791
IEEE Africon 2002
TECHNOLOGY FOR PRESERVATION OF FOOD WITH
PULSED ELECTRIC FIELDS (PEF)
SWH de Haan’, B Roodenburg’, J Morren’, H Prins’
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)
ABSTRACT
Food can he preSeNed with pulses of electric fields with
a magnitnde of 10 to 50 kVlcm and a duration of 1 to 10
ps. To apply this technique both a treatment chamber
(applicator) and a n electronic pulse generator is
required. Ib this paper a n overview is given of types of
pulse generators for pulsed electric fields (PEF).
Further limitations ofthe technology as imposed by the
limited switching power of switches are discussed with
respect to the availability of switches.
1. INTRODUCTION
The possibility of inactivation of microorganisms with
electricity is known for over a century. in 1879 Cohn and
Mendelsohn reported research on sterilisation by passage of
a dc-current through a nutrient solution. Since then several
methods of sterilisation of foodstuff with electricity have
been reported. Among these are: sterilisation based on
heating of the foodstuff by an ac current [I] and
inactivation by a high-voltage arc discharge [2]. Although
these techniques lead to inactivation of the
microorganisms, they also lead to the contamination ofthe
food with chemical products caused by electrolysis and
disintegration of the food.
These drawbacks are avoided by applying electric field
pulses of high intensity and short duration, typically in the
range E = 2 to 5 kV/nun and 0.1 to 25 ps duration. In the
last decennia there is an increasing interest in this so-called
Pulsed Electric Field technology (PEF) because it is a
viable alternative for thermal food pasteurisation. The most
impottant advantages of PEF pasteurisation in comparison
with thermal pasteurisation are: Preservation of the fresh-
like characteristics, reduction of the required processing
energy, less contamination of the processing unit and thus
less use of aggressive cleansing fluids.
In literature both batch systems and continuous-flow
systems for PEF pasteurisation have been described. For
application of PEF at an industrial scale only continuous
flow systems are applicable. The major components in a
continuous-flow treatment system are shown in fig. I ; it
consists of the flowthrough treatment chamber, a high-
voltage repetitive pulse generator and a preconditioning
unit which establishes the required flow rate, pressure and
temperature. While flowing through the treatment chamber,
eachfoodparticle i s subjected to anumber ofelectric field
pulses of specified intensity and duration, where the pulse
repetition rate should be sufficiently high (in the range 10
0-7803-7570-X/02/$17.000 2002 IEEE
?
to 500Hz) to guarantee that the desired number ofpulses is
applied to food particles during their passage through the
chamber.
P.m.
Fig. 1 BIock diagram of a continuousflow systemfor
PEF with a specijic power supply
During the application of a pulse a current will flow
through the food as an unwanted side effect, because the
food is more or less conductive. This current causes heat
development in the food, which is the main reason for
limiting the pulse duration.
In this paper an overview is given of types of pulse
generators for pulsed electric fields (PEF) and some
associated treatment chambers. Further limitations of the
technology as imposed by the limited switching power of
switches are discussed with respect to the availability of
switches.
2. POWER REQUIREMENTS
The treatment chamber can be considered as a purely
resistive load R as the productRCis much smaller than the
considered pulse duration. Here C i s capacitance of the
electrodes which can be neglected. The required peak
power for PEF technology at an industrial scale is one of
the limiting factors, where the power increases with the
flow rate Q (m’hr). The theoretical lower limit for the
required peak power at the chamber terminals can easily be
calculated from:
= (T E’ Vch
Pmin (1)
with V,, thevolume ofthe treatment zone (shortlyreferred
to as ‘chamber’), E the field strength and U the specific
conductivity of the food. The chamber volume V,, is
calculated from the product of cross section and chamber
length, or:
n
v =-D’
4
L
where Dis the diameterofacylindrical supposedchamber.
IEEE Africon 2002
The minimum value of the required diameter D can be
calculated from the flow rate Q ( d / s ) and the maximum
allowable flow velocity v:
7r
Q = - D ~V (3)
A
7
It is further assumed that the ratio between chamber length
L and diameter D is constant with L=.W. From (2) en (3)
the following relation between flow rate and minimum
chamber volume as a function of flow rate can be obtained
(4)
The required power can now be expressed as a function of
flow rate, conductivity, and field strength.
This equation clearly shows which parameters affect the
power, where the effect of field strength is dominant.
Further the power increases more than proportional with
the flow rate Q. In Fig. 2 the required peak power is shown
as a function of flow rate with product conductivity as
parameter.
