Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 3 1 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 156–163

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Food and Bioproducts Processing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fbp

Evaluation of an ohmic assisted vacuum

evaporation process for orange juice pulp

Serdal Sabanci a,∗ , Filiz Icier b

a Munzur University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, 62100, Tunceli, Turkey
b Ege University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Food Engineering, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: An ohmic assisted vacuum evaporation (OAVE) processes was used to concentrate orange
Received 16 June 2020 juice from 11.4% total soluble solid content (TSSC) to 42% TSSC by applying 13 V/cm constant
Received in revised form 10 August voltage gradient at different temperatures. The evaporation temperatures were adjusted to
2021 100 ◦ C, 85 ◦ C, 75 ◦ C and 65 ◦ C by setting absolute system pressures of 101.32 kPa, 58 kPa,
Accepted 22 September 2021 39 kPa and 25 kPa, respectively. The total time for the processes, including heating and
Available online 30 September 2021 evaporation, was 34, 40, 48, and 54 min for 100, 85, 75, and 65 ◦ C, respectively. As the evapo-
ration temperature increased, the applied energy required for phase change decreased while
Keywords: maximum current values increased from 0.6 A at 65 ◦ C to 2.52 A at 100 ◦ C. During any given
Ohmic heating run, the current value increased as the orange juice pulp heated up, but then decreased
Evaporation after it began to boil, leading to a reduction in the rate of heat generation. Increasing evap-
Electrical current oration temperature has a positive effect on evaporation rates, energy efficiency, specific
Energy water removal ratio (SWRR), exergy efficiency, and Improvement Potential (IP) (p < 0.05). The
Exergy reduced energy requirement with higher temperature is partially due to reduced work from
the vacuum pump at the higher absolute pressure.
© 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.

1. Introduction the desired TSSC (Cassano et al., 2003; Jiao et al., 2004). Although the
thermal evaporation process itself also has known disadvantages, such
Orange is known as one of the vitamin-rich winter fruits. According to as undesirable component formation (HMF Furfural) and wastewater
data obtained by the FAO in 2016, approximately 73 million metric tons generation due to steam utilized evaporation process, it is better uti-
of fruit were produced globally in which Europe and Turkey produced lized than freeze concentration methods for fruit juice concentration
approximately 5.9 million and 1.85 million metric tons, respectively. industry. In other words, the thermal evaporation process has higher
Spain and Turkey have been reported as the main producers in Europe efficacy, which can reach the desired level of TSSC much more easily.
(FAO, 2019). Oranges produced in Turkey generally have been utilized Therefore, researchers have focused on novel heating techniques, such
as for orange juice, jam, candy, and dried oranges. as ohmic heating, and microwave, to have better ratios of TSSC with
Fruit juices have been generally concentrated for several reasons, higher efficiencies (Bozkir and Baysal, 2017; Fazaeli et al., 2013; Icier
such as reducing transportation cost, higher stability against micro- et al., 2016).
bial degradation, reduced shipping and storage spaces, and being able Joule heating, also known as ohmic heating, is an alternative electri-
to produce fruit juice from concentrate during all seasons of the year cal heating process based on the impedance principle in which passing
(Cassano et al., 2003; Onsekizoglu et al., 2010). Therefore, for concen- an electrical current through foodstuffs encounter with resistance
tration purposes, various techniques, such as thermal evaporation, through the conduction process, and this electrical resistance converts
freezing methods, and membrane techniques, are applied in the fruit electrical energy into heat energy (İçier and Ilicali, 2004). Ohmic heating
juice industry (Onsekizoglu, 2013). Freeze concentration methods and has been investigated as a unit operations in the food-related stud-
membrane concentration techniques have some known disadvantages, ies, such as heating (Achir et al., 2016; İçier and Ilicali, 2005), cooking
including high initial investment cost, and a high failure rate to reach (Bozkurt and Icier, 2010), thawing (Cevik and Icier, 2018; Cokgezme and
Icier, 2019), pre-drying (Hosainpour et al., 2014), bleaching (Yildiz Turp
et al., 2016), and evaporation (Sabanci et al., 2018). From the literature
∗
Corresponding author. review, the use of ohmic heating for evaporation purposes under atmo-
E-mail address: serdalsabanci@munzur.edu.tr (S. Sabanci). spheric or vacuum conditions has also been investigated. In the case
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2021.09.009
0960-3085/© 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 3 1 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 156–163 157

