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Microwave Sterilization: Interlinking Numerical Modelling, Food Packaging, and Engineering Solutions

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Abstract

Microwave sterilization has seen many innovative solutions to solve its primary problem of non-uniform heating. Since its initial studies in the late 1940s, there were solutions that were put forward to address, such as using mechanical holders to contain the inner pressure of the package with food materials, use of fluids instead of mechanical holders, use of strong containers or polymeric packages, and use of monolayer and multilayer packaging. But even all these solutions could not entirely solve the problem of non-uniform heating. After the 2000s, the rise in numerous numerical simulations and modelling software, opened the doors to further explore this field of research with more details and to numerically model the multi-physics phenomenon. However, studies have still not been sufficient to commercially deploy microwave sterilization systems to their full potential. Challenges such as temperature measurement, pressure measurement and control, usage of the right packaging material, and homogeneous heat distribution are still to be addressed, all while developing an energy-efficient process using numerical modelling and simulation tools. Hence, this review aims to study the microwave sterilization systems since the early days of research and the packaging aspect during the microwave sterilization process. The review also explores the potential held by the numerical simulation and modelling tools in this field of microwave sterilization.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Adapted from Loh and Breene [62]

Fig. 5

Adapted from Resurreccion et al. [68]

Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Adapted from Patel et al. [82]. CPP: cast polypropylene; ONy: Biaxially oriented nylon 6

Fig. 9

Adapted from Long et al. [57]. This packaging was developed so that the pressure generated inside the package during microwave sterilization is released through a partial opening at the top

Fig. 10

Adapted from Loh and Breene [62]. This packaging container was made of glass for the maximum transmission of microwaves to reach the product

Fig. 11

Adapted from Wang et al. [2]. This packaging container utilized polymers due to its lightweight nature and also microwave transparency

Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Adapted from Yang et al. [137]

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This declaration is not applicable.

Abbreviations

B:

magnetic field

c:

speed of light in free space (~3 × 108 m.s-1)

C:

concentration of microbial population (CFU.g-1)

\({C}_{p}\) :

specific heat capacity of product (J.kg-1.K-1)

d:

dipole rotation

\({d}_{p}\) :

penetration depth (m)

D:

electric displacement (C.m-2)

\({D}_{T}\) :

decimal reduction time (s)

E:

electric field intensity (V.m-1)

\({E}_{a}\) :

activation energy (J.mol-1)

f:

frequency (Hz)

\({f}_{c}\) :

critical frequency (Hz)

F :

F-value (s)

\({h}_{c}\) :

convection heat-transfer coefficient (W.m-2.K-1)

H:

magnetic field strength (A.m-1)

\(\dot{I}\) :

phase change term

J:

electrical current

k:

thermal conductivity of product (W.m-1.K-1)

\({k}_{b}\) :

Boltzmann constant (1.38 × 10− 23 J.K-1)

\({k}_{cw}\) :

complex wavenumber

\({k}_{r}\) :

reaction rate constant (s-1)

K:

global heat transfer coefficient which takes into account both heat resistance by conduction and convection due to presence of container wall and external surrounding air (W.m-2.K-1)

\({K}_{evap}\) :

evaporation velocity (s-1)

n:

gradient normal to surface

\({n}_{r}\) :

order of reaction

N:

number of nodes used in discretization in Finite Element Method (FEM)

\({N}_{1}\) :

initial concentration of microorganisms at the beginning of thermal process

\({N}_{2}\) :

final concentration of microorganisms at the end of thermal process

\({Q}_{ev}\) :

heat loss due to evaporation (W.m-2)

\({Q}_{M}\) :

heat source term (W.m-3)

Rg:

universal gas constant (8.3145 J.mol-1.K-1)

\({S}_{g}\) :

saturation of gas phase

T:

temperature (K)

\({T}_{ext}\) :

temperature of the fluid away from the surface (K)

\({T}_{ref}\) :

reference temperature (121 °C)

\({T}_{s}\) :

temperature at the surface of product (K)

t:

time (s)

V:

volume of a molecule (m3)

z:

z-value (°C)

