Performance simulation and experiment of pulsed electric field co-field sterilization treatment chambers

In order to obtain the best performance and structure of co-field sterilization treatment chamber, co-field sterilization treatment chamber with different structures were researched in this paper. The coupled-field characteristics of co-field sterilization treatment chamber with different structures were gained by utilizing COMSOL Multiphysics software to analysis the electric field strength distribution, flow characteristics and temperature distribution. The experiment results showed that E. coli inoculated in pear juice which was treated by elliptical embedded co-field sterilization treatment chamber reduced by 6.5 in logarithm at electric field strength of 40 kV/cm, better than other structures of co-field sterilization treatment chamber; the temperature of E. coli inoculated in pear juice which was treated by elliptical embedded co-field sterilization treatment chamber increased by 6.7℃, less than other structures of co-field sterilization treatment chamber. It is concluded that elliptical embedded co-field sterilization treatment chamber is more suitable aiming at the pilot-scale and the industrialized PEF sterilization system with high performance requirements for its excellent coupled-field characteristics.