Performance analyses for evaporation of pomegranate juice in ohmic heating assisted vacuum system

Pomegranate juice having 17.5% total soluble solids (TSS) content was evaporated to 40%TSS by ohmic heating assisted vacuum evaporation (OVE; 7.5 V/cm, 10 V/cm and 12.5 V/cm) and vacuum evaporation (VE) methods. Thermodynamics' first law and second law analyses were conducted for different TSS contents (20-40%) by taking into account of two different control boundaries; in terms of process boundary (PB) and system boundary (SB). Energy efficiency, specific water removal rate (SWRR) and exergy efficiency reached maximum values for 30% TSS content, then it decreased. It was determined that energetic and exergetic efficiencies of SB were lower than those of PB. For the same TSS content, exergy efficiency value increased and improvement potential (IP) value decreased as the voltage gradient increased. Since highest energy consumption (5844.20 ± 29.89 J) was determined at 40% TSS content for 7.5 V/cm (p < 0.05) this process condition need the improvement most. It can be concluded that OVE method used the energy more efficiently than VE method for the purpose of the concentration of pomegranate juice.