of atmospheric condition studies, effects of different voltage gradients
on the electrical conductivity, including performance values and qual-
ity properties, have been examined (Assiry, 2011; Assiry et al., 2010;
Darvishi et al., 2020, 2011; Hosainpour et al., 2014). Under vacuum con-
ditions, electrical conductivity values during evaporation periods for
different voltage gradients at constant vacuum pressure were evalu-
ated by many researchers (Icier et al., 2017; Sabancı and Icier, 2019,
2017). Besides, determination of energy, and energy values (Cokgezme
et al., 2017; Sabancı and Icier, 2020), as well as the change of qual-
ity parameters (Darvishi et al., 2019; Sabanci et al., 2018; Sabancı and
Icier, 2019) under the vacuum conditions have been reported in several
studies. The fundamental contribution of this study is aimed to reveal
comprehensive evaluation for evaporation temperature effects on the
characteristics of electrical conductivity and performance.
The main objectives of this study were to determine times required
to reach 42% of the total soluble solid content (TSSC) at different evap-
oration temperatures using the ohmic heating assisted evaporation
(OAVE) process and to examine changes in current values at four differ-
ent evaporation temperatures. Additionally, it was aimed to establish
performance (energy/exergy) values obtained during OAVE.
2.3. Determination of the orange juice properties
The pH values of orange juice were determined using a digital
pH meter (ThermoScientific, USA). Total soluble solid con-
tent (TSSC) was measured by a digital refractometer (Hanna,
Portugal). Considering the TSSC, the initial solid amount (ms )
and the initial water amount (mw ) values were determined.
The total acidity was calculated by considering Eq. (1). The
turbidity of orange juice was detected by a digital turbidime-
ter (WTW, Turb 355 IR, Germany), and expressed as NTU
(Cemeroğlu, 2010).
v*f *E*100
Titratable Acidity (%) = (1)
M
where v, f, E, and M were 0.1 M NaOH amount (g) utilized, NaOH
factor, equivalent acid amount of 1 ml 0.1 N NaOH (anhydrous
citric acid 0.006404 g) and mass of orange juice (g), respectively.

2.4. Determination of the TSSC values change during

the evaporation
2. Material and methods
TSSC values during the evaporation process were correlated
2.1. Materials using Eq. (2).

The oranges used in these studies were supplied from the local
market, and then washed, separated and peeled. Portions of
the fruit orange were pressed by a solid juice extractor. A rough
filter was applied to percolate the mash. The orange juice pulp
was transferred to 500 ml bottles and frozen in an air blower
freezer at −24 ◦ C.
2.2. Evaporation process
TSSCt = A × e−k×t (2)
where t was the evaporation time (min), and A and k were
fitted constants.
The TSSC value at time “t” was determined, the mass bal-
ance was established considering the initial sample mass and
the mt value was determined with Eq. (3). In this way, the
net mass value was determined and used in energy/exergy
calculations.

