Pulsed Electric Field Conditioning for Purification-Oriented Ethanol–Water Leaf Extraction: Translation Indices and Pareto Screening

Pulsed electric field (PEF) extraction studies often report yield gains but less consistently translate them into purification-relevant metrics. This study re-analyzed a locked comparability tier of 56 solvent-matched control (CTR)-PEF contrasts from five leaf-biomass studies to map total phenolic content (TPC) uplift onto first-order downstream duty proxies. The tier was not designed as a field-wide survey, and audit logs plus dependence-aware analyses were used to reduce author bias. Across the 56 pairs, median ΔTPC% was 26.7% (IQR 12.1–35.0), with positive values in 55 of 56 contrasts. The strongest gains were concentrated at low specific energy (Wspec ≤ 0.15 kJ kg−1 treated biomass) and 0–25% ethanol within this dataset. PLRI translated these uplifts into first-order processed-volume scaling at fixed capture criteria, and Pareto screening identified PLRI values of 1.18–1.73, corresponding to approximately 15–42% lower processed volume under the stated assumptions. Marker-level data were limited to two matrices (three paired observations), but SSF values > 1 (1.06–2.89) were consistent with possible composition steering. No new experiments were performed, and ballast, fouling, and downstream performance were not measured; conclusions are therefore limited to the operating envelope and are intended for screening, reporting standardization, and subsequent purification validation.