Development and performance evaluation of an atmospheric cold plasma assisted food storage cabin prototype
Project no. 23013 · Status: Kapanmış · 2021
Summary
<p>The short shelf life of tomatoes, one of the foodstuffs exported by our country, causes high product loss. Atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) is one of the current non-thermal food processing technologies that can reduce quality losses and provide microbial inactivation. In this project, an ACP prototype that can operate at different loading frequencies and voltage gradients was established and its potential for use in tomato storage was investigated.</p><p>Within the scope of the project, the installation of the ACP system was successfully realized in Work Package (WP) 1, and in WP 2, considering the effect of ACP process applied under different process time, loading frequency and voltage gradient conditions on the quality characteristics and performance characteristics of tomato. It was determined that the combination of 13 kV/mm voltage gradient, 100% loading frequency and 20 min process time was the most suitable process condition with a desirability value of 0.85. In IP 3, by increasing the scale, it was determined that E-3 size and FANMODE 1 fan placement was the most suitable treatment condition. In this condition, the log reduction value of <em>Alternaria alternata</em> spores was 0.72±0.05, antioxidant activity change in treated tomato compared to raw material was 23.27%, total phenolic content change was 12.8%, lycopene and β-carotene content changes were 45.30% and 47.91%, respectively, and log reduction value per unit exergy was 2.2E-04 log/J. In IP 4, it was determined that the frequency of ACP application had an effect on the log reduction value. In IP 5, the process factors affecting the exergoeconomic performance characteristics of the system were evaluated.</p><p>A highly energy/exergy efficient ACP system/method causing an acceptable level of change in the quality characteristics of tomatoes and providing the targeted microbial inactivation has been developed. The ACP storage cabinet designed and installed within the scope of the project has been registered as a National Patent by the Turkish Patent Institute and has the potential to be transformed into a commercial domestic product (device, system). </p>