Industrial processing of red and white grapes assisted by Pulsed Electric Fields

July 1, 2015

João Portugal Ramos Vinhos

EAPPC full paper - 740 Kb

Keywords — Grapes, Industrial scale processing, Pulsed Electric Fields, Solid-state modulator

Abstract — The results of industrial scale processing of nearly 200 tons of red and white grapes assisted by monopolar pulsed electric fields, PEF, are discussed in this paper. An industrial equipment, comprising a 10 kV/ 3kW solid-state pulse modulator connected to a two gaps co-field treatment chamber, was used to apply approximately 500 V/cm pulsed field protocol to different grape varieties with the aim of the extraction of flavor precursors, enhancing the phenolic content and increasing the yield of juice extraction process. Preliminary results show that PEF can increase value on industrial scale, but there are a number of variables difficult to control in this environment.