Design, development, and performance evaluation of an ohmic extractor to valorize fruit by‐products based on Taguchi method: Reduced energy consumption and enhanced total phenolics
Mohsen Gavahian, Rachael Chu
Abstract
Abstract In this study, an ohmic extractor system was designed and developed, and system performance was compared with the conventional method for the extraction of bioactive compounds from pineapple peels. Besides, the Taguchi approach was used to find the optimal processing conditions. Dependent parameters were voltage, frequency, and electrode surface area. Independent parameters include come‐up time, heating rate, energy consumption, specific energy consumption, and total phenolics. The highest heating rate was 13°C min −1 which showed that optimal processing conditions can reduce the come‐up time by eight folds. Also, the optimized ohmic system had a higher heating rate in comparison with the conventional method (13 vs. 9°C min −1 ). Besides, it was revealed that changing the processing parameters in the range explored in the present study can save up to 33% of total energy consumption. Furthermore, the ohmic system saved a substantial amount of energy (up to 55%) in comparison with the conventional process while enhancing the total phenolics to achieve up to 89.25 mg GAE per 100 g FW of total phenolic compounds [Correction added on 16 November, after first online publication: The word “by 12.6%” has been removed from the preceding sentence to improve clarity.]. Therefore, this extraction approach can provide profit to farmers and food factories and contribute to achieving sustainable development goals by reducing energy consumption and enhancing resource efficiency through the efficient valorization of agricultural by‐products such as pineapple peels. Practical Applications The ohmic extraction system, which was designed and developed in this study, is scalable and affordable. It can help farmers and food factories to enhance their profit through the valorization of their production by‐products. Besides, using fruit by‐products (e.g., pineapple peels) as raw materials for extraction can cut the expenses required for sample preparation, which can be regarded as an approach for relatively low‐cost extraction of phenolic compounds in the ohmic systems. Furthermore, the innovative valorization platform proposed in this study showed to be time‐ and energy‐saving for obtaining high‐quality extracts. Therefore, this system can contribute to achieving sustainable development goals.