3. Results and discussion
3.1. Ohmic heating process
3.1.1. Ascorbic acid degradation
The initial ascorbic acid content (CAAi), the final ascorbic acid
content (CAAf) and the degradation percentage (DAA) of each experiment
are listed in Table 2. The results show that experiments 2 and 4,
conducted with higher voltages (equivalent to an electric field
strength of 34 V cm1), presented higher DAA, approximately 10%.
Moreover, experiment 7, conducted with the lowest voltage (electric
field strength of 21 V cm1), showed the lowest DAA of approximately
3%. As observed in Table 2, independent of the solids content of the
pulp, lower values of DAAwere obtained using lower voltages.
above 95%.