TSSC × m(p,i)
Ohmic heating system; The ohmic heating assisted vacuum TSSCt = (3)
evaporator (OAVE) involves a vacuum chamber, custom-made mt
data logger taking current, voltage, and temperature every
where mp,i and mt were the initial mass of orange juice (kg)
second, vacuum pump (Value, Germany), electric contact pre-
and the mass at time t, respectively.
cision vacuum-meter (Pakkens, Turkey) and power supply
(0−380 V). The ohmic evaporator is shown in Fig. 1, and
details are provided in our previous paper (Sabancı and Icier,
2.5. Determination of the current
2017). The test cell used for ohmic heating was made of poly-
Electrical current during the ohmic heating and evaporation
oxymethylene (POM) and its internal dimensions were 16 × 7.5
periods were recorded by using custom-made data logger. The
× 7 cm. The electrodes were made of stainless steel and the
current versus temperature relation was expressed as linear
dimensions were set to 10 × 7.5 × 0.3 cm. The temperature was
Eq. (4);
monitored using a T-type thermocouple (Cole Palmer, United
Kingdom).
Evaporation process: OAVE process had been applied at 4 Current (A) = a × T + b (4)
different temperatures (100, 85, 75 and 65 ◦ C). Different abso-
lute pressure values were adjusted by using electric contact where a and b are model constants.
precision vacuum-meter (Pakkens, Turkey) for the boiling tem- Eq. (5) was used to relate the current (A) to TSSC (%) after
peratures. To adjust the boiling temperatures, the absolute boiling started.
pressure values were set to 101.32 kPa, 58 kPa, 39 kPa, and
25 kPa for 100 ◦ C, 85 ◦ C, 75 ◦ C and 65 ◦ C, respectively. Auto- Current (A) = c × (TSSC %) + d (5)
matic pressure control was used to keep the absolute pressure
value constant (±1 kPa). 270 ml orange juice was used for where c and d values are constants.
the evaporation process. TSSC of orange juice was measured
as 11.4% using a digital refractometer (Hanna, Portugal). The 2.6. Energy/exergy analyses
evaporation processed by OAVE was applied at a constant volt-
age gradient (13 V/cm) and each of the four different boiling The concentration process of orange juice was operated in a
temperatures until its TSSC reached 42 ± 1.1%. The total pro- closed system. Mass, energy, and exergy balance equations
cess time of the evaporation was the sum of the heating and were calculated for determining the inlet of heat, the exergy
evaporation periods. destruction rate, performance (energy/exergy) efficiencies.
158 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 3 1 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 156–163

Fig. 1 – Schematic illustration of ohmic heating evaporation process.

2.6.1. Assumptions Qconsuption = Qheat + Wvacuum + WLamp + Wagitator (9)

The following assumptions are taken into account in the equa-

tions: Qheat = V×I×t (10)

I The work provided to the system boundary using the elec-

tricity (agitator, lamp, and pump) were accepted as positive.
II T0 = 15 ◦ C and P0 = 101.325 kPa values defined the reference
dead state conditions. Vacuum for different evaporation
temperature and concentration process was begun when
the initial homogenous temperature of orange juice was 20
◦ C. Thus, the dead state temperature of the present study
was chosen as 15 ◦ C because this value was higher than
the thawing temperature but lower than the initial process
temperature.
2.6.2. Mass balance
The mass balance equation was expressed as Eq. (6)
mp,in = mp,out +mwr
The work consumed was shown as Wvacuum and calculated
from Eq. (11) (Icier et al., 2017).
 (P−Pvacuum )
ma  dtv
Wvacuum = (11)
pump
where ma , P, Pvacuum , dtv ,  and v,p were the average mass of air
in the OAVE, atmospheric pressure (Pa), the vacuum pressure
(Pa) performed during the heating and concentration periods,
the working time of vacuum pump (s), air density (kg/m3 ), and
the pump efficiency (0.67, taken from the pump catalogue),
respectively.
Eout was calculated using the phase energy required to
evaporate the water from the juice and the final energy of the
(6)
product (Eq. (13)) (Çengel et al., 2008).

where mp,in mp,out, and mwr were the initial, final mass of the
Eout = mp,out × hp,out + mwr × hfg (12)
samples, and the water removed from the orange juice sam-
ples (kg), respectively.
The efficiency of energy for OAVE was calculated as Eq. (13)
(Çengel et al., 2008).
2.6.3. Energy analysis
The overall energy balance was calculated as Eq. (7) (Çengel Eout
et al., 2008). energy = × 100 (13)
Ein
 
Ein = Eout + Qloss (7) SWRR values were calculated to determine the effective-
ness of OAVE processes using Eq. (14) (Cokgezme et al., 2017,).
The inlet energy (in Joules) of the system during the
Totalamountofwaterremoved
evaporation of orange juice was calculated from Eq. (8). The SWRR = (14)
Econsumption
total consumed energy, including works used (lamp, pump,
and agitator), was calculated using Eq. (9). Heat energy was
where SWRR was specific water removal ratio (g/J). The units
determined using Eq. (10) (Cokgezme et al., 2017). Under the
of energy input and the total amount of water removed were
atmospheric conditions, the evaporation process was per-
Joule and g, respectively.
formed at 100 ◦ C; the Wvacuum was not considered in the
Qconsumption calculation. However, the evaporation process was
2.6.4. Exergy analysis
applied at different absolute pressure values (25 kPa for 65
◦ C; 39 kPa for 75 ◦ C; 58 kPa for 85 ◦ C), and then W In this study, Eqs. (15)–(17) as shown were exergy equations
vacuum was
(Bozkurt and Icier, 2010; Cokgezme et al., 2017);
calculated and included in Eq. (11).
  
