Three Pillars of Novel Nonthermal Food Technologies:Food Safety, Quality, and Environment

This review gives an overview of the impact of novel nonthermal food technologies on food safety, on quality, and on the environment. It confirms that research in this field is mainly focused on analyzing microbial and/or chemical aspects of food safety. However, recent research shows that in spite of various food safety benefits, some negative (quality oriented) features occur. Finally, this paper shows the necessity of analyzing the environmental dimension of using these technologies

Improvement of adhesive toughness measurement

The double cantilever beam (DCB) method for adhesive toughness measurement was improved by incorporating a sufficiently sharp crack made by a wedge-tapping method. A known route to producing cracks via loading–unloading cycles was proved unreliable because the cycles produced plastic deformation in the adhesive where new cracks propagated. Abnormally high toughness values with large standard deviations were obtained with cracks made by embedding a non-sticky insert. Only instantly propagated cracks made by tapping were sufficiently sharp to produce reproducible, accurate tough-ness measurements. However, toughened resin was insensit

An overview of laser surface modification of die steels

In recent years, surface modification using advanced heat source like laser has been replacing the conventional methods to produce amorphous microstructure via rapid solidification. Due to the benefits of laser to enhance the tribological and mechanical properties of materials’ surface, several laser surface processing were developed including laser surface modification, namely laser alloying, transformation hardening, surface amorphization, shock hardening and glazing. In high temperature applications, the laser surface modification technique is beneficial to prolong the die life cycle, and also to improve the surface roughness of thermal barrier coatings (TBC). To produce the amorphous layer at a particular depth, laser parameter such as irradiance, frequency, and exposure time are controlled. Variations of parameter may result in modified microhardness properties of heat affected zone and transition zone. Nevertheless, works on laser glazing of bearings, railroad rails and TBC had proven the surface properties were enhanced through laser glazing to cope with excessive load, wear, fatigue, bending and friction demand

Treatment technologies of fresh market wastewater

Fresh Market Wastewater (FMWW) is rich with high amounts of suspended solids, organic and inorganic compounds, nutrients, gases and some elements which come from fish entrails and seafood preparation sales, meat cutting, poultry slaughtering, fruits and vegetables sales. The excess of these parameters are harmful to the aquatic life since the FMWW is usually discharged into the drainage systems without any treatment or partial treatment. The FMWW technologies are developed due to some technical factors influencing the designation and construction. There are several projects of fresh market treatment technologies used on site area in small scale which could be replicated to other fresh market, and some case study have been tested in laboratory batch experiments. All the projects exhibited an efficiency to reduce critical parameters in FMWW and give positive impacts to the locals and responsible parties

A solid state Marx generator with a novel configuration

The new configuration proposed in this paper for Marx Generator (MG.) aims to generate high voltage for pulsed power applications through reduced number of semiconductor components with a more efficient load supplying process. The main idea is to charge two groups of capacitors in parallel through an inductor and take the advantage of resonant phenomenon in charging each capacitor up to a double input voltage level. In each resonant half a cycle, one of those capacitor groups are charged, and eventually the charged capacitors will be connected in series and the summation of the capacitor voltages can be appeared at the output of the topology. This topology can be considered as a modified Marx generator which works based on the resonant concept. Simulated models of this converter have been investigated in Matlab/SIMULINK platform and the acquired results fully satisfy the anticipations in proper operation of the converter

Decontamination of Listeria innocua from fresh-cut broccoli using UV-C applied in water or peroxyacetic acid, and dry-pulsed light

The efficacy of two irradiation technologies: Ultraviolet-C light (UV-C), applied in water or in diluted peroxyacetic acid, and dry-pulsed light (PL) for the inactivation and growth inhibition of Listeria innocua in fresh-cut broccoli were evaluated. Water-assisted UV-C (WUV) (0.3 and 0.5 kJ/m2) reduced L. innocua initial populations by 1.7 and 2.4 log10 CFU/g, respectively; the latter dose also inhibited their growth for 8 d at 5 °C. Replacing water with 40 or 80 mg/L peroxyacetic acid did not improve this efficacy. Pulsed light (5, 10, 15, and 20 kJ/m2) showed no effect on native microbiota. Neither did 15 kJ/m2 PL inactivate L. innocua or inhibit its growth. Nonetheless, 24-h post-processing, PL (15 kJ/m2) increased total phenolic content by 25% in respect of chlorine-sanitation, and enhanced total antioxidant capacity by 12 and 18% compared to water and chlorine controls, respectively. Unlike dry-PL, WUV appears to be a suitable technology for controlling L. monocytogenes populations in fresh-cut broccoli.This work has been supported by the CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya, the Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca / Departament d'Economia i Coneixement / Generalitat de Catalunya, and the European Social Fund (grant FI-DGR-2015-0004); the University of Lleida (Ref.127/2016); the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (grant FJCI-2016-29541); and the European Social Fund (grant RYC-2016-19949).The authors thank INRA (UMR SQPOV, Avignon), in particular Veronique Broussole and Fréderic Carlin, for providing access to the facilities. Thanks are also given to CLARANOR s.a. for allowing the use of the PL equipment, and in particular to Alain Berberian, for his technical assistance

Solidification of Al alloys under electromagnetic pulses and characterization of the 3D microstructures under synchrotron x-ray tomography

A novel programmable electromagnetic pulse device was developed and used to study the solidification of Al-15 pct Cu and Al-35 pct Cu alloys. The pulsed magnetic fluxes and Lorentz forces generated inside the solidifying melts were simulated using finite element methods, and their effects on the solidification microstructures were characterized using electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray tomography. Using a discharging voltage of 120 V, a pulsed magnetic field with the peak Lorentz force of ~1.6 N was generated inside the solidifying Al-Cu melts which were showed sufficiently enough to disrupt the growth of the primary Al dendrites and the Al2Cu intermetallic phases. The microstructures exhibit a strong correlation to the characteristics of the applied pulse, forming a periodical pattern that resonates the frequency of the applied electromagnetic field

The effect of ultrasound pretreatment on some selected physicochemical properties of black cumin (Nigella Sativa)

Background In the present study, the effects of ultrasound pretreatment parameters including irradiation time and power on the quantity of the extracted phenolic compounds quantity as well as on some selected physicochemical properties of the extracted oils including oil extraction efficiency, acidity and peroxide values, color, and refractive index of the extracted oil of black cumin seeds with the use of cold press have been studied. Methods For each parameter, three different levels (30, 60, and 90 W) for the ultrasound power and (30, 45, and 60 min) and for the ultrasound irradiation time were studied. Each experiment was performed in three replications. Results The achieved results revealed that, with enhancements in the applied ultrasound power, the oil extraction efficiency, acidity value, total phenolic content, peroxide value, and color parameters increased significantly (P 0.05). Conclusions In summary, it could be mentioned that the application of ultrasound pretreatment in the oil extraction might improve the oil extraction efficiency, the extracted oil’s quality, and the extracted phenolic compounds content.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio