1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to liquid food sterilization, and more specifically to a new electric spraying sterilization and protein peptide bond cleavage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known approaches for sterilizing materials apply high intensity pulsed electric fields (PEF) to liquids to cause bacteria in the liquids to electroporate and consequently inactivate. As PEF technology requires high intensity pulsed electric voltages, it inevitably involves high energy consumption, high technical requirements for equipment, and risk factors associated with high voltage. More critically, PEF technology fails to ensure uniform electric field intensity for liquids of diverse physical and chemical parameters. When used to sterilize liquid food products, PEF technology can produce unstable and unreliable sterilizing effects.
Chinese patent document CN102224970A discloses an electrospraying sterilization device which is not influenced by the physical and chemical parameters of the liquid. The device includes an electrical source. When a liquid carrying bacteria flows through a voltage connector sleeve, the liquid conducts high voltage to an outlet of a hollow capillary emitter, where bacteria are gradually polarized based on their own electrical and chemical properties. Generally, electric current does not cause bacteria to be killed directly in the voltage connector sleeve. Rather, it is mainly that the bacteria with molecular polarity flow with the liquid. As the liquid passes to the outlet of the hollow capillary emitter, the liquid forms a dynamic Taylor cone under the electric field force. The radius of curvature of the outlet is small enough to be counted on sub-micron level, so that the surface electric field action on the liquid is strong enough to fully polarize the microbial cells with polarity and to thoroughly disrupt them, thereby achieving the sterilizing effect.