Ein = mp,in × hp,i + Qconcumption (8) Exin = Exout + Exdest (15)
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 3 1 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 156–163 159

The exergy inlet and outlet of the system was expressed as

Eqs. (16) and (17) (Çengel et al., 2008).

   T0
Exin = mp,in × hp,in − T0 sp,in + (1 − ) × Qheat (16)
Tin

  
Exout = mp,out × hp,out − T0 sp,out

  T0
+ mwr × hfg − Ti × sfg + (1 − ) × Qloss (17)
Tin

where h was the enthalpy (J/kg), s was the specific entropy Fig. 2 – Changes of temperature during ohmic heating
(J/kgK), m was the mass (kg). The subscripts of p, in, out, fg, period up to evaporation temperature.
wr were used for the product, initial, final, the phase change
from liquid to vapor, and the water evaporated, respectively.
Tin was the average ambient temperature (K), and T0 was the
dead-state temperature (K).
The entropies of orange juice were calculated in J/K using
Eq. (19) (Çengel et al., 2008).

c + c  T
p p0
S − S0 = m × ln (18)
2 T0

where Cp and Cp0 were the specific heats (J/kgK) of orange juice
for any temperature T (K) and at dead-state temperature T0 (K),
respectively.
Fig. 3 – Variation of current with temperature for
The destruction of exergy taken place because of irre-
experiments at four different evaporation temperature.
versibility was shown as Eq. (19); the Sgen (J/K) expressed the
generated entropy during the OAVE (Çengel et al., 2008).
3. Results and discussion

