Performance Evaluation of a Laboratory-Scale Magnetic Field Pretreatment Device
Authors: Odewole, M.M., Ogunbiyi, O., Saka, A.A., Ayangbola, E.O. And Shehu, I.O.
DOI Info: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8094342
ABSTRACT
Magnetic field as a method of food pretreatment is highly promising due to its non-thermal quality enhancement effects on foods. Magnetic field devices for conducting comprehensive food processing research works are not readily available, especially in developing countries. Also, an in-depth performance evaluation of the few developed magnetic field devices for food processing with a view to knowing the maximum magnetic field strength they can produce seemed not to have been done. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to present the performance evaluation of a laboratory-scale magnetic field device that can be potentially used for food pretreatment. The developed magnetic field device used works on the principle of electromagnetism and it can generate static, pulse and alternating types of magnetic field. It has a transformer designed to step down 240 V supply to 3.20 – 10.10 V for achieving different values of magnetic field strength; eight (8) electromagnets- each electromagnet has 0.3 m magnetic core perimeter and 200 turns of laminated copper wire (1.0 mm2, 60 m long and 1.2 Ohms). The performance evaluation of the device indicated approximately 30 mT as its maximum magnetic field strength. Therefore, the device is suitable for food pretreatment in future.
Affiliations: Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
Keywords: Pretreatment, Magnetic Field, Non-conventional, Non-thermal, Performance Evaluation
Published date: 2023/06/30
