Pulsed electric field pre-treatment efficiency analysis in processes of biomaterials drying

Abstract

The transition to an efficient economy and efficient production requires building the foundations for the development of energy efficient technologies and the drying of biomaterials to convert them into useful products. The purpose of this work is to analyze the effectiveness of pretreatment with a pulsed electric field (PEF) in the process of convective drying of biomaterials. The PEF was processed with electric field strength of 2, 4 and 6 kV/cm, the number of pulses 500, with a pulse duration of 50 ?s. Based on the electrical conductivity data of the biomaterial, the index of the disintegration 56% was determined before and after the PEF treatment, which confirms the existence of an electroporation mechanism of the material structure. The drying process is presented with a description of various mathematical models. PEF pre-treatment with the parameters of electric field strength 4 and 6 kV / cm and the number of impulses 500 allowed to reduce the drying time by 13.8% for the value E = 0.02. Total time spent on the drying process reduced by 20-25 minutes. It should be noted that the total energy spent on PEF pre-treatment (<150 W / kg) compared with the energy spent on the drying process is incommensurably small. Statistical analysis of the considered mathematical models showed good convergence of most models with experimental data. The considered technology of pretreatment of PEF can ensure the effective processing of biomaterials in the required amount to obtain high-quality and safe products. Obtained data of the kinetics process can be used to the mathematical model of the drying process design with the use of preliminary treatment processing.