\(\varepsilon\) :

dielectric permittivity

\({\varepsilon }_{r}^{*}\) :

complex relative permittivity

\({\varepsilon }_{r}^{,}\) :

relative dielectric constant

\({\varepsilon }_{r}^{,,}\) :

relative dielectric loss factor

\({\varepsilon }_{d}^{,,}\) :

dielectric loss factor due to dipole rotation of water molecules

\({\varepsilon }_{\sigma }^{,,}\) :

dielectric loss factor due to ionic conductivity effects

\({\varepsilon }_{o}\) :

permittivity of free space or vacuum (8.854 ×10–12 F/m)

\({\varepsilon }_{\infty }\) :

optical dielectric constant

\({\varepsilon }_{s}\) :

static dielectric constant

\(\sigma\) :

ionic conductivity (S.m-1)

\({\sigma }_{s}\) :

specific conductivity (S.m-1)

\(\tau\) :

relaxation time (s)

\(\eta\) :

dynamic viscosity (Pa.s)

\({\eta }_{o}\) :

initial viscosity (Pa.s)

\({\eta }_{global}\) :

global energy efficiency of a microwave heating system

\({\eta }_{gen}\) :

electricity-to-microwave conversion efficiency

\({\eta }_{abs}\) :

microwave-to-heat conversion efficiency

\(\rho\) :

density of product (kg.m-3)

\({\rho }_{e}\) :

charge function

\({\rho }_{v}\) :

density of vapor (kg.m-3)

\({\rho }_{v,eq}\) :

equilibrium density (kg.m-3)

\(\mu\) :

magnetic permeability (H.m-1)

\({\mu }_{0}\) :

magnetic permeability for vacuum (\(4\pi \times {10}^{-7}{\text{H}}.{{\text{m}}}^{-1}\))

\({\mu }_{r}\) :

relative magnetic permeability

\(\phi\) :

porosity

\({\varnothing }_{i}\) :

scalar basis function (test function for FEM)

\(\lambda\) :

vaporization heat (J.kg-1)

\(\upgamma\) :

complex propagation constant

\(\omega\) :

angular frequency (rad.s-1)

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Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Oniris, GEPEA UMR CNRS 6144, France; CTCPA, France, and SAIREM, France for providing the necessary infrastructure and resources to conduct this study. This research work is a part of the CIFRE industrial thesis of Sadhan Jyoti Dutta. The authors thank the Association Nationale Recherche Technologie (ANRT) for financial support to this study (CIFRE convention N° 2022/1042).

Funding

This work received funding from Association Nationale Recherche Technologie (ANRT) as a part of CIFRE industrial thesis of Sadhan Jyoti Dutta (CIFRE convention N° 2022/1042).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oniris, Nantes Université, CNRS UMR 6144, GEPEA, F-44000 Nantes, France

    Sadhan Jyoti Dutta, Olivier Rouaud & Sebastien Curet

  2. CTCPA, 64 Rue de la Géraudière, 44322, Nantes Cedex, France

    Sadhan Jyoti Dutta, Patrice Dole & Nicolas Belaubre

  3. SAIREM - 82 Rue Elisée Reclus, 69150, Décines-Charpieu, Lyon, France

    Alexandre Thillier

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  1. Sadhan Jyoti Dutta
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  2. Olivier Rouaud
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  4. Alexandre Thillier
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  5. Nicolas Belaubre
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  6. Sebastien Curet
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Olivier Rouaud, Patrice Dole, Sadhan Jyoti Dutta, Sebastien Curet; Methodology: Olivier Rouaud, Patrice Dole, Sadhan Jyoti Dutta; Sebastien Curet; Formal analysis and investigation: Olivier Rouaud, Sadhan Jyoti Dutta, Sebastien Curet; Writing - original draft preparation: Sadhan Jyoti Dutta; Writing - review and editing: Nicolas Belaubre, Olivier Rouaud, Patrice Dole, Sadhan Jyoti Dutta, Sebastien Curet; Funding acquisition: Olivier Rouaud, Patrice Dole, Sebastien Curet; Resources: Alexandre Thillier, Nicolas Belaubre, Olivier Rouaud, Patrice Dole, Sadhan Jyoti Dutta, Sebastien Curet; Supervision: Nicolas Belaubre, Olivier Rouaud, Patrice Dole, Sebastien Curet.

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Correspondence to Sebastien Curet.

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Dutta, S.J., Rouaud, O., Dole, P. et al. Microwave Sterilization: Interlinking Numerical Modelling, Food Packaging, and Engineering Solutions. Food Eng Rev (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12393-024-09370-w

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