Exdest = Sgen xTin (19) Before the evaporation process started, the properties (pH,
total acidity, turbidity) of orange juice were determined. TSSC,
Ssystem = Sin − Sout + Sgen (20) pH, total acidy, total dry matter and turbidity of fresh orange
juice were determined as 11.4 ± 0.2%, 3.94 ± 0.11%, 0.95 ±
0.01%, 11.83 ± 0.11%, and 1140 NTU, respectively. The con-
Sin expressed total initial entropies (J/K) of orange juice
centration process applied by OAVE was investigated in two
and heat energy supplied; Sout expressed total entropy (J/K)
periods as heating and evaporation periods.
of orange juice at the final condition the entropy of water
removed by OAVE process, and the entropy of energy loss
3.1. The heating period
occurred OAVE (Sloss −J/K).
Finally, the exergy efficiency for OAVE process was deter-
3.1.1. The total heating time and the change of current
mined by Eq. (21) (Çengel et al., 2008);
values
 Exdest
 First, the orange juice used for OAVE was heated to reach
exergy = 1− × 100 (21) the target evaporation temperature (65−100 ◦ C). The times to
Exin
reach target temperatures of 65, 75, 85, and 100 ◦ C were 5.07
± 0.13, 6.08 ± 0.24, 6.54 ± 0.56, and 8.97 ± 0.86 min, respec-
The energy efficiency of the maximum improvement for tively (p < 0.05). The histories of temperature in the heating
a system has been determined when the exergy losses and period are given in Fig. 2. The heating time increased as the
irreversibility were minimized (Van Gool, 1997). Therefore, the target temperature required for evaporation increased due to
opinion of improvement potential (IP) of performance (exergy) the increase in the energy required to heat the sample at the
has been proposed. The IP value (IP-Eq. (22)) was given for constant voltage gradient.
ohmic heating (Bozkurt and Icier, 2010); The relationship between current and temperature was
    investigated for different evaporation temperatures. There
exergy 
IP = 1− × Exin − Exout (22) is a linear relationship between current and temperature.
100 The findings obtained in this study showed that the current
values increased as the temperature increased. During the
2.7. Statistical evaluation ohmic heating process, bubbles were formed in orange juice
before reaching evaporation temperature (Fig. 3) and caused
SPSS 16.0 (IBM, 2007) software package program was used to some deviations in the Current. The deviation of four dif-
perform one-way variance analysis (Post Hoc-Duncan test) on ferent evaporation temperatures is emphasized in Fig. 3. In
selected variables. The confidence level of the statistical eval- the evaporation studies conducted for different fruit juices,
uation was 95%. Experiments were performed in triplicate. the electrical conductivity value has been reported to have
160 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 3 1 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 156–163
Fig. 4 – Variation of total soluble solids with time at four
different evaporation temperatures.
a linear relationship to temperatures, such as lemon juice,
pomegranate juice, sour cherry juice, orange juice (Castro
et al., 2004; Darvishi et al., 2011; Icier et al., 2017; İçier and
Ilicali, 2004; İçier and Ilicali, 2005).
3.2. The evaporation period
3.2.1. The TSSC and the total process time during the
evaporation
During the ohmic evaporation, the concentration of soluble
solids and (Cokgezme et al., 2017) evaporation temperature
both increased (Fig. 4). The temperature variations obtained
during evaporation for four different evaporation tempera-
tures are given in Fig. 5. During the ohmic evaporation process,
it was determined that there was an average increase in
evaporation temperature of around 1.98 ± 0.21. Similarly,
it has been reported that evaporation temperature increase
was related to current heating methods for sour cherry juice
and pomegranate juice in different studies (Icier et al., 2017;
Sabancı and Icier, 2017).
The evaporation time was investigated for different
temperatures. As the evaporation temperature decreased,
the evaporation process time required to reach 42% TSSC
increased (Fig. 4). The reason for the change in total processing
time can be explained by the electrical current changes dur-
ing the evaporation process at different temperatures because
electrical current is a function of inlet ohmic heat energy to
OAVE (Eqs. (4) and (11)).
The model constants expressing the change in the TSSC
value depending on the time of the Ohmic heating evaporation
(OAVE, OVE) process are given in Table 1. R2 values were over
0.99. It was determined that the model constants were affected
by evaporation temperatures (65−100 ◦ C) (p < 0.05). In OAVE
process, it was determined that as the boiling temperatures
increased, the coefficient increased, but the k value decreased.
This reflects other findings about, time-dependent variation of
fruit juices using current heating methods (microwave heat,
ohmic heating) (Bozkir and Baysal, 2017; Icier et al., 2017;
Sabancı and Icier, 2017).
3.2.2. The change of temperature and electrical current
during the evaporation
After the evaporation process started, it was determined that
the current value increased (Fig. 5). As seen in Fig. 5, it had been
determined that in all evaporation applications, as the tem-
perature of the sample increased, the current value increased,
and the current value decreased during boiling after reaching
the boiling temperature. It was found that the current value
was between 0.80–2.52 A during the heating period of the evap-
oration process of 100 ◦ C, and the current value varied between
2.52−0.85 A during the boiling period. When the Ohmic evap-
oration application temperatures (85−65 ◦ C) decreased, the
current value increased as the temperature of the orange juice
increased, as in the 100 ◦ C application. When it started to boil,
the current value decreased due to the decrease in TSSC value.
Model coefficients expressing the change in the heating and
boiling period of all evaporation temperatures are given in
Table 2. For different evaporation temperatures, a linear rela-
tionship was found between the current and the temperature
in the warm-up period. In addition, when the current value
due to TSSC in the boiling period was investigated at all evapo-
ration temperatures, a decreasing linear relationship between
the current value and TSSC was determined (Table 2).
The calculated electrical conductivity value is a function
of current, voltage, distance between two electrodes, and the
electrode contact surface area of the samples. The electri-
cal conductivity and the ohmic heating rate were adversely
affected by the increase of insoluble dry matter (Palaniappan
and Sastry, 1991). Another research showed that EC values of
sour cherry juices decreased due to increasing dry matter (İçier
and Ilicali, 2004). Similarly, Castro et al. (2004) reported that the
electrical conductivity values decreased because of increasing
dry matter for strawberry products. As a result of the stud-
ies mentioned above, it can be stated that the increased TSSC
value negatively affected the current value. In the evaporation
process, the electrical conductivity value was affected by the
electrode contact surface area and the current value depend-
ing on the water removed. For the evaporation studies carried
out under atmospheric and vacuum, it has been reported that
the electrical conductivity value of different liquid products
(seawater, tomato paste, pomegranate juice and cherry juice)
increased due to the increasing TSSC content. However, it was
emphasized that the electrical conductivity value decreased
after the critical TSSC value (Assiry et al., 2010; Darvishi et al.,
2015; Icier et al., 2017).
3.3. Performance analyses
The performance evaluation performed at different evapora-
tion temperatures was investigated in two (energy and exergy)
sections. Total consumed energy (TCE), average power (AP)
value, SWRR value, and energy efficiency were given in Table 3.
The lowest TCE value was obtained at 100 ◦ C, and the high-
est TCE was obtained at 65 ◦ C. In the concentration process
obtained under atmospheric conditions, it was determined
that the TCE value was low. However, when the evaporation
processes carried out under vacuum were evaluated (65−85
◦ C), it was found that the TPC value increased with decreasing
boiling temperature (p < 0.05). In addition, due to increas-
ing evaporation temperature, the processing time and average
power decreased (p < 0.05). Increasing of the evaporation tem-
perature increased the SWRR value and energy efficiency (p <
0.05). Shorter total evaporation process time caused to work
other system equipment (lamp, pump, and agitator) less and
consume lesser energy. The evaporation process of 100 ◦ C
was carried out under atmospheric conditions. Therefore, the
TCE value was lower than the evaporation process carried out
under vacuum, since the vacuum pump was not used.
In Eq. (9), the inlet energy (the initial product, lamp, pump,
agitator, and ohmic heating energy) were considered in the
energy entering the system, while in Eq. (13), the energy of the
product and the amount of evaporated water energy was taken
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 3 1 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 156–163 161

