Performance Evaluation of a Laboratory-Scale Magnetic Field Pretreatment Device
Loading...
Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nigerian Research Journal of Engineering and Environmental Sciences
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 1.2Ω). 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.