Non-Thermal Effect of Pulsed Electric Field on Esterification of Lactic Acid with Ethanol

The effect of pulsed electric field(PEF) treatment under varying conditions of treatment time,flow rate and ethanol/lactic acid ratio on esterification between lactic acid and ethanol was investigated in this study.Meanwhile,the thermal effect and non-thermal effects of PEF treatment were also compared.The results indicated that the reaction was enhanced with decreasing flow rate or increasing single treatment time.When the molar ratio between ethanol and lactic acid was increased from 0.5:1 to 2:1,the yield of ethyl lactate was increased gradually.The non-effect of PEF treatment on esterification accounted for 69.4% of the total effect within 10 h.