Received: 6 November 2018 Revised: 9 March 2019 Accepted: 9 April 2019

DOI: 10.1111/jfpe.13083

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Experimental and computational fluid dynamics modeling

of Satureja khuzestanica essential oil extraction during
ohmic-hydrodistillation

Reza Roohi1 | Seyed Mohammad Bagher Hashemi2

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fasa
University, Fasa, Iran Abstract
2
Department of Food Science and Technology, A 3D computational model was presented to simulate the essential oil extraction
College of Agriculture, Fasa University,
process using ohmic-hydrodistillation. The extraction of Satureja khuzestanica essen-
Fasa, Iran
tial oil was performed at three voltages (80, 120, and 160 V) and three NaCl concen-
Correspondence
trations (0.5, 1, and 1.5% (w/v)). The effect of electrical conductivity variations with
Reza Roohi, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Fasa University, Fasa, Iran. temperature and salinity concentration, the imposed electrical potential as well as
Email: re.roohi@fasau.ac.ir
evaporation-condensation mechanisms were also taking into account. The variations of
Seyed Mohammad Bagher Hashemi, system temperature along with the amount of the extracted essential oil during the
Department of Food Science and Technology,
procedure were numerically calculated and good agreement with the measured experi-
College of Agriculture, Fasa University, Fasa,
Iran. mental data was observed. The evaporation nucleation happened at two distinct loca-
Email: hasshemii@gmail.com; hashemi@fasau.
tions, namely at the tips of electrodes and near the midsection at regions below the
ac.ir
outlet tube. Increasing the NaCl concentration from 0.5 to 1.5% (w/v), led to a 10 min
reduction of extraction process for 80 volts’ potential difference while the same
amount of salt addition caused twice time reduction (20 min) for 160 volts’ case. Both
of NaCl concentration and applied voltage parameters accelerated the extraction pro-
cess. However, the effect of increasing of the system salinity was more pronounced at
higher voltages.

Practical applications
There are several methods to extract essential oils from different parts of herbs, such as
hydro and steam-distillation. However, these usual techniques have shown some draw-
backs. Ohmic heating is a new thermal process that can enhance temperature of prod-
ucts during the passage of electric currents. This technology has many advantages
including shorter process time and better energy efficiency compare to usual heating.
The utilization of fluid flow and heat transfer governing equations to investigate the per-
formance of ohmic-hydrodistillation can help design and optimization of this process.

1 | I N T RO D UC T I O N Essential oils are known as volatile aromatic compounds that are

Satureja khuzestanica (Lamiaceae family) is distributed in Iran and it is
used traditionally in folk medicine (Hadian, Mirjalili, Ganjipoor, &
Salehnia, 2011). Essential oil of this plant has been shown antioxidant
activity in edible oil (Hashemi, Niakousari, Saharkhiz, & Eskandari, 2012).
produced by various herbs. These compounds have been used in food
industry and in the traditional medicines for many years (Burt, 2004).
There are various techniques to extract essential oils from various
parts of herbs, such as hydrodistillation and steam-distillation that are
the most commonly used processes. However, these conventional

J Food Process Eng. 2019;42:e13083. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfpe © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1 of 11

