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Potential Life Cycle Carbon Savings for Immersion Freezing of Water by Power Ultrasound

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Abstract

Since the food cold chain produces large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), its carbon footprint (CF) has caused widespread concern. The process of freezing, one of the most common operations, is used in numerous food processes, and new freezing methods appear constantly. Ultrasound-assisted immersion freezing is an emerging technique that can significantly improve product quality compared to the conventional immersion freezing. In the current study, the CFs of conventional immersion freezing and ultrasound-assisted immersion freezing were investigated according to the principle of life cycle assessment (LCA). The freezing time of 1 mL of deionized water in a flask was 264 ± 15 s for conventional freezing, while the time of 1 mL of deionized water in a flask for the ultrasonic-assisted freezing could be lowered to 188 ± 5, 182 ± 5, 193 ± 6, and 201 ± 8 s under the four ultrasonic frequencies of 28, 40, 50, and 80 kHz, respectively. By improving heat transfer and enhancing ice nucleation, the freezing time of ultrasonic-assisted freezing was reduced significantly (P < 0.05) compared to conventional immersion freezing. In addition, electricity use and carbon emissions from electricity use at four frequency levels were reduced significantly (P < 0.05) compared to conventional immersion freezing. The final CFs of the freezing process for 1 mL of frozen water were 11.65 ± 0.52, 9.16 ± 0.24, 8.95 ± 0.17, 9.33 ± 0.22, and 9.60 ± 0.27E−5 kgCO2eq (equivalent) for the control, 28, 40, 50, and 80 kHz, respectively. Most of the final product CF was related to electricity and the flask used, contributing 78.1 and 19.7 % respectively for the conventional freezing, and about 70 and 25 % respectively for the ultrasound-assisted freezing. This research demonstrated that ultrasonic-assisted freezing as an emerging technology could not only improve the food quality but can also reduce the CF of a product. In addition, sensitivity analysis showed that the use of flask and improving the electricity use efficiency could decrease the carbon emissions of the product significantly.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Guangdong Province Government (China) for its support through the program “Leading Talent of Guangdong Province (Da-Wen Sun)”. This research was also supported by the International S&T Cooperation Programme of China (2015DFA71150), the International S&T Cooperation Projects of Guangdong Province (2013B051000010), the Key Projects of Administration of Ocean and Fisheries of Guangdong Province (A201401C04), and the Collaborative Innovation Major Special Projects of Guangzhou City (201508020097).

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Xu, Z., Sun, DW. & Zhu, Z. Potential Life Cycle Carbon Savings for Immersion Freezing of Water by Power Ultrasound. Food Bioprocess Technol 9, 69–80 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-015-1633-6

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