Dietary fiber
PEF for dietary fiber extraction
Product examples: Inulin, oligosaccharides, chicory root, onions
Aim PEF treatment: Cell disintegration, extraction enhancement
Oligosacharides and inulin
Most people do not get close to the recommended amounts of daily fiber. Dietary fibers such as oligosaccharides and inulin are carbohydrates. Plants with large amounts of oligosaccharides and inulin include chicory root, from which most commercial inulin is extracted. Oligosaccharides are also found in onions, including leeks and garlic, legumes, wheat, asparagus and other plant foods.
Selective extraction
Chicory is an excellent source of inulin, a fructose polymer with important nutritional and health characteristics. Current inulin extraction methods are expensive and require the entire crop to be processed in 45 to 60 days. Extracting inulin from dried chicory will extend the processing season and reduce the costs.
Pulsemaster’s process allows selective cell component extraction by PEF processing. By permeabilizing cell membranes PEF enables tissue softening and enhanced mass transport, resulting in improved extraction of inulin from chicory root, higher product quality and increased process capacity.
Benefits PEF
- Targeted and controlled structure modification enabled by permeabilizing cell membranes
- Enhanced product handling by tissue softening
- Reduction of cutting force
- Improved extraction and refining processes
- Increased process capacity
- For inulin production PEF results in greater extraction and refining yields, enhanced inulin juice purity and higher process efficiency by large reductions in energy, labor and running costs
- Continuous process and rapid technique
- Small equipment footprint, quick start up of the process
- Low energy requirement
More information
Pulsemaster has developed a range of industrial scale equipment – named Conditioner – with treatment capacities from 1,000 kg/h to 50,000 kg/h (110,000 lb/h) for cell disintegration. On a commercial scale total costs of 1 Euro/ton (0.1 Eurocent per kg / 0.056 US Dollarcent per lb) have to be expected. There are practically no size limitations.