https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.13083
2 of 11
techniques have shown some disadvantages, such as long process
time, low quality of essential oil, low extraction yield, and high
operation costs (Lahlou, 2004). Consequently, investigation for
substitute methods to prevent the abovementioned drawbacks of
conventional methods is necessary. Different new methods have
been offered for extraction of essential oil, including ohmic-assisted
extraction (Hashemi et al., 2017), ultrasound-assisted hydrodistillation
(Hashemi et al., 2018), and microwave-assisted extraction (Vinatoru,
Mason, & Calinescu, 2017).
Ohmic heating is a new thermal technology that can enhance tem-
perature of products during the passage of electric currents. This
technology presents shorter process time, better energy efficiency,
and lower operation costs compare to conventional heating (Achir
et al., 2016). Ohmic-assisted hydrodistillation was applied for extrac-
tion of essential oil from oregano (Hashemi et al., 2017) and thyme
(Gavahian, Farahnaky, Javidnia, & Majzoobi, 2012) but not enough is
known about kinetic models of essential oil extraction during ohmic-
assisted hydrodistillation.
The simulation of food related processes using heat and mass
transfer governing equations has got considerable attentions, espe-
cially in recent decades. Regarding the common and novel proce-
dures applied in the food industry, a wide variety of complex and
interacting phenomena arises. These phenomena can be categorized
as heat and mass transfer, various heat generation mechanisms,
phases change, chemical reactions and sophisticated operational
conditions. Therefore, the necessity of application of computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) as an inexpensive and useful method to deter-
mine the food related system behaviors is recognized (Norton,
Tiwari, & Sun, 2013).
Numerical simulation of essential oil extraction using ohmic-
hydrodistillation, includes several mutually affecting heat and mass
transfer phenomena which should be modeled precisely to obtain
realistic results. To the best of our knowledge, up to now, the CFD
simulation of essential oil evaporation and extraction with the imple-
mentation of ohmic heating is not tackled. However, several investi-
gations numerically modeled the ohmic heating process in food
related cases (Gally, Rouaud, Jury, & Le-Bail, 2016; Jun & Sastry,
2005; Shim, Lee, & Jun, 2010). Therefore, the aim of this study was
application of a 3D computational model to simulate the essential oil
extraction process during ohmic heating process and also a transient,
laminar, and multiphase mixture model was implemented based on
the finite volume discretization scheme.
2 | MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1 | Plant material and chemicals
S. khuzistanica(13% moisture content (dry basis), voucher specimen of
the species: MPH-1582) was prepared from Plant Science Laboratory
of Fasa University (Fars, Iran). All chemicals were purchased from
Merck Chemical Company (Darmstadt, Germany).
ROOHI AND HASHEMI
2.2 | Extraction of essential oil by ohmic-assisted
hydrodistillation
Ohmic-assisted hydrodistillation of S. khuzistanica essential oil was
carried out at three voltages (80, 120, and 160) V and three NaCl con-
centrations (0.5, 1, and 1.5) % (w/v). The extractor part included a Tef-
lon hollow in cylindrical shape (25 cm length and 7 cm inside diameter),
and was provided with two titanium electrodes. A Clevenger device
was attached to the extractor part. The automated system controlled
voltage, current, and temperature through the experiment. Thirty grams
of S. khuzistanica were loaded into the extractor containing 500 mL of
NaCl solution. The required temperature up to the boiling point of the
solution was obtained by applying constant voltages (80–160) V.
2.3 | Essential oil analysis
S. khuzistanica essential oil samples were analyzed by gas chromatog-
raphy - mass spectrometry (GC–MS; 6890N, Agilent Technologies,
Palo Alto, CA). The oven was prepared with a HP-5MS (Agilent Tech-
nologies, Palo Alto, CA) capillary column (30-m length, 0.25-mm inter-
nal diameter, and 0.25-μm film thickness). Injection of diluted samples
(n-hexane (1:10, v/v)) was performed with a split ratio of 1:10. The
oven temperature was programmed to 50
C for 5 min, subsequently
raised to 240
C at 3
C/min. For MS measurement, electron impact
ionization at 70 eV was performed (Hashemi et al., 2017).
2.4 | Electrical conductivity
Electrical conductivity (σ) was calculated according to following equa-
tion (Zell et al., 2009).
L×I
σ= ð1Þ
V ×A
where σ is the electrical conductivity (S/m), L is the distance between
the electrodes (m), I is the current intensity (A), A is the surface of the
electrode (m2), and V is the voltage (V).
2.5 | Governing equations
Several models are currently proposed to simulate the multiphase flow
such as mixture, VOF and Eulerian model. According to the VOF model,
different phases are assumed to be immiscible. Hence, a unified
momentum equation in addition to several separate continuity equa-
tions are solved to determine the flow field. On the other hand, the
Eulerian method proposes the solution of complete set of equations for
each phase separately, in addition to calculation of phases interaction
based on lift and drag estimation between phases. The mixture model is
based on the solution of continuity, momentum, and energy equations
for the mixture, in addition to the volume fraction equations for the sec-
ondary phases and additionally an algebraic equation for the phases'
sliding velocities. Therefore, due to the nearly uniform nature of phases
distribution in the current study, the mixture model is implemented.
ROOHI AND HASHEMI 3 of 11

