• Various molecular, atomic, and nuclear resonances occur at microwave frequencies,

creating a variety of unique applications in the areas of basic science, remote sensing,
medical diagnostics and treatment, and heating methods.

Today, the majority of applications of microwaves are related to radar and communication
systems. Radar systems are used for detecting and locating targets and for air traffic control
systems, missile tracking radars, automobile collision avoidance systems, weather prediction,
motion detectors, and a wide variety of remote sensing systems.

Microwave communication systems handle a large fraction of the world’s international and other
long haul telephone, data and television transmissions.

Most of the currently developing wireless telecommunications systems, such as direct broadcast
satellite (DBS) television, personal communication systems (PCSs), wireless local area networks
(WLANS), cellular video (CV) systems, and global positioning satellite (GPS) systems rely
heavily on microwave technology.

Concerning chemical applications, especially, microwave-assisted organic chemistry, two

pioneering publications from the groups of R. Gedye and R.J. Giguere (1986) are cited as the
first experimental works in this field. The authors described several reactions that were carried
out in sealed glass of Teflon vessels in domestic microwave oven. In particular it was shown that
hydrolysis of benzamide in such conditions proceeds faster and gives higher yield comparing
with conventional thermal heating:
Microwave heating
The principles of microwave heating as applied to industrial processing are outlined and the
basic design of applicators for material processing is described. Industrial applications range
from food tempering to rubber vulcanisation and from vacuum drying to sintering of ceramics.
Established applications to date are summarised.
By A.C. Metaxas
Microwave heating is a process within a family of electroheat techniques, such as induction,
radio frequency, direct resistance or infra-red heating, all of which utilise specific parts of the
electromagnetic spectrum. These processes supplement, and in specific cases totally replace,
conventional heating or drying systems used in industry. This is because some conventional
systems are very bulky, not easy to operate, can pollute the environment due to harmful
omissions and above all can be very inefficient.
The major advantages of using microwaves for industrial processing are rapid heat transfer,
volumetric and selective heating, compactness of equipment, speed of switching on and off and
pollution-free environment as there are no products of combustion. Microwave leakage can
certainly be kept well below government recommended levels.
Fundamentals of microwave heating
Dielectric loss
It has long been established that a dielectric material can be processed with energy in the form of
high-frequency electromagnetic waves. There are many distinct frequency bands which have
been allocated for industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) use, as shown in Table 1, with the
principal frequencies centred at 896 MHz (915 MHz in the USA) and 2450 MHz for which
equipment can be readily purchased.
In this frequency regime there are primarily two physical mechanisms through which energy can
be transferred to a non-metallic material. At the lower microwave frequencies conductive
currents flowing within the material due to the movement of ionic constituents, such as salts for
example, can transfer energy from the microwave field to the material. This loss mechanism is
characterised by an equivalent dielectric conductivity term σ, giving effectively a loss parameter
of σ/ωεο.
At the other end of the microwave heating spectrum, around 3000 MHz, the energy absorption is
primarily due to the existence of permanent dipole molecules which tend to re-orientate under
the influence of a microwave electric field, as shown in the inset of Fig. 1. This re-orientation
loss mechanism originates from the inability of the polarisation to follow extremely rapid
reversals of the electric field. At such high frequencies therefore the resulting polarisation phasor
lags the applied electric field. This ensures that the resulting current density has a component in
phase with the field, and therefore power is dissipated in the dielectric material.
Table 1 Frequency allocation for industrial, medical and scientific (ISM) purposes in the
range 433.92 MHz to 40 GHz
Frequency Frequency Area permitted
MHz tolerance + or -
433.92 0-2% Austria, The Netherlands, Portugal, West Germany, Switzerland
896 10 MHz UK
915 13 MHz North and South America
2375 50 MHz Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania Czechoslovakia, USSR
2450 50 MHz worldwide except where 2375 MHz is used
3390 0-6% The Netherlands
5800 75 MHz worldwide
6780 0-6% The Netherlands
24150 125 MHz worldwide
40680 UK
Source adapted from Ref. 2The loss mechanism is characterised by the relative loss factor term
ε˝, which is part of the complex relative permittivity, whereas absolute permittivity is given by ε
= εοε*. The two components of the complex relative permittivity shown plotted as a function of
the frequency in Fig. 1, for a dipolar liquid or for a wet dielectric, where the losses at microwave
frequencies are due to re-orientation polarisation. The conductivity effects of ionic species,
shown by the light blue response, dominate at radio frequencies, while the combined loss is
shown by the red respons
Microwave heating has been established in some key industries. The brief description below
highlights the most important applications to date, making reference to Fig.13 where
appropriate1,2. This review does not include chemical applications where great strides have
already been made, particular in organic synthesis8.

Food tempering

Meat, fish, fruit, butter and other foodstuffs can be tempered for cold store temperature to around
-3ºC for ease of further processing such as grinding the meat in the production of burgers or
blending and portioning butter packs. The industrial customer cannot eradicate waste from errors
in long-term forecasting demand where, for example, too much or too little meat tempered
resulted in either wasted meat or lost custom. A typical continuous system is shown in Fig. 7.

Pre-heating for rubber vulcanisation

The temperature of rubber extrusions can rapidly and uniformly be brought up using microwave
energy to the required level, for cross-linking of the bonds to commence. The latter process is
then carried out using hot air or infra-red energy, as shown by route 1 in Fig.12.
Apart from continuous vulcanisation using modular systems, as shown in Fig. 9, microwaves
have been used in batch systems either on a small scale or in multi-magnetron systems to heat
blocks of rubber of up to several hundred kg in weight.

