Industrial-scale treatment of biological tissues with pulsed electric fields

Abstract

In this section we discuss the technical requirements and perspectives for industrial-scale electroporation of plant cell tissues. Energetically it seems more favorable to apply strong fields and short pulses than weak fields and long pulses. Different generator configurations for the production of strong pulsed electric fields and the durability of their main components are considered. Schemes for the process control and the verification of the achieved degree of electroporation are examined. In the second part of this contribution we describe the status of some emerging industrial applications like sugar beet treatment, extraction of aromas, and flavors from wine grapes, and the conditioning of green biomass for energetic utilization by electroporation-assisted dewatering.