Emerging Technologies for Food Processing, 2nd Edition

22.3. Electrical Conductivity

Electrical conductivity is the main parameter in heating rate and in ohmic heating treatment. The conductivity is measured by the quantity of electricity transferred across a unit area, per unit potential gradient, and per unit time. It is defined for electrolytes, isotropic solids, and liquids. Biological materials are one of the largest classes of poor heat conductors. Typically, the electrical conductivity of a solution is the sum contribution of individual ions, molar equivalent concentrations of individual ions, and molar equivalent conductivity (Robinson and Stokes, 1959). These authors (Robinson and Stokes, 1959) present a few values of molar equivalent conductivity obtained by electrical measurements of the ...