Drying

Atmospheric pressure: A host of materials from textiles to ceramics and from coated paper to
leather have been dried using microwaves, usually in combination with conventional systems as
shown by route 2 in Fig. 13. The drying of pasta is an established application comprising three
stages involving microwaves and hot air in various combinations, to give improved sanitation
and better control as well as quality. Other examples include the drying of onions, parsnips,
snack foods (with subsequent expansion as described above in puffing of pellets), fabrics,
leather, ceramic cores and moulds and ceramic wares.

Vacuum drying: Some materials are heat sensitive and cannot be dried at atmospheric pressure.
It is necessary to reduce the pressure to reduce the boiling point and effect drying at a reduced
temperature. A modest vacuum around 100-200 mm Hg is necessary where the formation of a
microwave plasma or arc can still be avoided. Notable examples are the drying of fruit juices,
beverages, drugs and pharmaceutical pellets.

Heating and cooking

Many foodstuffs have been cooked by microwaves for various stages of processing. Examples
include bacon cooking in a combination system, meat coagulation to upgrade scrap and doughnut
cooking for frying.

Pasteurisation and sterilisation

Food products, such as bread, precooked foods and animal feedstuffs have been processed using
microwaves for pasteurisation or sterilisation or simply to improve their digestibility. Specific
examples include the sterilisation of bonemeal and the processing of barley to achieve starch to
gelatine conversion. Food pasteurisation of sealed packs under pressure can be effected by
microwave energy, however, as with most pasteurisation processes the product after treatment
needs rapid cooling to avoid infestation, as shown by route 3 in Fig. 13.

Potential applications
There are a host of potential microwave applications awaiting better economic conditions to
either e revived or be developed further. These include the following areas: food processing,
asphalt hole patcher, vitrification of nuclear wastes, treatment of highly toxic substances, waster
recover of plastics, pyrolysis, heating of resins, polymerisation, heating of oil sands and the
processing of minerals.

Apart from drying other areas of interest in ceramic processing with microwaves include slip
casting, sintering of a wide range of ceramics and composites, joining and calcining of
superconductors or electroceramics. Microwave energy is presently being used for providing
additional heating to the plasma used in thermonuclear fusion reactors and for etching
semiconductor products1. OTHER ELECTRICAL ENERGY IR etc INFRARED HOT AIR or
STEAM or AIR JETS

31

RF OR MICROWAVE 2

23

VACUUM4

Fig.13 Hybrid systems

Economics
Current HOT AIR OR STEAM HEAT RECOVER

Y
APPLICATOR CHOKE COOLER PRESSURE

Most organic reactions requiring heat have been heated using traditional heat transfer equipment
such as oil baths, sand baths or heating mantles. These techniques are rather slow and create a
temperature gradient within the sample. Moreover, the hot surface of the reaction vessel may
result in localized overheating leading to product, substrate and reagent decomposition when
heated for prolonged periods. In contrast, when using microwave dielectric heating the energy is
introduced into the chemical reactor remotely and there is no direct contact between the energy
source and the reaction mixture. Microwave radiation passes through the walls of the vessel
heating the contents directly by taking advantage of the ability of some liquids and solids to
transform electromagnetic radiation into heat.
A properly designed vessel will not heat under microwave irradiation and the
energy will be deposited directly into the reaction mixture. This can lead to a
very rapid temperature increase throughout the sample that may lead to less
byproducts and/or decomposition products. Furthermore, the lack of direct
contact between the energy source and the sample facilitates reaction optimization
by enabling immediate changes to the reaction conditions without the need to
wait for the heat source to recalibrate.
Basically, here is how it works: As shown in Figure 1, electricity from the wall outlet travels
through the power cord and enters the microwave oven through a series of fuse and safety
protection circuits. These circuits include various fuses and thermal protectors that are designed
to deactivate the oven in the event of an electrical short or if an overheating condition occurs

If all systems are normal, the electricity passes through to the interlock and timer circuits. When
then oven door is closed, an electrical path is also established through a series of safety interlock
switches . Setting the oven timer and starting a cook operation extends this voltage path to the
control circuits .

Generally, the control system includes either an electromechanical relay or an electronic switch
called a triac as shown in Figure 2 . Sensing that all systems are "go," the control circuit
generates a signal that causes the relay or triac to activate, thereby producing a voltage path to
the high-voltage transformer . By adjusting the on-off ratio of this activation signal, the control
system can govern the application of voltage to the high-voltage transformer, thereby controlling
the on-off ratio of the magnetron tube and therefore the output power of the microwave oven.
Some models use a fast-acting power-control relay in the high-voltage circuit to control the
output power.

In the high-voltage section ( Figure 3 ), the high-voltage transformer along with a special diode
and capacitor arrangement serve to increase the typical household voltage, of about 115 volts, to
the shockingly high amount of approximately 3000 volts! While this powerful voltage would be
quite unhealthy -- even deadly -- for humans, it is just what the magnetron tube needs to do its
job -- that is, to dynamically convert the high voltage in to undulating waves of electromagnetic
cooking energy.

The microwave energy is transmitted into a metal channel called a waveguide , which feeds the
energy into the cooking area where it encounters the slowly revolving metal blades of the stirrer
blade . Some models use a type of rotating antenna while others rotate the food through the
waves of energy on a revolving carousel. In any case, the effect is to evenly disperse the
microwave energy throughout all areas of the cooking compartment. Some waves go directly
toward the food, others bounce off the metal walls and flooring; and, thanks to special metal
screen, microwaves also reflect off the door. So, the microwave energy reaches all surfaces of
the food from every direction.
All microwave energy remains inside the cooking cavity. When the door is opened, or the timer
reaches zero, the microwave energy stops--just as turning off a light switch stops the glow of the
lamp