!
The continuity equation for the mixture of n phases has the ∂ X n X
n
αk ρ Ek +r αk v
k ðρk Ek + pÞ = r:ðkeff rT Þ + SE ð8Þ
form of: ∂t k = 1 k k=1

∂
ðρ Þ + r:ðρm v
m Þ = 0 ð2Þ where keff is the volumetric averaged mixture conductivity and SE is
∂t m
thermal heat source which is composed of two different terms as:

where ρm and v
m are the mixture average density and velocity,
SE = Sohmic + Sphase change ð9Þ
respectively.
Letting αk to be the volume fraction of kth phase, ρm and v
m can be
The phase change heat source term (Sphase change) is the required
computed using the following equations:
energy to exchange phases (evaporation/condensation).
Pn The ohmic heating is due to the passage of electrical current

k
k = 1 αk ρk v
v
m = ð3Þ through a conductor. The electrical current can be calculated using
ρm
the distribution of the electrical potential throughout the media as:

X
n
ρm = αk ρk ð4Þ r:ðσrφÞ = 0 ð10Þ
k=1

where σ and φ are the electrical conductivity and potential, respec-

The mass change of liquid water and vapor phases can be
tively. Moreover, the current density and the Sohmic can be calculated
occurred during the phase change process. It should be noted that,
using the following equations:
the vaporization of the essential oil is considered, however, its
thermophysical properties during the phase change process such as
J = − σrφ ð11Þ
phase change enthalpy is assumed to be equal to the water. Due to
the small fraction of essential oil in the evaporated phase, the men-
J:J
tioned approximation does not bring significant error to the numeri- Sohmic = ð12Þ
σ
cal calculations. Moreover, in the absence of phase change enthalpy
data of S. khuzestanica essential oil in the literature, performing of
separate experimental examination to determine these properties
for pure extracted oil due to the small magnitude of extracted oil is 2.6 | Boundary conditions
practically impossible. Appropriate boundary conditions should be assigned to the com-
According to the mixture model, the momentum equation was putational domain for momentum, energy, and electrical potential.
obtained based on summation of momentum equation for individual For the momentum equation the no-slip condition was set at the
phases as (Hashemi & Roohi, 2019): apparatus walls, while the pressure outlet boundary condition was
assigned at the tube'soutlet surface. Considering the insulation
∂   
ðρ v
m Þ + r:ðρm v
m v
m Þ = −rp + r: μm rv
m + rv
tm employed at the apparatus walls, the adiabatic condition (zero tem-
∂t m !
! X
n
! !
ð5Þ perature gradient) was set at the walls as the energy equation
+ ρm g
βm ðT −T 0 Þ + F + r: αk ρk vdr, k vdr, k boundary condition. For the electrical potential boundaries, one
k=1
electrode was set as the ground (with zero potential), while the
! potential of the other one was set to be at the measured system
In Equation (5), p, μm, F , t, βm and dr denote the pressure, mixture
voltage. The other system boundaries had the zero potential gradi-
viscosity, external body force, matrix transpose, volumetric expansion
ent condition.
coefficient and drift, respectively. T and T0 are fluid and reference
For the initial condition, the velocity and temperature was set to
temperatures, respectively. As the rate of evaporation is low, the flow
zero and the initial measured temperature, respectively. Additionally,
is assumed to be laminar.
the liquid water level was set according to the amount of water vol-
Mixture viscosity (μm) and drift velocity (deference between phase
!
ume in the system and the rest of the tank was assumed to be filled
and mixture velocities), vdr, k , can be obtained using:
with air.

