Compact high voltage nanosecond pulse generator for the preservation of liquid foods

• Main Author: Lim, Xian De
• Other Authors: Tse Man Siu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71260
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Air, water and food are the three main resources required for human survival. Air and water can be found naturally while food has to be hunted for. In the past, food is not as readily available as how it is in present day. Therefore, many methods have been invented to preserve food, extending the shelf-life so as to have some reserves in case of a rainy day. To overcome food spoilage has always been a challenge; techniques such as drying, freezing, smoking, pickling and curing were first discovered to slow down food spoilage. As technology advances, other techniques such as pasteurization, chemical additives, irradiation and pulsed electrical field (PEF) were introduced to further increase the shelf-life of food products. PEF is gaining more recognition as a non-thermal method of sterilization for liquid food due to the increasing demands for food with not only high nutritional values but also fresh-like characteristics. The purpose of this report is to design a compact high voltage nanosecond pulse generator capable of producing a high intensity pulse electrical field with pulse width ranging from 20ns to 50ns and voltage magnitude of up to 1kV.