A STUDY ON THE KINETICS OF OXYGEN REDUCTION FOCOAR
In poor oxygenated environments the oxidation and growth of the living organisms are slowed or stopped, so that food is better preserved. The most appropriate method for oxygen depletion in the air-tight minienvironment is oxygen reduction with iron-based reducing agent, which can reduce the air oxygen concentration to about 0 %, and maintain this low oxygen concentration long during storage. This paper studies the kinetics of oxygen reduction by reducing agent FOCOAR in an airtight minienvironment under isobaric conditions. The kinetics of the reduction process calculated according to the relation vav = [21 % - (end) ] / tend, in which vav is average reduction rate, (end) is oxygen concentration at the end of the experiment, tend is total time needed for the oxygen reduction experiment. Instantaneous reduction rate vred was calculated according to equation vred = ∆/△t, in which ∆is oxygen concentration reduced in time △t, and △t = ti+1 - ti is time interval for oxygen reduction. It is found that vav depends on the quantity of reducing agent FOCOAR, and in certain time interval varies as linear function of reduction time, corresponding to constant vred. The kinetic result allows an estimating the amount of the reducing agent FOCOAR needed for a preserve minienvironment.