X
n
μm = αk μk ð6Þ 2.7 | Geometry and mesh
k=1

The created geometry was based on the actual configuration of the

!
vdr, k = v
k − v
m ð7Þ extractor unit which was composed of a horizontal cylinder with 7 cm
internal diameter and 25 cm length (Figure 1). Additionally, a vertical
The mixture energy equation is shown in Equation (8) (Roohi, cylinder with diameter of 2.3 cm and length of 10 cm was attached to
Emdad, & Jafarpur, 2019): the main reservoir to guide the extracted vapor outwards. The anode
4 of 11
and cathode electrodes had the shape of small cylinders which were
attached to the center of left and right reservoir faces.
The computational mesh size and its quality had direct influence
on the accuracy of the obtained numerical results. Therefore, the
zones with high variables gradient should be identified to provide with
the appropriate computational cells. For the present simulation, these
regions were at the extractor walls, near the electrodes and at the
interface between fluid and gas phases. The domain walls were
treated with three layers of meshes with gradually increasing height
(boundary layer mesh), while near the electrodes and at the interface
surface the size of the cells were reduced to capture better results
resolution in those areas (Figure 1).
The mesh size was chosen based on the grid study process. To
do so, three unstructured grids with 1,008,559, 1,120,622, and
1,220,357 number of cells were created and examined. Increasing
the number of cells is equivalent to the smaller computational cells.
The variations of computed temperature and velocity at the center
of the container is the key point to determine the sufficient number
of cells and consequently their sizing. According to the results, the
difference between calculated variables of medium and coarse
mesh size is about 5%, while this difference is reduced to about 1%
between medium and fine mesh sizing. Therefore, the optimum
mesh was selected to have 1,120,622 number of cells to account
for both accuracy and computational cost.
2.8 | Solution method
To examine the effect of involving parameters, the set of the
governing equations including continuity, momentum, energy, electrical
potential and mass transfer of phases should be solved simultaneously.
To do so, a transient CFD simulation with gradually increasing time
step was implemented. The time step was set to 0.001 s at the
ROOHI AND HASHEMI
beginning of the simulation and was increased progressively to
0.1 s at the final time steps.
The pressure–velocity coupling was performed using the SIMPLE
algorithm and the central and first order upwind scheme was utilized
for convective and diffusive terms. Moreover, pressure interpolation
scheme and discretization of volume fraction equation was per-
formed using PRESTO and Geo Reconstruct models, respectively
(Patankar, 1980). To ensure the convergence of the governing equa-
tions, the normalized, averaged residual criteria for mass, momen-
tum, energy, and electrical potential was set to 10−4, 10−5, 10−6, and
10−8, respectively.
The numerical modeling was performed on a computational sys-
tem with following characteristics: Intel Core i7 CPU@2.8 GHz, 16GB
of DDR4 RAM. Each simulation was converged in about 12 hr to the
final results.
2.9 | Statistical analysis
For the electrical conductivity simulation, a computer code was devel-
oped in curve fitting toolbox of MATLAB software. The model param-
eters were evaluated by minimizing a cost function, defined as the
root mean square of errors (RMSE) between the theoretical data and
the experimental observations. For significant differences at p < .05,
ANOVA and Duncan test were carried out. The mutual effect of
applied voltage and salinity concentration is determined using the
multiple regression with interaction effect. Multiple regression with
interaction effects (MRIE, in abbreviation) is a flexible method of data
analysis that may be appropriate whenever a quantitative variable Y
(the dependent or response variable) is to be examined in relationship
to any other factors X1, X2, … , Xk (the independent or explanatory or
predictor variables). In this research, voltage and salt concentration
are predictors (X1 and X2) and essential oil volume is responses (Y).
The general equation of MRIE is presented by
F I G U R E 1 Schematic of geometry
(a) and computational domain grids (b, c,
and d)
ROOHI AND HASHEMI
Y i = β0 + β1 X 1i + β2 X2i + β12 X1i X2i + εi ð13Þ
for n observations i = 1, … , n.
where β0, β1, β2 and β12, are model parameters (coefficients) and
εi, i = 1, … , n, are the random components of the model.
As can be seen, the MRIE model contains linear effects (X1,
X2) and interaction effects (X1X2).
The dataset is used to estimate the coefficients β0, β1, …, βk. The
general equation of predictive MRIE is presented by
Y^i = b0 + b1 X 1i + b2 X 2i + b12 X1i X2i ð14Þ
where, b0, b1, b2 and b12, are estimations of model parameters,
and Y^i is the predicted value of Yi.
It should be noted that in MRIE, when an interaction effect is sig-
nificant, we must assume all combinations of them in model (signifi-
cant or not significant).To determine which effect is most important,
the standard coefficients (Beta) are computed. The variables with
higher absolute values of Beta have more effects than other variables.
3 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 | Electrical conductivity
The modeling of an ohmic-assisted hydrodistillation system is a
multiphase numerical simulation. The mixture contains liquid water,
vapor, and air phases. Besides the phases interaction as well as phase
changes should be precisely accounted. Up to now, several multiphase
models were presented, namely VOF, mixture and Eulerian method with
their own advantages and complexities (Akbari, Galanis, & Behzadmehr,
2011). However, due to the several unknown mechanisms in multiphase
flows such as particles distribution and their interaction, the actual
nature of phase's interface, and so on, a realistic model is so far infeasi-
ble (Mirmasoumi & Behzadmehr, 2008). Though, considering the specific
conditions of each problem, more compatible model can be selected
and applied. In the present study, the mixture model was utilized due to
its proficiency and simplicity in the modeling of nearly uniform flows
with sliding phases (phases with local relative velocity).
The electrical conductivity of the mixture had significant effect on
the performance of ohmic heating apparatus. To examine the depen-
dence of the electrical conductivity to temperature and salinity of
the system, its value was calculated based on the measurements of the
voltage and current intensity. According to the obtained results, by
increasing NaCl content and/or the temperature, σ was enhanced. How-
ever, its dependence to the variations of temperature was nonlinear in
contrary to its linear behavior as a function of NaCl concentration.
The mentioned dependency was formulated using polynomial cor-
relations which were taking account of both affecting parameters.
Based on the examined fitting criteria, third degree and linear polyno-
mials for temperature and NaCl concentration dependency was ade-
quate. The experimental data and the fitted surface are shown in
Figure 2, in addition to the fitted correlation and its goodness
5 of 11
measures in Equation (13)(R2, adjusted R2 and RMSE). For ohmic
heating, electrical conductivity must be nonzero. Plant materials are
low electrical conductivity which can be enhanced by adding ionic com-
pounds like NaCl (Damyeh & Niakousari, 2016). Sastry (2014) found
there is a linear relationship between temperature and electrical con-
ductivity; enhance in temperature increases electrical conductivity.
 
