Ohmic-assisted hydrodistillation of citronella oil from Taiwanese citronella grass: Impacts on the essential oil and extraction medium

Ohmic-assisted hydrodistillation is a promising extraction technique to enhance the product quality and to reduce the production time and consumed energy. This innovative technique has the potential of increasing the production capacity and decreasing the production cost for essential oil and distillatory industries. However, this study revealed the occurrence of electrochemical reactions between electrodes and extraction media which resulted in metal ion migration and residue pollution. Therefore, selecting appropriate materials as the OAHD electrodes, optimizing the process parameters and careful handling of the production waste should be considered for industrial application of this emerging method.