Moderate Electric Field Treatment of Sugarbeet Tissues

The effects of thermal and moderate electric field (MEF) treatment on the damage of sugarbeet tissue were discussed. The activation energy ΔUT was estimated as 170 kJ mol−1 using the temperature dependences of the characteristic thermal damage time within the temperature interval 50–70 °C. The temperature dependences of electrical conductivity were measured for the maximally damaged and intact sugarbeet tissues; these data were used for estimation of the conductivity disintegration index at different MEF treatments. The results evidenced that the electrically stimulated damage of a sugarbeet tissue occurs even at a rather small electric field strength E of 20 V cm−1 if treatment time is large enough (t≈1 h). The energy consumption caused by MEF-treatment is mainly related to temperature elevation inside the tissue and noticeably decreases with increasing electric field strength E. MEF-treatment experiments in the aqueous media reveal the dependence of damage efficiency on sample orientation with respect to the external electric field.