σ = α0 + α1 × T + α2 × T 2 + α3 × T 3 × ðβ0 + β1 × W Þ ð15Þ
α0 = − 0.02612; α1 = 0.001401 R2 = 0.8108
α2 = − 1.794 × 10−5; α3 = 9.294 × 10−8 Adjusted R2 = 0.8035
β0 = 1.175; β1 = 0.03571 RMSE = 0.005011
3.2 | CFD results
The distribution of the electrical potential field is depicted in Figure 3
at the vertical plane passing through the geometry center. As the
Laplace equation governs the electrical potential field, it is expected
that a uniform distribution of this variable will be obtained. However,
it should be noted that due to the different values of liquid and gas
phases, electrical conductivity of the calculated field was not
completely symmetrical around the electrodes axis line (Marra, Zell,
Lyng, Morgan, & Cronin, 2009).
The ohmic heating effect which is primarily due to the electrical
current magnitude (proportional to the gradient of electrical potential)
is shown in Figure 4. According to the obtained results, near the elec-
trodes where the space gradient of the potential field was higher, the
value of generated ohmic heating source was more pronounced.
Although, due to the relative uniformity of the potential field, the heat
source term except of a small region near the electrodes was approxi-
mately constant. Also, it should be noted that, the generated energy
during ohmic heating is affected by electrical potential distribution as
well as electrical conductivity of the fluid. To be more specific, the
current density which controls the generated heat is proportional to
the gradient of electrical potential. Therefore, in spite of the symmet-
rical distribution of electrical potential, the nonuniformity of the elec-
trical conductivity, leads to an asymmetric heat generation pattern.
As it was discussed previously, the ohmic heat source was respon-
sible for the temperature growth in the extractor from the initial tem-
perature to the boiling point. In the following figure (Figure 5a–d), the
time history of the temperature variations in the midsection plane is
displayed. The initiation location of the temperature growth as it was
expected from the heat source term distribution (Figure 4) was around
the electrode tips, while passing through time, the generated heat was
propagated through both phases via conduction and convection
mechanisms. Gavahian, Farhoosh, Javidnia, Shahidi, and Farahnaky
(2015) suggested ohmic-hydrodistillation is only enable to heat the
neighborhood of plant materials quickly due to dry materials and low
electrical conductivity of essential oils. They also found extraction ini-
tiated at high rate for brine nearby plant glands due to massive driving
force of thermal conductivity. Although it should be noted that based
6 of 11
on the different values of thermal conductivity of liquid and gas
phases, a significant nonuniformity was observed around the water
free surface. Moreover, as a result of high thermal conductivity of
water as well as nearly uniform heat generation (especially in the mid-
dle zones), the temperature field became almost uniform after early
time periods (t = 40 min).
The flow field characteristics are depicted in Figure 6. To do so, the
velocity magnitude contours in the vertical planes (Figure 6a) as well as
velocity vectors (Figure 6b) are presented. According to the velocity
magnitude contours, the gas phases had higher velocities during evapo-
ration in comparison to the liquid phase and the velocity was higher
below the vertical outlet pipe where the evaporated vapors from vari-
ous locations gather to exit. The natural convention is the dominant
force to recirculate the heated fluid (in both liquid and gas phases). The
variations of phases density with temperature as well the difference
between their buoyancy forces especially during the phases change
F I G U R E 3 The electrical potential contours at the vertical
symmetry plane (ΔV = 80 v)
ROOHI AND HASHEMI
F I G U R E 2 The variations of σ as a
function of temperature and NaCl
concentration
process creates the natural convection force. Additionally, focusing on
the velocity vectors, three to four circulation zones were recognizable
