Application of Pulsed Electric Fields for Root and Tuber Crops Biorefinery

Abstract

Pulsed electric field (PEF) assisted processing is essentially important for recovery of valuable compounds from different unstable renewable resources such as sugar beets, sugar cane, red beets, chicory, and potatoes. These feedstocks are widely used for production of sugar, starch, different food ingredients, ethanol, cellulose, proteins, amino and organic acids, valuable dyes, pigments, enzymes, hormones, and minerals. Conventional recovery technologies require complex purification processing and utilization of unsafe solvents and can result in degradation of valuable components. Recent studies have shown many promising possibilities of PEF-assisted biorefinery applications. Biorefinery of unstable renewable resources has fundamental industrial importance. PEF treatment was successfully tested for intensifying cold expression, diffusion, combined pressing-diffusion, and combined pressing-diffusion-liming techniques. Efficiency of cold (nonthermal) recovery of sugars, colorants, inulin, and starch was also demonstrated. Application of PEF provides significant reduction in energy requirement during extraction and dehydration of the extracted cossettes. Nowadays, it is expected that biorefinery applications of electroporation can simplify (or even eliminate) the very complicated and polluting purification process and future technology will use less energy and will be less polluting.

This chapter provides analysis of PEF-assisted biorefinery of sugar beets, sugar cane, red beets, chicory, and potatoes. Different schemes of cold expression, diffusion, combined pressing-diffusion, and combined pressing-diffusion-liming techniques are presented and analyzed. Potentials of PEF-assisted techniques for preservation of the quality of extracts, their purity, color, nutrients, proteins, polysaccharides, and other bioactive substances are demonstrated.