Milk Processing by Nonthermal Liquid Plasma Discharge Technology
Additional Funding Sources
This project is supported by a 2019-2020 STEM Undergraduate Research Grant from the Higher Education Research Council.
Abstract
In this project, a non-thermal liquid plasma discharge (NTLPD) process has been developed and to be optimized to inactivate the microbial mechanisms and preserve the physical and nutritional quality of raw milk. This green process consists NTLPD reactor operated in a one pass continuous mode with a sterilized water priming phase to eliminate contamination before electric discharge occurs within the reactor. Specific objectives of this 10-week study include 1) integrating the sterilized water priming pump with the novel NTLPD reactor, 2) optimizing the NTLPD reactor based on the effect of milk flow rate and air flow rate on the total bacteria inactivation, and 3) investigating physical and nutritional qualities of the NTLPD treated milk that passes FDA Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. Up to now, preliminary results have suggested that the NTLPD process in the novel two-phase water priming design decreases the risk of bacterial contamination with 100% bacterial inactivation achieved at the power input of 200-watt, milk flow rate at 40 mi/min, and air flow rate controlled at 1 L/min. This provides a basis to meet the project objective 1) by showing that NTLPD technology could be a feasible alternative for fast and efficient milk processing.
Milk Processing by Nonthermal Liquid Plasma Discharge Technology
In this project, a non-thermal liquid plasma discharge (NTLPD) process has been developed and to be optimized to inactivate the microbial mechanisms and preserve the physical and nutritional quality of raw milk. This green process consists NTLPD reactor operated in a one pass continuous mode with a sterilized water priming phase to eliminate contamination before electric discharge occurs within the reactor. Specific objectives of this 10-week study include 1) integrating the sterilized water priming pump with the novel NTLPD reactor, 2) optimizing the NTLPD reactor based on the effect of milk flow rate and air flow rate on the total bacteria inactivation, and 3) investigating physical and nutritional qualities of the NTLPD treated milk that passes FDA Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. Up to now, preliminary results have suggested that the NTLPD process in the novel two-phase water priming design decreases the risk of bacterial contamination with 100% bacterial inactivation achieved at the power input of 200-watt, milk flow rate at 40 mi/min, and air flow rate controlled at 1 L/min. This provides a basis to meet the project objective 1) by showing that NTLPD technology could be a feasible alternative for fast and efficient milk processing.