Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
688009 | Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification | 2015 | 8 Pages |
•Energy consumption in microwave heating processes strongly varies with the scale.•Energy consumption profile with scale is independent of the process.•Large scale energy consumption can be inferred from lab-scale consumption values.
The specific energy consumption of six different microwave-driven processes and equipments has been studied and it was found that the scale used dramatically affects it. Increasing the amount of sample employed from 5 to 100 g leads to a reduction in the specific energy consumption of 90–95%. When the amount of sample is 200 g or higher, the specific energy consumption remains practically constant. This means that to assess the real energy efficiency of a microwave-driven process a minimum mass of about 200 g needs to be used. The energy results can then be easily extrapolated to larger scales. Otherwise, a correlation should be used to avoid overestimated energy values and inaccurate energy efficiencies.
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