1
Theoretical lower limit for L=1.6D
1
1
EB
---._
-
Flow rate [mwhr]
sigma = 0.1 Wm
sigma = 0.5 S/m
---.
sigma = 3 Slm
Fig. 2 Theoreticallower limit ofpeakpowerfor PEFasa
function offlow rate with product conductivity sigma as
parameter. Further: v=lm/s. E = 4.106,k =1.6
The graph shows that for at an industrial scale flow rate of
Q=5 m3ihr, and a conductivity o f o = 3 S/m the theoretical
lower limit for the required power at the terminals of the
chamber is just below 5 GW at a voltage in the range 50 kV
to 500 kV, depending on specific chamber and circuit
design. For products with a lower conductivity, the
required peak power may be much less. Because of the
high peak power the switch is a limiting component for
industrial PEF application. Non-semiconductor switches
such as spark gaps approach the required power but do not
0 2002 IEEE
0-7803-757O-X/02/$17.00
792
have the required lifetime as the total number of switching
operation per year is inthe range 108-1010.Semiconductor
switches do have the required lifetime, however their
switchingpower is rather limitedand nowadays only suited
for products that have a low specific conductivity
Application of stacks of semiconductorsor splitting system
in parallel units may reduce the requirements for the
switches and enable the technology for a wider variety of
products. For pilot scale equipment (for instance 0.1 m3lhr)
or laboratory scale (for instance0.001 m 3 h ) the required
power can be handled more easily by semiconductors.
3 CIRCUITS FOR PULSE GENERATION
To generate pulses of short duration several techniques can
be applied. The choice for a certain circuit depends on the
specific requirements and the feasibilityto construct such a
circuit. The most important aspects concerning
requirements are:
- controllability of the pulse duration, pulse amplitude
and repetition rate
- suited for variable load impedance; when the type of
treated food is changed, the conductivity and thus the
chamber impedance will change;
- preferably the type of pulse should be rectangular and
have the same value in all p a m of the treahnent
chamber.
As shown in Fig. 2 the peak power during the pulse is high,
however the average power is much lower and is also
determined by the duty ratio (pulse widthhepetition period)
of the pulse. To enable short rise times an energy buffer is
required that can relinquish in a sufficient short time.
Therefore the pulse power supply basically consists of the
followine comvonents (See Fie. 3):
a charger io charge'the en&& buffer from the grid
an energy buffer to store the pulse energy
a switch
a transmission section that effectively transmit the
power from the buffer to the load
a transformer to adapt the impedance of the
transmission network to the impedance of the load
OC..h..,.. .101.,= .*/ICLI l,.l.l,..lO. ,m,.d..<. 8
0
.4
",.l.h,".
Fig. 3 Block diagram ofpulsedpower supply
In most cases the energy buffer consists ofa capacitorwith
low inductance.
Three types of circuits for pulse generation can be
distinguished
a) circuit generating a square pulse and with odoff
switching
b) circuits generating an exponential pulse hy connecting
the loadto a capacitor circuits with a transmission line
c) circuits with RCor RLC-circuit
IEEE Africon 2002
These basic circuits are shown in Fig. 4 where these
circuits can be extended with transformers or can be
configured in bridge configurations for bipolar pulsing.
ad a) Circuits with onloff switching
With the circuit shown in Fig. 4a a fairly ideal block pulse
can be created by simply connecting the treatment chamber
to the energy buffer via a switch which is closed for the
intended pulse duration. An important feature ofthis circuit
is that the pulse width can easily be controlled and that the
pulse shape is insensitive to variations in load impedance.
This technique requires a switch that can both be opened
and closed via a control signal and that has a switch
transition time that is much shorter then the desired pulse
duration. Several types of semiconductor switches can be
used for this purpose such as MOSFETs, IGBT's and
GTO's. Semiconductor switches like GTO's are
characterised by a slow turn on and turn offbehaviour with
typical switching times in the microsecond range. T h i s
limits its application to pulses with a duration ofmore than
tens of microseconds.
n TUDelft)
47-
Fig. 4 Basic circuits for pulse generation a) load
connected to big capacitor via a switch with on/off
capability b) Load connected to capacitor via a switch
with turn-on capability only c) load connected to a
lumped transmission line via a switch with turn-on
capability d) Load connected to capacitor via a switch
with turn-on capability
The current and voltage range of a GTO is up to 5 kV at 5
kA. Pulses in the sub microsecond range can be generated
with MOSFEY's, because their transition time is in the
order of hundreds of ns. To be able to block a voltage in the
multi kV range, the MOSFET's have to be connected in
series where the odoffcontrol has to be synchronised with
sufficient accuracy. Stacked MOSFET switches are
commercially available with a blocking capability up to
about 40kV @ IOA (Behlke) or 5kA @ IkA (Centralp) and
60kV @ 500A has been demonstrated [8]. For PEF
equipment at laboratory scale the required power is low, so
for that application MOSFET's can be applied. Fig. 5
shows actual pulses that have been generated with such a
type of circuit that has been developed at TUDelft for
laboratory PEF equipment.