Fig. 5 – Variation of current and temperature with time for four different evaporation temperatures.

Table 1 – Model constant expressing the time dependent TSSC change in the ohmic heating assisted evaporation process.
Evaporation temperature (◦ C) A (TSSC %) k (min−1 ) R2

65 11.38 ± 0.08c 0.028 ± 0.000a 1.00 ± 0.00

75 11.46 ± 0.34b 0.033 ± 0.006a 0.99 ± 0.00
85 10.95 ± 0.17a 0.042 ± 0.001b 1.00 ± 0.00
100 10.79 ± 0.05a 0.054 ± 0.002c 0.99 ± 0.00

TSSC: total soluble solid content; OAVE: ohmic assisted vacuum evaporation; OAE: ohmic assisted evaporation.
a,b,c
Different superscripts showed the statistically different values for related property in the same column (p < 0.05).

Table 2 – Equations showing the current change depending on the temperature in the heating period and the TSSC value
in the boiling period.
Periods Evaporation temperature (◦ C) Equations R2

65 0.0204xT + 0.3728 0.9953

75 0.0233xT + 0.2862 0.9988
Heating
85 0.0208xT + 0.3994 0.9957
100 0.0247xT + 0.2756 0.9938
65 −0.0311xTSSC (%) + 1.873 0.9874
75 −0.0625xTSSC (%) + 2.598 0.9798
Boiling
85 −0.0366xTSSC (%) + 2.442 0.9711
100 −0.058xTSSC (%) + 3.052 0.9982

Table 3 – Total energy consumed, SWRR and energy efficiencies of OAVE and OAE processes.
Evaporation temperature (◦ C) Process Time (min) TCE (kJ) AP (kW) SWRR (g/kJ) ␩energy (%)

65 54 1999 ± 87d 0.58 ± 0.03d 0.11 ± 0.00a 28.83 ± 1.22a

75 48 1431 ± 39c 0.49 ± 0.01c 0.15 ± 0.00b 39.83 ± 0.45b
85 38 997 ± 22b 0.42 ± 0.01b 0.22 ± 0.00c 58.90 ± 1.32c
100 34 757 ± 9a 0.37 ± 0.00a 0.29 ± 0.00d 78.34 ± 0.55d

TCE: total consumed energy; AP: average power; SWRR: Specific water removal ratio.
a,b,c,d
Different superscripts showed the statistically different values for related property in the same column (p < 0.05).

