Special Issue "New Advances in Microwave Technologies and Its Applications"

A special issue of Technologies (ISSN 2227-7080). This special issue belongs to the section "Innovations in Materials Processing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2022) | Viewed by 10836

Special Issue Editors

DIMANT (Design of Innovative Materials for New Technologies), Department of Engineering "Enzo Ferrari", Via Vivarelli 10, 41125 Modena, Italy
Interests: microwave processing of materials; microwave applicator design; powder metallurgy; numerical simulation of electroheat processes; high entropy alloys; nonferrous alloys; heat treatment of metals
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Microwave Technologies Consulting, Lyon, France
Interests: microwaves; scale-up; microwave plasma; microwave-assisted synthesis; microwave drying; microwave-assisted extraction; sterilization; pasteurization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microwave-assisted processes are currently undergoing investigation for applications in a number of fields where the advantages of microwave energy may lead to significant savings in energy consumption, process time, and environmental remediation. Design limitations dictated by the operation of magnetron microwave generators have to be taken into consideration when working with applicators/reactors based on such generators, especially in the context of continuous manufacturing, for which the industry is adopting rigorous and robust measures to minimize risks and avoid batch failures. As such, there is a necessity to explore new reactor concepts by emphasizing on dedicated designs that assure controllability and monitoring of the process conditions. The recent advent of high power microwave solid state generators as well as the opening of new opportunities for processing materials has the potential to address these issues especially at lab scale and implicitly, in resulting industrial applications. This Special Issue is intended to present an update on emerging fields of applications of microwave technology, as well as on consolidated applications which are now benefiting from the use of the microwave technology. The Special Issue is focused on technologies, and hence, papers addressing microwave sources and applicators, modelling of microwave processing of materials, control and improvement of heating homogeneity, optimization of energy efficiency, achievement of unique products, and scale-up of research results are particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Paolo Veronesi
Dr. Marilena Radoiu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Technologies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • microwave processing
  • solid state generators
  • scale-up
  • modelling
  • heating homogeneity
  • energy efficiency
  • bioresources
  • environment
  • cosmetics
  • chemistry
  • biochemistry
  • food
  • agriculture
  • materials
  • plasma