0 2002 IEEE
0-7803-7570-X/02/$17.00
793
' " f "
11 D T 1000
a4:ooo a'' 12:38:30
Fig. 5 Burstofpulses thataregenerated with alaboratory
scale PEFpulser based on circuit a) with Behlke MOSFET
switch stack with a blocking voltage of 35kV and a
maximum current o f 12.5A. The Dulse width can be
controlledfrom 200 ns up to tens of us @Iser deveiopedat
The properties of switching elements like the IGBT are
between MOSFET and GTO with respectto transition time
and power rating; the maximum blocking voltage is 3.5 kV
at several kA and transition time is 0.3 p to 1 ps,
depending on power rating. The power rating of single
IGBT's is not sufficient for industrial scale PEF, however
several companies are developing series and parallel
connected stacks of IGBT's for voltages up to 60kV @
600A, which results in an apparent power of 36 MW [12].
For a proper square pulse the capacitor should be
sufficiently large to prevent a too large voltage drop of the
capacitor during the pulse. The rise time ofthe load pulse is
basically determined by the parasitical inductances in the
circuit and the turn-on rate of the switch itself.
For a fast rise time the parasitical inductance in this circuit
should comply with
L,,, < RT, (6)
where i is themaximum allowable rise time. In lowpower
circuits, as in laboratory scale equipment from Fig. 5 , this
condition is easily fulfilled because of the relatively I arge
value of R.
ad b) Circuits with R C or RLC circuit
Switches with only turn-on capability are available for
much higher power levels than switches with both turnon
and turn-off capability. Devices such as thyristors,
thyratrons and spark gaps belong to this category.
Application of these switches in combination with a
capacitor or capacitor and inductor leads to a pulse with a
waveform far from a pulse shape. For RC circuits the
waveform is an exponentially decaying pulse, where the
risetime is determined bythestray inductanceofthecircuit.
Basically the circuit is identical to the circuit a), where the
difference is that in circuit b) the capacitor is fully or
almost fully discharged, while in a) the capacitor is hardly

IEEE Africon 2002
discharged. For RLC-circuits either an oscillating or non-
oscillating pulse is obtained as shown in Fig. 6.
*/". /,".,
Fig. 6 Pulse from an RLC-circuit, enveloping a desired
block pulse
The drawback of both RC and RLC circuits is that the
pulse shape is hardly a block, however their power rating is
unsurpassed as a wide variety of high power switches can
be used. With power rating from 7kV @ 5kA for thyristors
going up to 500kV @ 20kA for high-pressure spark gaps,
however the last with a relatively short lifetime.
ad c) Circuits with transmission line
When both a high power level and a block pulse is needed,
the combined application of turn-on switches and pulse
forming networks, as shown in Fig. 4c, can bring a
solution. There is a wide variety ofpulse forming networks,
but they are all based on a series of LC circuits, either
lumped or distributed. In these circuits the capacitors are
precharged to a certain value. When the switch is closed a
more or less block shaped pulse appears across the load,
provided that the impedance of the circuit (Z=d(L'Cj )is
matched to the load impedance and the number ofstages is
sufficiently large. For a lumped line with equalL's and Cs
the pulse width follows from:
T, =?-SI (7)
where Z refers to the total inductance and capacitance
respectively. The pulse rise becomes shorter when the
number of stages is increased.
When the circuit impedance is not matched to the load, the
pulse will be distorted and power will be reflected. This is
one of the drawbacks of the circuit as it is less suited for
applications with varying loads as PEF. With PEF the load
resistance depends on the conductivity of the food, which
mayv;uyfroma=0.01 S/mcircuitsforspawaterto3 S/m
for tomato juice, depending on temperature. Another
drawback ofthe system is that voltage at the load is halfthe
value ofthe initial voltage on the capacitors. By application
of special pulse forming networks, such as the so-called
Blumlein circuit [13], this reduction can be avoided
however. Fig. 7 shows an example of a waveform that was
obtained with a pilot PEF system with fourLCstages that
was built at our university. Because the circuit stray
inductance ms of the same order of magnitude as the
inductors in theLCsection (1.7p), thecircuit behavesas a
system with a single LCstage as c).
