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Creating a fluidic system with an induced electrical field is regarded as an innovative, eco-friendly practice for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass at mild conditions. A multi-series, reconfigurable fluidic reactor was developed based on the transformer concept for the efficient hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse via the interconversion of magnetic and electrical energy. A secondary coil comprised of a mixture of sulfuric acid (or other metal electrolyte) and the sample in continuous flow was exposed to an induced electric field at 400–700 Hz to accelerate the hydrolysis. The results showed that using an induced electric field to assist hydrolysis is indeed beneficial in the production of reducing sugar (RS). The total reducing sugar (TRS) yield is positively impacted by the excitation voltage but is negatively impacted by voltage frequency and the sample solution impedance. The hydrolysis efficiency improves as the number of reactors increases in both series and parallel modes of the system. The mode of connection of the reactors has varying effect on the TRS yield owing to differences in the equivalent impedance, output power, and load power factor. Increased number of secondary coil turns also improves hydrolysis efficiency under the same input power and primary coil turns and thus increasing the TRS yield. Induced-electric-field-assisted hydrolysis (IEFAH) substantially enhances the yield (by 756% approximately, at 300 V, 400 Hz in a 4-series reactors for 24 h) compared to continuous flow heating hydrolysis (CFHH) at mild conditions (50 °C and 1% H 2 SO 4 ). The proposed fluidic system combined with an induced electric field shows remarkable potential as a green technology for the efficient hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomasses without the use of metal electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, new snacks using alternative raw materials and ingredients are the critical driving forces for the snack food industry development. Wheat is an abundant cereal resource with the potential for chips making. In the present study, protease-treated wheat flour improved the quality of wheat chips by weakening the gluten strength of dough and reducing the chips' hardness from 6019 ± 306 N to 785 ± 200 N. The optimal enzymatic hydrolysis parameters were established as 1.44 × 104 U bromelain/100 g flour at 50 °C for 60 min. Bromelain significantly reduced the polymeric proteins content (from 15.81 ± 0.52% to 0.82 ± 0.03%) and glutenin macropolymer (GMP, from 14.95 ± 0.23% to 2.06 ± 0.05%), swelling power, gelatinization enthalpy (from 8.82 ± 0.39 to 7.31 ± 0.27 J/g), and viscosities, but increased the solubility (from 3.9 ± 0.1% to 12.8 ± 0.7%) of wheat flour. Moreover, protease hydrolysis significantly decreased the elastic modulus and viscous modulus (P < 0.05); values and the gluten network in the protease-treated dough showed different degradation degrees. The reconstituted wheat chips proved that GMP was the main factor affecting the chip hardness. The present study suggests that protease hydrolysis, especially bromelain, has great potential as a flour modification technology for producing baked wheat chips. • Wheat flour treated with protease improved the quality of wheat chips. • The optimal enzymatic hydrolysis parameters were: 1.44 × 104 U/100 g flour at 50 °C for 60 min. • Protease hydrolysis weakened the gluten strength and changed the starch properties. • Bromelain showed stronger hydrolytic effect on wheat proteins and rheological properties. • Glutenin macropolymer played a key role in the hardness of wheat chips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]