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Article
Improvement in Wear Resistance of Grade 37 Titanium by Microwave Plasma Oxy-Carburizing
Technologies 2023, 11(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies11010013 - 12 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 611
Abstract
Grade 37 titanium is widely used in racing applications thanks to its oxidation resistance up to 650 °C, but it suffers from poor wear and fretting resistance, especially at high temperature. In this paper, different surface modification techniques, namely, carburizing, coating by PVD-ZrO [...] Read more.
Grade 37 titanium is widely used in racing applications thanks to its oxidation resistance up to 650 °C, but it suffers from poor wear and fretting resistance, especially at high temperature. In this paper, different surface modification techniques, namely, carburizing, coating by PVD-ZrO2 and a novel microwave plasma oxy-carburizing treatment, are investigated in terms of hardness, wear resistance and scratch hardness, compared to the untreated substrate. Numerical simulation allowed optimization of the design of the microwave plasma source, which operated at 2.45 GHz at atmospheric pressure. The proposed microwave plasma oxy-carburizing treatment is localized and can serve to improve the tribological properties of selected regions of the sample; compared to untreated Grade 37 titanium, the oxy-carburized layer presents a decrease in the wear rate at 450 °C against alumina of 54% and an increase in scratch hardness of more than three times. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Microwave Technologies and Its Applications)
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Article
Numerical Simulation and Optimization of Microwave Heating Effect on Coal Seam Permeability Enhancement
Technologies 2022, 10(3), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies10030070 - 06 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1369
Abstract
In coal mining operations, coalbed methane is one of the potential hazards that must be extracted to prevent an explosion of the accumulated gas and environmental pollution. One of the mechanisms is using microwave irradiation so that the thermal stress caused by microwave [...] Read more.
In coal mining operations, coalbed methane is one of the potential hazards that must be extracted to prevent an explosion of the accumulated gas and environmental pollution. One of the mechanisms is using microwave irradiation so that the thermal stress caused by microwave heating generates fractures. In this research, we investigated the most important parameters affecting the electric and thermal fields’ distribution in coal in order to identify the effective parameters that achieve the highest temperature increase rate and to reach the highest impact and efficiency of the system with the least amount of consumed energy. In this paper, using Maxwell equations, heat transfer, mass transfer and coupling them by COMSOL, we have simulated the radiation of electromagnetic field and heat in the cavity and coal, and we have also shown the temperature dispersion inside the coal. The parameters studied included the amount of coal moisture (type of coal), operating frequency, input power and heating time, location of the waveguide, the size of the waveguide and the location of the coal, and finally the parameters were re-examined in a secondary standard cavity to separate the parameters related to the size of the environment and the cavity from the independent parameters. The results of this study show that the most effective parameter on the electric and thermal fields’ distribution within coal is the size of the resonance chamber. Additionally, the results show that the moisture of 5%, the highest input power and cutoff frequency close to the operating frequency cause the highest average temperature inside the coal, but many parameters such as operating frequency, waveguide location and coal location should be selected depending on the chamber size. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Microwave Technologies and Its Applications)
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Article
Microwave Plasma System for Continuous Treatment of Railway Track
Technologies 2020, 8(4), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies8040054 - 14 Oct 2020
Viewed by 2994
Abstract
Braking conditions are a fundamental issue for the railway and have been a limiting factor in network capacity and timetabling. Leaf fall, especially during the autumn season, creates low-adhesion problems on railways, causing braking problems for trains. To address the requirements of the [...] Read more.
Braking conditions are a fundamental issue for the railway and have been a limiting factor in network capacity and timetabling. Leaf fall, especially during the autumn season, creates low-adhesion problems on railways, causing braking problems for trains. To address the requirements of the novel plasma industrial applications towards environmental applications, this work developed and tested a 2.45 GHz microwave atmospheric pressure plasma system for in situ removal of the third body layer deposited onto the railway so as to improve braking. The plasma reactor consisted of a 15 kW, 2.45 GHz magnetron-based microwave generator and a plasma reactor (dielectric tube placed in a TE01 monomode microwave cavity); the atmospheric plasma ignited and sustained at different power levels (2–15 kW) in different gases (nitrogen, argon) as well as mixtures of these gases with reactive molecules (water, oxygen) was jetted directly onto the railhead as to change the conditions for the wheel–rail interface. This technology is hoped to be a game-changer in enabling predictable and optimized braking on the railway network. Challenges encountered during the demonstration phase are discussed. Subsequent work should validate the results on a working railway line during the autumn season. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Microwave Technologies and Its Applications)
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Article
Microwave-Assisted Industrial Scale Cannabis Extraction
Technologies 2020, 8(3), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies8030045 - 21 Aug 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5095
Abstract
Cannabis is a flowering plant that has long been used for medicinal, therapeutic, and recreational purposes. Cannabis contains more than 500 different compounds, including a unique class of terpeno-phenolic compounds known as cannabinoids. Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the most [...] Read more.
Cannabis is a flowering plant that has long been used for medicinal, therapeutic, and recreational purposes. Cannabis contains more than 500 different compounds, including a unique class of terpeno-phenolic compounds known as cannabinoids. Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the most extensively studied cannabinoids. They have been associated with the therapeutic and medicinal properties of the cannabis plant and also with its popularity as a recreational drug. In this paper, an industrial method for cannabis extraction using 915 MHz microwaves coupled with continuous flow operation is presented. The main advantages of the microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) are associated to the continuous-flow operation at atmospheric pressure which allows for higher volumes of biomass to be processed in less time than existing extraction methods, with improved extraction efficiency leading to increased final product yields, improved extract consistency and quality because the process does not require stopping and restarting material flows, and ease of scale-up to industrial scale without the use of pressurised batch vessels. Moreover, due to the flexibility of changing the operation conditions, MAE eliminates additional steps required in most extraction methods, such as biomass decarboxylation or winterisation, which typically adds at least a half day to the extraction process. Another factor that sets MAE apart is the ability to achieve high extraction efficiency, i.e., up to 95% of the active compounds from cannabis biomass can be recovered at industrial scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Advances in Microwave Technologies and Its Applications)
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