Maple juice electro-activation in a three-compartmental reactor: Impact on the product pH and Redox potential

In this work, electro-activation of a juice made from maple sap was considered while promoting the acidic environment in the juice as a function of several experimental parameters, namely type of salt in the central compartment of the reactor, concentration of maple juice, electric current intensity and mechanical agitation. The results showed the efficacy of the electro-activation for reducing the pH and increasing the Redox potential. By using a full factorial and central composite design, it was possible to correlate the output parameters such as the Redox potential, temperature, voltage and pH with the input parameters (type of salt in the central compartment; maple juice concentration, electrical current intensity, and the mechanical stirring given by the Froude number). To decrease the maple juice pH in the anodic compartment, the optimization of these parameters showed that a juice concentration of 6%, treated at 300 mA, with a Froude number of 2.05×10−3 was the best treatment. The maximum difference between the pH given by the second degree model and that of each test is 8%, which indicates that this model equation of second order adequately describes the targeted kinetic.