized liquid foods with fresh and nutritional properties. The treatment chamber is a crucial part of the PEF processing system where a high voltage is applied, producing an electric field to treat the liquid foods. The proper construction of the treatment chamber regulates the distribution of the electrical field inside the treatment zone. Mixing of liquid inside the treatment zone is an effective tool to overcome this heterogeneous effect. The coaxial treatment chamber offers a heterogeneous electric field and temperature distribution inside the treatment zone. A helical insulator inside the coaxial treatment chamber provides a mixing effect. In this research, a numerical simulation was done to measure the electric field in different geometries of treatment chambers at different flow rates. The simulation aimed to optimize the new coaxial treatment chamber design. The modelling findings showed homogeneous electrical field strength in the helical treatment chamber. This study provides new insights for industrial-scale setup using multiple helical chambers in a continuous flow PEF treatment.
Highlights
Sustainable food supply is a primary concern for food industries, governments, and international agencies worldwide [1,2,3]
Liquid food is regularly delivered into a treatment zone between an optimal configuration of two coaxial electrodes
Fig. 2. 2D-sketch of coaxial treatment chamber designed by Qin, et al [37]
Summary
Sustainable food supply is a primary concern for food industries, governments, and international agencies worldwide [1,2,3]. Food industries are under continuous pressure to develop processing technologies that simultaneously preserve the nutritional value of foods, improve the bio-accessibility of nutrients, environment friendly and meet consumers’ demands of sensory attributes [3, 4]. Numerous research has shown that pulsed electric fields (PEF) processing can successfully disable microbes at low temperatures without affecting liquid food sensory and nutritional attributes [5,6,7]. PEF processing in food has numerous benefits over thermal processing, for example, low processing cost, less emission, short processing time and minimal effects on nutritional values [8,9,10]. Electrical field intensity and treatment duration are the most critical factors affecting PEF microbial inactivation performance
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