in the gas phases, where can be assumed as the flow cells.
During the hydrodistillation process, as the mixture temperature
increased toward the boiling point, the phase change initiated. The vapor
volume fraction contours at the several vertically sliced sections are pres-
ented in Figure 7 at different instances. The evaporation nucleation hap-
pened at two distinct locations, namely at the electrodes' tips and near
the midsection at regions below the outlet tube. At the electrodes' tips
the creation of hot spots accelerated the rise of temperature and conse-
quently the first vapor bubbles nucleated there (Dincov, Parrott, & Peri-
cleous, 2002). On the other hand, at the regions below the outlet pipe,
the lower pressure loss for the vapor passing from the free surface to
the outlet in comparison to the other regions, especially near the ending
caps where the electrodes were placed, resulted in lowering the required
saturation pressure and in turn facilitated the evaporation.
As the time passed, the evaporation spread through the entire vol-
ume of the extraction tank. According to the contours of the vapor
volume fraction, the major part of the boiling process occurred at the
F I G U R E 4 The generated heat source per volume contours at the
vertical symmetry plane (ΔV = 80 v)
ROOHI AND HASHEMI
F I G U R E 5 The temperature
contours at the vertical
symmetry plane for (a) t = 2 min,
(b) t = 5 min, (c) t = 8 min, and
(d) t = 55 min
free surface at the beginning of boiling (t = 52 min), while due to the
approximately uniform temperature the evaporation propagated to
the deepest regions during time (t = 70 min). Moreover, during the
evaporation process, the generated steam pushed the initial air out
and the only remaining phase above the free surface became vapor.
The effect of NaCl concentration (% w/v), on the temperature
growth during the ohmic heating process are revealed in the following
figure (Figure 8a–c). According to the obtained experimental data and
the numerically evaluated temperatures, good agreement between
these two sets of data was observed for every implemented voltages
and salinity concentrations (below 10% deviation in results). As the
NaCl concentration in the system increased, the overall electrical con-
ductivity enhanced which in turn improved the generated heat capac-
ity due to the electrical current passage. Therefore, as expected,
addition of NaCl to the extraction system improved the produced
heat magnitude and intensified the rate of temperature growth. It was
reported that the NaCl addition to the ohmic system had a main effect
on electrical conductivity and time–temperature curves (Moraveji,
Ghaderi, & Davarnejad, 2011).Furthermore, as the salt concentration
F I G U R E 6 The velocity
contours at the vertical planes
(a) and the velocity vectors at the
vertical plane along container
axis (b)
7 of 11
in the system increased the boiling temperature was slightly increased
due the change of the system composition. In relation to the results,
the required time to reach any system temperatures (prior to the boil-
ing point) can be reduced between 3 and 5 min for the case of
ΔV = 80 V by addition of 1% (w/v) of NaCl (Figure 7a).
The same trend was observed for higher electrodes' potential dif-
ferences (120 V, Figure 7b and 160 V, Figure 7c), while the required
time to initiate the boiling process was different between these exam-
ined voltages. Increasing the extractor voltage by producing higher
rate of generated heat reduced the boiling time period and facilitated
the extraction process.
The volume of the extracted essential oil during the ohmic-
hydrodistillation process as a function of NaCl concentration in the
system and implemented voltage is illustrated in Figure 9. The mea-
sured experimental data were in good agreement with the numerical
results from the CFD simulation. The highest deviation from the mea-
sured experimental observations was reported to be below 8%, which
was quite acceptable considering the complex modeled system and
the assumed simplifications such as uniform composition of the liquid
8 of 11 ROOHI AND HASHEMI

