ELECTRIC FIELD ANALYSIS OF COATED TITANIUM ELECTRODES ON MICROBIAL INACTIVATION UNDER PULSED ELECTRIC FIELD TREATMENT

Ramya  Ramaswamy; Raja  Prabu Ramachandran; Gowrisree

Authors

Ramya Ramaswamy Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BS Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, Vandalur, Chennai – 600048, India.
Raja Prabu Ramachandran Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BS Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, Vandalur, Chennai – 600048, India.
Gowrisree Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai – 600025, India.

Keywords:

Alumina coated titanium electrodes, ANSYS MAXWELL v 15.0, Escherichia coli, Noninvasive PEF applications

Abstract

The viable pathogens in the liquid food can be efficiently inactivated using Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) treatment through electroporation. Electroporation depends on applied electric field for causing minute pores on the cell membrane. The electric field application from electrodes play an important role in getting the required inactivation and it varies based on the dimensions and design of electrodes inside the chamber. Parallel plate electrodes provide more uniform electric field in the inactivation area, where all the microbes will be uniformly treated under the same field value. This paper analyses the electric field distribution under two circumstances (i) To find a suitable surface material for titanium electrodes, for future noninvasive PEF applications (ii) Comparative performance of platinum coated and alumina coated titanium electrodes, when a viable pathogen is placed in the inactivation area. Under first circumstance, the electric field distribution through four surface materials such as glass, alumina, quartz and plexiglass was compared and analyzed. The electrodes have a diameter and thickness of 40 mm and 3.5 mm respectively. From the first analysis, it was found that alumina exhibited greater percentage (82%) of electric field in the inactivation area than with other materials. This signifies the suitability of alumina as a coating for titanium electrodes for successful noninvasive PEF applications. Secondly, the inactivation performance of alumina coated titanium electrodes was compared with platinized titanium on Escherichia coli models. From the second analysis, alumina coated electrodes gave equivalent performance with platinized titanium on bacterial inactivation which reconfirmed alumina’s suitability for non invasive PEF applications. The electric field simulations were implemented using ANSYS MAXWELL v 15.0.

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