Cavitation and non-cavitation regime for large-scale ultrasonic standing wave particle separation systems – In situ gentle cavitation threshold determination and free radical related oxidation

•Pros and cons of particle manipulation in cavitation and non-cavitation regime.•Luminol emittance for in situ determination of the system cavitation threshold.•Lipid oxidation as one potential cavitation implication for milk fat separation.•The parameter space for large-scale particle separation in non-cavitation regime. We here suggest a novel and straightforward approach for liter-scale ultrasound particle manipulation standing wave systems to guide system design in terms of frequency and acoustic power for operating in either cavitation or non-cavitation regimes for ultrasound standing wave systems, using the sonochemiluminescent chemical luminol. We show that this method offers a simple way of in situ determination of the cavitation threshold for selected separation vessel geometry. Since the pressure field is system specific the cavitation threshold is system specific (for the threshold parameter range). In this study we discuss cavitation effects and also measure one implication of cavitation for the application of milk fat separation, the degree of milk fat lipid oxidation by headspace volatile measurements. For the evaluated vessel, 2MHz as opposed to 1MHz operation enabled operation in non-cavitation or low cavitation conditions as measured by the luminol intensity threshold method. In all cases the lipid oxidation derived volatiles were below the human sensory detection level. Ultrasound treatment did not significantly influence the oxidative changes in milk for either 1MHz (dose of 46kJ/L and 464kJ/L) or 2MHz (dose of 37kJ/L and 373kJ/L) operation.