F I G U R E 7 The vapor volume

fraction contours at the vertical
planes along container axis for:
(a) t = 52 min, (b) t = 57 min,
(c) t = 65 min and (d) t = 70 min

F I G U R E 8 The effect of NaCl concentration of the extractor temperature for numerical and experimental examinations: (a) ΔV = 80 V,
(b) ΔV = 120 V, (c) ΔV = 160 V
ROOHI AND HASHEMI
phase, the utilized system model and adiabatic container. Two distinct
stages were recognizable for each simulated scenario. At the early
stage where the temperature was relatively low, the evaporation and
consequently the extraction curve had a mild slope which was due to
the slow rate of evaporation for temperatures far from the boiling
point. For the second stage where the evaporation accelerated due to
the increasing of the system temperature to the boiling temperature,
the extraction was performed rapidly. It should be noted that in the
experimental observations another stage after the second one was
also observable. After specified time duration, the volume of the
extracted essential oil remained unchanged despite of the system
boiling state. During the extraction process, the essential oil amount
of the system was reduced and at the end of Stage 2, the system con-
tained almost zero essential oil content. Therefore, after that point
the boiling process only resulted in evaporation/condensation of pure
water. Consequently, the numerical modeling was limited to simulate
the first two stages until the entire essential oil was evaporated. Man,
Hamzah, Jamaludin, and Abidin (2012) reported extraction of essential
oil from citronella plant by ohmic-hydrodistillation was a second order
extraction model as the extraction experimentally done in two stages.
Internal heating in ohmic heating and electroporation by the flow of
electrical current during the plant material cause a fast increase in
extraction of essential oil (Damyeh & Niakousari, 2016). Gavahian
F I G U R E 9 The effect of NaCl concentration of the extracted essential oil for numerical and experimental examinations: (a) ΔV = 80 V,
(b) ΔV = 120 V, (c) ΔV = 160 V
9 of 11
et al. (2012) reported the ability of ohmic-hydrodistillation to initiate
the essential oil extraction rapidly and the fast rate of extraction in
ohmic-hydrodistillation caused total extraction time decreased.
The effect of NaCl concentration and the applied voltage is sum-
marized in Figure 10. The extraction process performance had two
major measures: namely the extracted volume and the required time
to complete the procedure. The necessary duration to fulfill the
extraction is shown in Figure 10a. It was observed that both of NaCl
concentration and applied voltage parameters accelerated the extrac-
tion process. However, the effect of increasing of salinity was more
pronounced at higher voltages. Specifically, increasing the NaCl con-
centration from 0.5 to 1.5% (w/v), lead to a 10 min reduction of
extraction process for 80 volts’ potential difference, while the same
amount of salt addition caused twice time reduction (20 min) for
160 volts’ case. Considering the physical aspect of ohmic heating,
both of increasing the NaCl concentration and voltage had the similar
effect on the generated heat source by increasing the electrical con-
ductivity and the electrical potential gradient, respectively.
Similarly, the same trend was observed for the volume of the
extracted essential oil (Figure 10b). The volume of the extracted
essential oil was varied from 3.2 mL for ΔV = 80 V and 0.5% (w/v)
NaCl to 3.9 mL for ΔV = 160 V and 1.5% (w/v) NaCl (21.87% increase
in the essential oil amount). Hashemi et al. (2017) studied extraction
10 of 11
F I G U R E 1 0 The effect of NaCl concentration and the system voltage on the extractor performance: (a) process duration, (b) volume of the
extracted essential oil
of oregano essential oil in ohmic-hydrodistillation at three voltages
(100, 150, and 200 V). They found increase in voltage of system
enhanced extraction yield and reduced total extraction time. Gavahian
et al. (2015) found extraction of essential oil in ohmic-hydrodistillation at
380 V initiated earlier in comparison to 220 V due to the enter of more
electrical energy from power supply and accordingly more conversion of
it to heat energy because of joule result. Gavahian et al. (2017) reported
increase NaCl concentration from 1% to 3% decreased 45% of total pro-
