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Electrohydrodynamic Drying of Plant-Based Foods and Food Model Systems

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Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) drying is a novel technology, which appears to be beneficial for drying of heat-sensitive biomaterials with high moisture contents. Although numerous publications on EHD drying of fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based foods report high energy efficiency and superior product quality, the technology is still not commercialized. One of the reasons is incomplete information in published studies on the design of EHD dryers, including electrode geometry, dried materials, and experimental conditions, which hinder the comparison of experimental findings. Another reason is the gap in the knowledge about the actual mechanisms behind the EHD drying, including convective moisture removal by airflow and diffusive moisture transport inside the food. In this review, key findings in published reports on plant-based foods and food model systems have been critically analyzed and generalized using the same uniform metrics. The limiting factors, most favorable conditions, and future perspectives of EHD drying for plant-based foods are discussed.

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Abbreviations

AC:

alternating current

DC:

direct current

DR:

drying rate

EHD:

electrohydrodynamic

FC:

forced convection

NC:

natural (free) convection

RH:

relative humidity

A :

Area, m2

E :

Electric field strength, kV/cm

b :

Ion mobility, m2/(V·s)

c :

Water vapor concentration, g/m3

D :

Water vapor diffusivity, m2/s

δ :

Characteristic thickness of boundary layer, m

d :

Gap between discharge and collecting electrodes, cm

I :

Current, A

j :

Current density, A/m2

h m :

Convective mass transfer coefficient, m/s

L :

Spacing between needles/wires, cm

l :

Sample thickness, mm

\( \dot{m} \) :

Drying rate, g/s

ρ :

Air density, kg/m3

r :

Needle/wire body radius, mm

r tip :

Needle tip radius, mm

V :

Applied voltage, kV

v :

Kinematic viscosity of air, m2/s

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Box 550, Truro, PO, Canada

    Ivanna Bashkir, Thijs Defraeye, Tadeusz Kudra & Alex Martynenko

  2. Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Thijs Defraeye

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  1. Ivanna Bashkir
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Appendix. Conversion of original data into drying flux

Appendix. Conversion of original data into drying flux

  1. 1.

    If drying rate \( \dot{m} \) (g/s) and area of evaporation A (m2) are known, drying flux DF (g/(s·m2)) is calculated as:

$$ DF=\frac{\dot{m}}{A}\kern15em $$
(A1)
  1. 2.

    If kinetics of moisture content as a function of time is known, then the initial moisture content and initial mass of the sample mo (g) permit to calculate mass of dry matter mdm (g).

    1. 2.1.

      If moisture content Wo is specified in per cent on the wet basis:

$$ {m}_{dm}={m}_o\left(1-\frac{W_o}{100}\right)\kern9.25em $$
(A2)
  1. 2.2.

    If moisture content Wo is specified in (g/g) on the wet basis:

$$ {m}_{dm}={m}_o\ \left(1-{W}_o\right)\kern10.25em $$
(A3)
  1. 2.3.

    If moisture content Xo is specified in (g/g) on the dry basis:

$$ {m}_{dm}=\frac{m_o}{X_o+1}\kern12.75em $$
(A4)
  1. 2.4.

    To determine drying rate, we need to pick the second time point t (s) on the drying kinetics curve. The choice of second time point depends on drying kinetics. For the linear kinetics (constant drying rate), we choose the whole period of drying; for the exponential kinetics (falling drying rate), we usually choose first hour of drying.

  2. 2.5.

    From the moisture content in the second point and mass of dry matter, calculate mass of the sample mt (g), using reciprocal equations A2-A4.

$$ {m}_t={m}_{dm}\left(\frac{1}{1-{W}_t/100}\right)\kern9.25em $$
(A5)
$$ {m}_t={m}_{dm}\left(\frac{1}{1-{W}_t}\right)\kern11.75em $$
(A6)
$$ {m}_t={m}_{dm}\left({X}_t+1\right)\kern12.75em $$
(A7)
  1. 2.6.

    Drying rate is determined as a mass reduction per unit time*:

$$ \dot{m}=\frac{m_o-{m}_t}{t}\kern14.5em $$
(A8)

*For the falling drying rate, Eq. (A8) gives average estimate of drying rate. Then, the average drying flux is calculated from the relationship A1.

  1. 3.

    If initial mass of the sample is not specified [2, 39], it is calculated from sample volume and material average density.

  2. 4.

    In the case of dimensionless presentation, such as the enhancement ratio as compared to free convection [45, 89], we considered average value of drying flux at ambient conditions in the range from 0.018 to 0.028 g/(s·m2) [46] the multiplicative basis for the calculations of EHD-induced drying flux.

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Bashkir, I., Defraeye, T., Kudra, T. et al. Electrohydrodynamic Drying of Plant-Based Foods and Food Model Systems. Food Eng Rev 12, 473–497 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12393-020-09229-w

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