Analytical and Experimental Studies on the Application of a Series of Treatment Chambers for <i>Escherichia coli</i> Inactivation by Pulsed Electric Fields

Abstract

The paper investigated studies on the application of pulsed electric fields for the treatment of liquid media in a continuous manner in a co-field treatment chamber with elliptic insulator profiles. The electric field distribution and the temperature rise in the treatment chamber were evaluated via the finite element method. A non-uniform electric field was found at the elliptical insulator edges, while the electric field distribution on the insulator surface was rather uniform. The maximum temperature rise in the liquid media was located slightly behind the elliptic insulator due to the accumulated heat in the flowing liquid media. In the optimized treatment chamber, the average electric field intensity could be as high as 12.21 kV/cm at the moderate voltage at 7.5 kV. As a strategy to improve the inactivation while limiting the temperature rise, a series of treatment chambers was verified by experiments under the conditions of 7.5 kV, a 2.5% duty cycle, and 250 Hz. It was found that an increase in the treatment units could increase the inactivation efficiency for Escherichia coli. The average log reduction could be improved from 1.82 to 2.39 when the number of treatment units was increased from 1 to 5, respectively.

Keywords

• pulsed electric field
• co-field treatment chamber
• elliptic insulator
• <i>Escherichia coli</i>
• microbial inactivation
• series electrodes