0-7803-7570-X/02/$17.000 2002 IEEE
794
Fig. 7 Pulses that are generated with a pilot scale PEF
pulser based on circuit e) with a thyratron osswitch with a
blocking voltage of 40kV
4 TREATMENTCHAMBERS
One can distinguish between chambers for batch
processing and continuous treatment processing. For
continuous treatment processing flowthrough chambers
are required.
It is assumed that for effective PEF treatment a field should
be established in the chamber that is just above the
threshold level for inactivation. At regions where the field
is below the threshold no inactivation occurs, while it
causes losses and unwanted heat development. In the ideal
case a chamber should establish a uniform field throughout
the chamber.
In literature several options for flowthrough chamber
geometries have been proposed and investigated, where the
uniformity of the field differs for the different cases.
Further there is a big difference in impedance for different
geometxy with the same flowthrough cross section. InFig.
8 three of these chamber geometries are shown [2-61
Chamber a) has a more or less axial field when the
electrode gap distance g is large in comparison to the tube
diameter D,nevertheless large field concenkations will
occur at the circular edges where the electric field lines
leave the electrodes. These high field concentrations cause
local heating followed by dissolution of gases, which may
in tum initiate partial discharges. Because of its simple
tubular cross section the construction can easily be cleaned
which is an advantage for industrial application. At a larger
gap distance g, also the treatment volume, the impedance
and the required voltage are increased.
In chamber b) the fluid flows in between two coaxial
electrodes, so the field is more or less uniform whenRURl
is close to I . Because of the relative large electrode surface
and small gap distance the impedance of the radial field
chamber is an order of magnitude smaller than the
impedance of chamber a) when both have the same
volume. In practice chamber b) is sensitive to inaccurate
positioning of the cylinders. At locations where the gap
distance issmaller, the current will be higher, which causes
extra heat development. Because the conductivity increases
with temperature, the current increases further, which may
result in thermal instability. At small gap distances the
chamber is also sensitive to blockage when the food
contains solid particles. With chamber c) the field is also
perpendicular to the flow direction. For a fairly uniform

IEEE Africon 2002
field both the electrode length I and electrode width w
should be larger then the gap distance g. For a given
chamber volume, the impedance ofthis chamber is roughly
between the impedances of chambers a) and b).
The chambers are operated close to the electric breakdown
voltage ofthe food, whichmeans that special attention has
to be paid to the design of the electrode geometry at the
edges where field concentrations will occur. To avoid
breakdown it is sometimes needed to pressurise the system
to suppress the formation of gas bubbles that could act as
trigger points for discharges.
Fig. 8 Three drffereni types of treatment chambers a)
‘axial’fieldchamber b) radialfield chamber c) crossfield
chamber
6. SWITCHES
Fig. 2 showed that the theoretical lower limit for the
required peak power for PEF is considerable, depending on
product conductivity a,production volume Q and field
strength E. In practice the actual power will be higher
because of non-uniformity of the field, non-block shaped
pulses, losses and reflections. The required apparent power
of the switch, defined as the product of blocking voltage
and maximum rms current, is in most cases much higher
than the actual peak power, depending on the applied
circuit topology and safety margins. There are several
options to reduce the apparent switch power of the switch
in comparison of the peak power at the load
- application ofpulse compression in the stage between
the switch and the load, so that a wider pulse can be
handled by the switch with a lower peak value
- application of switch stacks or application of
distributed circuits. Fig. 9 shows both options.
With switch stack the voltage and current sharing between
switches needs special attention [9,10,1 I]. With a
distributed type of circuit, the current and voltage
distribution is automatically guaranteed. Further the
impedance of the circuit can easily be adapted to varying
load impedances by activating/deactivating a part of the
circuit.
6. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper an overview is given of equipment that is
needed for sterilisation offood with pulsed electric fields.
It has been shown that the pulse peak power that is
needed may well be in the range IOMW to IGW
depending on conductivity of food and production
volume. For industrial scale application non-solid state
0-7803-7570-X/02/$17.000 2002 IEEE
795
switches approach the required power, but do not have the
required lifetime. Special semiconductor switch systems
with stacks of semiconductor switches or distributed
circuits seem to be more promising for reliable industrial
application. For continuous flow systems three chamber
geometries have been described.
D .“se!
