Simulations of Coupled Electro-, Fluid- and Thermo-Dynamics and Lactoperoxidase Inactivation during Continuous Pulsed Electric Field Treatments

Pulsed electric field (PEF) processing has been developed for the inactivation of microorganisms in liquid foods at low to moderate temperatures. The efficiency of microbial decontamination by PEF is largely dependent on the applied electric field strength, exposure time and treatment temperature. Thus, detailed knowledge of the distribution of these process parameters is essential for successful application of the technology. Experimentally, it is very difficult to determine the distribution of the electric field strength and temperature in the confined space of laboratory-scale PEF treatment chambers typically used for microbial inactivation studies. The numerical simulation of the Multiphysics phenomena, i.e., fluid dynamics coupled with the electric and thermal fields inside the treatment chamber can provide this information with high spatial resolution.