Acceleration of soluble matter extraction from chicory with pulsed electric fields Original Research Article

This work discusses effects of thermal and PEF treatments on efficiency of soluble solids extraction from chicory tissues. The effects of temperature, PEF electric field strength and time of treatment on damage degree and acceleration of the soluble matter extraction kinetics are discussed. The PEF treatment with field strength 100–600 V/cm, treatment time 10−3–50 s, and temperature 20–80 °C, was applied. The activation energy of usual thermal damage was rather high (Wτ ≈ 263 kJ/mol), however, it can be noticeably reduced to Wτ = 30–40 kJ/mol by application of PEF treatment. The moderate electric energy consumption (U < 10 kJ/kg) at room temperatures demands application of relatively high electric field strength (400–600 V/cm), however, the value of U noticeably decreases with temperature increase. The benefits of PEF application for enhancement of the soluble matter extraction from chicory were demonstrated. The PEF-pretreatment noticeably accelerated diffusion even at low temperatures within 20–40 °С. Proposed technique appears to be promising for future industrial applications of “cold” soluble matter extraction from chicory roots.