into account as energy exiting the system. Because of the wall
energy, the heating energy of the test cell and the energy of
the heated air in the environment are ignored as the energy
out the evaporation system, which may cause an increase in
the energy loss value occurring in the system. Cokgezme et al.
(2017a), evaporated the pomegranate juice in different voltage
gradients up to 40% TSSC at constant evaporation tempera-
ture (65 ◦ C). They reported that the voltage gradient had an
effect on the processing time that getting shorter as the volt-
age gradient increased. They also reported that decreasing
voltage gradient had a negative impact on energy efficiency
and SWRR. Darvishi et al. (2015) reported that processing time
was shorter due to the increase in voltage gradient. They also
reported that the increasing voltage gradient increased energy
162 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 3 1 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 156–163
Table 4 – Exergy values of the system according to the second law of thermodynamics.
Evaporation temperature (◦ C) Exdest (kJ)
65 1117 ± 66
75 560 ± 8c
85 298 ± 17b
100 61 ± 15a
IP: improvement potential.
a,b,c,d
Different superscripts showed the statistically different values for related property in the same column (p < 0.05).
efficiency. Bozkurt and Icier (2010) investigated ground beef
samples using ohmic heating in different fat and different
voltage gradients. They reported that increasing voltage gra-
dient decreased process time and increased energy efficiency.
According to the second law of thermodynamics, Exdest ,
exergy efficiency, and IP values obtained during the evapora-
tion of orange juice using OAVE are given in Table 4. Increased
evaporation temperatures, as in energy analysis, were found
to have an effect on the second law. The highest Exdest value
was obtained in the process at 65 ◦ C, but the lowest Exdest value
was determined at 100 ◦ C. It also increased exergy efficiency
due to the increased evaporation temperature.
IP values have been used to minimize exergy losses in the
system. In this way, the most suitable and efficient process-
ing condition can be determined. IP values decreased due to
the increased evaporation temperatures. It appears that the
IP values are parallel to the exergy efficiency. The highest IP
value was obtained in evaporation at 65 ◦ C, but the lowest IP
value was obtained at an evaporation temperature of 100 ◦ C
(Table 4-p < 0.05).
As a result, according to the second law of thermodynam-
ics, different absolute pressure values, and therefore boiling
temperatures, applied in the Ohmic evaporation process had
an effect on the exergy efficiency. The increase in boiling tem-
perature shortened the process time and positively affected
the exergy efficiency. In a similar ohmic evaporation study,
the highest voltage gradient with the least energy consump-
tion was defined at the lowest IP value (Cokgezme et al., 2017).
Similarly, in the cooking process, the ohmic cooking process’
IP values with the highest voltage gradient have been reported
as the lowest IP value (Bozkurt and Icier, 2010).
4. Conclusions
The ohmic evaporation process was applied at a constant volt-
age gradient at four different evaporation temperatures and
then concentrated to 42% TSSC. The findings obtained in this
study showed that the time to reach the target TSSC increased
as the evaporation temperature decreased. In other words, as
the absolute pressure value increased in the ohmic evapo-
ration process, the process time increased from 34 min (100
◦ C) to 54 min (65 ◦ C). It was determined that the evapora-
tion temperatures applied in the ohmic evaporation process
were a linear relationship between the current and the tem-
perature in the heating period and the current value increased
as the temperature increased. The highest current value was
found as 2.52 A when evaporating at 100 ◦ C. It was determined
that the increased TSSC value after boiling started decreased
the current value and there was a negative linear relationship
between TSSC and current value. It was determined that the
model compatibility between both temperature-current rela-
tionship and TSSC-current was over 97%. In addition, energy
efficiency, exergy efficiency, and IP values have increased due
␩exergy (%) IP (kJ)
d
5.38 ± 0.03 a
1057 ± 67d
12.43 ± 0.01b 490 ± 8c
24.24 ± 1.08c 226 ± 16b
65.31 ± 0.46d 21 ± 1a
to the increase in evaporation temperature. As a result, it was
found that the change in the evaporation temperature during
the OAVE had a significant effect on time to reach the target
TSSC, the EC values, and the performance values.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.
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