Electric Field and Pulsed Electricity-Based Technologies for Agricultural Waste Biomass Valorization: Mechanism, Recent Technical Advances, Limitations, and Future Aspect

This chapter presents an overview of recent advances in electro-technologies used in the valorization of agri-food waste biomass. Pulsed electric fields (PEF), high voltage electrical discharges (HVED), ohmic heating (OH), and moderate electric fields (MEF) as extraction technologies for the valorization of agri-food waste biomass are comprehensively described. As a class of green and safe media, deep eutectic solvent (DES) is considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS) and can assist these electro-technologies for the valorization of agricultural waste biomass. Particularly, instrumental design, critical parameters, and recent advances in electro-technologies in waste biomass valorization are highlighted. Numerous high value compounds that are interesting for their technological functions, nutritional properties, or health-promoting attributes have been valorized from various agri-food waste biomass. Furthermore, current limitations involved in the equipment and infrastructure, energy consumption, scalability, process optimization, product selectivity and diversity, and environmental impact assessment remain to be addressed. Finally, future perspectives in the context of agricultural biomass valorization via electric-based techniques are also included.