Mild heat pasteurization, high pressure processing (HP) and pulsed electric field (PEF) processing of freshly squeezed orange juice were comparatively evaluated examining their impact on microbial load and quality parameters immediately after processing and during two months of storage. Microbial counts for treated juices were reduced beyond detectable levels immediately after processing and up to 2 months of refrigerated storage. Quality parameters such as pH, dry matter content and brix were not significantly different when comparing juices immediately after treatment and were, for all treatments, constant during storage time. Quality parameters related to pectinmethylesterase (PME) inactivation, like cloud stability and viscosity, were dependent on the specific treatments that were applied. Mild heat pasteurization was found to result in the most stable orange juice. Results for HP are nearly comparable to PEF except on cloud degradation, where a lower degradation rate was found for HP. For PEF, residual enzyme activity was clearly responsible for changes in viscosity and cloud stability during storage. Industrial relevance: Development of mild processing technologies with a minimal impact on fruit juice can be considered as a true alternative of fresh fruit. The present work presents a fair comparison of mild heat treated, high pressure (HP) and pulsed electric field (PEF) processed orange juice as an alternative for thermal pasteurization. Orange juices were monitored during two months of storage.
Electrification of mobility exceeds personal transport to increasingly focus on particular segments such as city logistics and taxis. These commercial mobility segments have different motives to purchase a full electric vehicle and require a particular approach to incentivize and facilitate the transition towards electric mobility. A case where a municipality was successful in stimulating the transition to electric mobility is the taxi sector in the city of Amsterdam. Using results from a survey study (n = 300), this paper analyses the differences in characteristics between taxi drivers that either have or do not have interest in purchasing a full electric taxi vehicle. Results show a low intention across the sample to adopt a full electric vehicle and no statistically significant differences in demographics between the two groups. Differences were found between the level of acceptability of the covenant, the rated attractiveness of the incentives, the ratings of full electric vehicle attributes and the consultation of objective and social information sources. These results can be used by policy makers to develop new incentives that target specific topics currently influencing the interest in a full electric taxi vehicle.
Electrohydrodynamic Atomization (EHDA), also known as Electrospray (ES), is a technology which uses strong electric fields to manipulate liquid atomization. Among many other areas, electrospray is currently used as an important tool for biomedical applications (droplet encapsulation), water technology (thermal desalination and metal recovery) and material sciences (nanofibers and nano spheres fabrication, metal recovery, selective membranes and batteries). A complete review about the particularities of this technology and its applications was recently published in a special edition of the Journal of Aerosol Sciences [1]. Even though EHDA is already applied in many different industrial processes, there are not many controlling tools commercially available which can be used to remotely operate the system as well as identify some spray characteristics, e.g. droplet size, operational mode, droplet production ratio. The AECTion project proposes the development of an innovative controlling system based on the electrospray current, signal processing & control and artificial intelligence to build a non-visual tool to control and characterize EHDA processes.
At gas stations, tetrahydrothiophene (THT) is added to odorless biogas (and natural gas) for quick leak detection through its distinctive smell. However, for low bio and natural gas velocities, evaporation is not complete and the odorization process is compromised, causing odor fluctuations and undesired liquid accumulation on the pipeline. Inefficient odorization not only endangers the safety and well-being of gas users, but also increases gas distribution companies OPEX. To enhance THT evaporation during low bio and natural gas flow, an alternative approach involves improve the currently used atomization process. Electrohydrodynamic Atomization (EHDA), also known as Electrospray (ES), is a technology that uses strong electric fields to create nano and micro droplets with a narrow size distribution. This relatively new atomization technology can improve the odorization process as it can manipulate droplet sizes according to the natural and bio gas flow. BiomEHD aims to develop, manufacture, and test an EHDA odorization system for applying THT in biogas odorization.
In the road transportation sector, CO2 emission target is set to reduce by at least 45% by 2030 as per the European Green Deal. Heavy Duty Vehicles contribute almost quarter of greenhouse gas emissions from road transport in Europe and drive majorly on fossil fuels. New emission restrictions creates a need for transition towards reduced emission targets. Also, increasing number of emission free zones within Europe, give rise to the need of hybridization within the truck and trailer community. Currently, in majority of the cases the trailer units do not possess any kind of drivetrain to support the truck. Trailers carry high loads, such that while accelerating, high power is needed. On the other hand, while braking the kinetic energy is lost, which otherwise could be recaptured. Thus, having a trailer with electric powertrain can support the truck during traction and can charge the battery during braking, helping in reducing the emissions and fuel consumption. Using the King-pin, the amount of support required by trailer can be determined, making it an independent trailer, thus requiring no modification on the truck. Given the heavy-duty environment in which the King-pin operates, the measurement design around it should be robust, compact and measure forces within certain accuracy level. Moreover, modification done to the King-pin is not apricated. These are also the challenges faced by V-Tron, a leading company in the field of services in mobility domain. The goal of this project is to design a smart King-pin, which is robust, compact and provides force component measurement within certain accuracy, to the independent e-trailer, without taking input from truck, and investigate the energy management system of the independent e-trailer to explore the charging options. As a result, this can help reduce the emissions and fuel consumption.