Fig. 9 a) lumped circuit with swiich stack b) disiributed
circuii
REFERENCES
S. Palaniapan, S.K. Sashy, E.R. Richter, ‘Effects of
electricity on microorganisms: A review,’ J. Food
Process. and preservation, vol. 14, no.5 pp 393-414,
Oct. 1990
A. Mizuno, Y.Hori, ‘Destruction of living cells by
pulsed high voltage applications’, IEEE Trans. on Ind.
Applications, Vo1.24, pp. 387-394, M a y h n e 1988
B.L. Qin, G.V. Barbosa-Canovas et al, ‘Inactivating
microorganismes using a pulsed Electric Field
Continuous treatment System’, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Applic, Vol34, No.1, pp 43-50, JadFeb 1998,
Q. Zhang, A. Monsalve-Gonzalev, G.V. Barbosa-
Canovas, B.G. Swanson, ‘Inactivation of of E, coli
and S.cerevisea by pulsed electric fields under
controlled temperature conditions.’, Trans. ASEA,
Vol. 37, no. 2, pp 581-587, 1994.
B.L. Qin, Q. Zhang, A. Monsalve-Gonzalev, G.V.
Barbosa-Canovas, B.G. Swanson. ‘Pulsed electric
fields pasteurisation of foods with coaxial treatment
chamber’, 37th Conf Canadian Inst. Food Science
and T e c h , Vancouver, Canada, 1994, Paperp 103
G . Belverde, A. Galluzo, M. Melito and A. Raciti,
“Snubberless voltage sharing of series-connected
insulated-gate devices by a novel gate control
strategy,” IEEE Trans. on Power Eleciron., vol. 16,
pp. 132-141, Jan. 2001.
D. Chatroux, Y.Lausanza, J.F. Villard, L. Gamier,
~-
and D. Lafore. “Hieh reliabilitv hieh voltaee fast
switches,” in: iroc. Euro. Power Electron.Aiplicai.
ConJ. Lausanne, Switzerland, Sept. 7-9,1999, pp. I -
IO.
IEEE Africon 2002 796

[9] P.R. Palmer and A.N. Githiari, “The series connection

of IGBTs with active voltage sharing,” IEEE Trans. Co-author: Bart Roodenburg
on Power Electron., vol. 12, pp. 637-644, July 1997. (1968) received the B.Sc. degree
[IO] V. Chitta, S. Hong and D.A. Torrey, “Series in Electrical Engineering from the
connection of IGBTs with active voltage balancing,” H.T.S. of Rijswijk, The
IEEE Trans. on Ind. Applicar., vol. 35 pp. 917-923, Netherlands, in 1992. From 1992
July/Aug. 1999. to 2000 he was employed by
[ I l l H.L. Hess and R.J. Baker, “Transformerless :: HMA bower systems) where he
capacitivecoupling ofgate signals for series operation was an electrical drive engineer
of Power MOS devices,” IEEE Trans. on Power for dredge pumps and propulsion
Electron., vol. 15, pp. 923-930, Sept. 2000 systems and later Research and
[I21 M.P.J. Gaudreau, T. Hawkey, J. Petry and M.A. Development engineer. He is
Kempkes, “A solid state pulsed power system for currently working at the Dele
foodprocessing,” presented at the 24th Pulsed Power University of Technology for the EET-PEF project. His
Plasma Science Conference, 18-22 June 2001, Las main research interests are power electronics and
Vega, NV, U S A . simulation.
1131W.J.Sarieant. R.E. Dollineer. Hieh-Powerelechunics.
L .

TAB BOOKS Inc., 1989,jSBN-O-8306-9094-8 Co-author: Johan Morren

(1976)
. . received hisM.Sc. degree
in Electrical Engineering in TO00
ADKNOWLEDGEMENT from the Dele University of
Technology. He is now a research
The work in this paper is supported with the Dutch E.E.T. assistant at the unit Electrical
grant (Economy, Ecology, and Technology) ofthe Ministry Power Processing. He worked on
of Economic Affairs, the ministry of Education, culture and projects regarding the grid-
Sciences and the ministry ofHousing, Spatial planning and connection of renewable energy
Environment. This project concerning PEF is camed out in sources and a project regarding
cooperation with and was also supported hy ATO, FCDF, sterilizing of liquid foods with
TNO,Unilever and Stork. Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF).

AUTHORS
Presenter:
. is presented bv. Sioerd
The .paper . de Haan
Principal Author : Sjoerd de
Haan (1948) is associate professor
in power electronics at the
Elecmcal Power Processing group
of the DelR Universiry of
Technology His current
researchcoverselecmc systems for
renewable energy sources and
pulsed power supplies for vanous
applications

0-7803-7570-X/02/$17.00 0 2002 IEEE