cess time in ohmic-hydrodistillation. They also found enhance NaCl con-
centration from 3% to 6% did not significantly affect this factor.
According to the results, the addition of salt by 1% (increasing the
salinity concentration from 0.5 to 1.5% (w/v)), increases the extracted
oil by 9.4, 2.9, and 5.4% for 80, 120, and 160 V, respectively. How-
ever, the same increase in the salinity, reduces the required time by
10, 10.5, and 21% for 80, 120, and 160 V, respectively. Therefore, it
can be concluded that except of the case with ΔV = 80 V in which the
effect of salt is almost the same on extracted volume and required
time, for higher applied voltages salinity has almost four times higher
impact on the required time than extracted volume.
It should be noted that, the data presented in Figures 9 and 10 are
referring to the volume of essential oil at different times. In Figure 9 the
volume of extracted essential oil is illustrated only in the first 70 min of
examination (till the initiation of boiling process), while the data in
Figure 10 are determined at the end of experiment (140 min). The data
of Figure 9 are presented to illustrate the accuracy in the CFD simulation
T A B L E 1 The mutual effect of applied voltage and salinity
concentration on the volume of extracted essential oil
Unstandardized
Standardized
coefficients
coefficients
Model B SE Beta
(Constant) 2.517 0.156
Voltage 0.007 0.001 1.097
Salt concentration 0.350 0.145 0.678
Mutual effect of −0.001 0.001 −0.358
salinity and voltage
ROOHI AND HASHEMI
in comparison to the experimental measurements. Therefore, the results
are shown up to the initiation of boiling process. Beyond that point the
experiment was still continued to extract the essential oil from the herbs
completely. The final volume of extracted oil is depicted in Figure 10.
To determine the single and mutual effect of salinity and voltage,
the multiple regression with interaction effect model is implemented
and the results are illustrated in Table 1. According to the model as
the absolute value of β parameter is higher for any variable, its impact
on the dependent parameter is higher. Therefore, according to the
illustrated data in Table 1, voltage has the highest effect on the pro-
duced essential oil followed by salinity and the lowest effect belongs
to the interaction of these two parameters.
3.3 | Essential oil composition
Fifteen compounds were identified by GC–MS for the extracted essen-
tial oils. Results showed the main component of the extracted essential
oils was carvacrol. Same results also were obtained by Hashemi et al.
(2012). The compositions of the different extracted essential oils were
similar. Also, there were not significant differences between the quanti-
ties of the components extracted by various voltages of ohmic-
hydrodistillation at different salt concentrations. However, Gavahian
et al. (2015) reported there were slight but significant differences
between the quantities of some components of Mentha piperita essen-
tial oils extracted by ohmic-hydrodistillation at 220 and 380 V.
4 | C O N CL U S I O N S
A 3D, multiphase, transient CFD simulation was established to exam-
ine the effect of salinity concentration and imposed voltage on the
extraction rate of essential oil during the ohmic heating process. The
numerical results regarding the volume of extracted essential oil and
mean temperature were in good agreement with the experimental
data (below 10% deviation in results).Increasing the voltage, by pro-
ducing higher rate of generated heat, reduced the boiling time period
and facilitated the hydrodistillation process. Additionally, Increasing
ROOHI AND HASHEMI
the salt concentration from 0.5 to 1.5% (w/v) reduced 10 min the
extraction process for 80 volts’ potential difference, whereas the
same amount of salt addition caused twice time reduction (20 min) for
160 volts’ case.
CONF LICT OF IN TE RE ST
The authors have declared no conflict of interest.
ORCID
Seyed Mohammad Bagher Hashemi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
3420-0057
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How to cite this article: Roohi R, Hashemi SMB.
Experimental and computational fluid dynamics modeling of
Satureja khuzestanica essential oil extraction during ohmic-
hydrodistillation. J Food Process Eng. 2019;42:e13083. https://
doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.13083