CA3108130A1 - Apparatus and method for vacuum microwave-dehydrating of organic materials - Google Patents

Apparatus and method for vacuum microwave-dehydrating of organic materials Download PDF

Info

Publication number
CA3108130A1
CA3108130A1 CA3108130A CA3108130A CA3108130A1 CA 3108130 A1 CA3108130 A1 CA 3108130A1 CA 3108130 A CA3108130 A CA 3108130A CA 3108130 A CA3108130 A CA 3108130A CA 3108130 A1 CA3108130 A1 CA 3108130A1
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
organic material
rotary drum
microwave
conveyor belt
vacuum chamber
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
CA3108130A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Shi Ning Guo
Jing Yu Guo
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to CA3108130A priority Critical patent/CA3108130A1/en
Publication of CA3108130A1 publication Critical patent/CA3108130A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • FMECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F26DRYING
    • F26BDRYING SOLID MATERIALS OR OBJECTS BY REMOVING LIQUID THEREFROM
    • F26B5/00Drying solid materials or objects by processes not involving the application of heat
    • F26B5/04Drying solid materials or objects by processes not involving the application of heat by evaporation or sublimation of moisture under reduced pressure, e.g. in a vacuum
    • FMECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F26DRYING
    • F26BDRYING SOLID MATERIALS OR OBJECTS BY REMOVING LIQUID THEREFROM
    • F26B11/00Machines or apparatus for drying solid materials or objects with movement which is non-progressive
    • F26B11/02Machines or apparatus for drying solid materials or objects with movement which is non-progressive in moving drums or other mainly-closed receptacles
    • F26B11/04Machines or apparatus for drying solid materials or objects with movement which is non-progressive in moving drums or other mainly-closed receptacles rotating about a horizontal or slightly-inclined axis
    • FMECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F26DRYING
    • F26BDRYING SOLID MATERIALS OR OBJECTS BY REMOVING LIQUID THEREFROM
    • F26B17/00Machines or apparatus for drying materials in loose, plastic, or fluidised form, e.g. granules, staple fibres, with progressive movement
    • F26B17/02Machines or apparatus for drying materials in loose, plastic, or fluidised form, e.g. granules, staple fibres, with progressive movement with movement performed by belts carrying the materials; with movement performed by belts or elements attached to endless belts or chains propelling the materials over stationary surfaces
    • F26B17/04Machines or apparatus for drying materials in loose, plastic, or fluidised form, e.g. granules, staple fibres, with progressive movement with movement performed by belts carrying the materials; with movement performed by belts or elements attached to endless belts or chains propelling the materials over stationary surfaces the belts being all horizontal or slightly inclined
    • FMECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F26DRYING
    • F26BDRYING SOLID MATERIALS OR OBJECTS BY REMOVING LIQUID THEREFROM
    • F26B3/00Drying solid materials or objects by processes involving the application of heat
    • F26B3/32Drying solid materials or objects by processes involving the application of heat by development of heat within the materials or objects to be dried, e.g. by fermentation or other microbiological action
    • F26B3/34Drying solid materials or objects by processes involving the application of heat by development of heat within the materials or objects to be dried, e.g. by fermentation or other microbiological action by using electrical effects
    • F26B3/347Electromagnetic heating, e.g. induction heating or heating using microwave energy

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Molecular Biology (AREA)
  • Microbiology (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Electromagnetism (AREA)
  • Biomedical Technology (AREA)
  • Biotechnology (AREA)
  • Drying Of Solid Materials (AREA)

Abstract

This invention relates to an apparatus and method, namely a continuous vacuum microwave dehydrator, to evaporate water from water containing organic materials by means of microwave and vacuum. The vacuum chamber has an inlet port for the introduction of the organic material to be dehydrated and a discharge port for removal of the dehydrated organic material. The apparatus has at lease 2 microwave sources and microwave transparent windows on the top of the vacuum chamber for transmission of microwave radiation from microwave sources into the vacuum chamber. In the vacuum chamber, a combination of a conveyor belt and a rotary drum handling soft, sticky or crispy organic material to be dehydrated is provided.

Description

Patent:
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR VACUUM MICROWAVE-DEHYDRATING OF
ORGANIC MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION
Field of the invention The invention pertains to apparatus and method for vacuum microwave dehydrating of organic materials such as fruits and dairy products.
Background of the invention The dehydration of various organic materials by exposure to microwave radiation at reduced atmospheric pressures is well known. Vacuum microwave dehydration processes may accordingly permit dehydration to occur in the absence or reduction of oxygen, and without exposing the material that is being dehydrated to significantly elevated temperatures, thereby yielding dried products that may have better physical, organoleptic and/or chemical qualities as compared to dried products obtained using other known dehydration processes such as hot air drying.
Beyond the apparatus for the purpose of research and pilot trial, to commercial scale production equipment, organic materials such as agricultural products are often done at a reduced pressure in a pressure tight dry chamber in which one or more microwave heating sources are arranged. Liquid products are usually pumped into the drying chamber for treatment where they are evenly distributed on an endless conveyor belt which guides them past the microwave heating sources from loading end of the drying chamber to the discharge end, as presented in the patent US4045639A and EP292053361. In these apparatuses, the electrical field increases as the amount of energy absorbed by the quantity of product present decreases, this decrease being due to evaporation and removal of the water as heating progresses. The critical value of the electrical field is thus reached quickly, and to prevent the ionisation that would result there from the electrical field, microwave power must be reduced, which leads to a decrease in the rate of drying and the use of the apparatus below its maximum yield. To avoid the issue of ionisation without reducing microwave power, one idea is to introduce recycling water load to absorb extra Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-04 microwave power as present in the patent CA2781644C. But a big portion of the microwave power will be wasted on the water load.
On the other hand, due to natural unevenness of the organic products, such as varieties on sizes, shapes and moisture content, it is difficult to get uniform final product from a conveyor belt in terms of moisture content. Since microwave field distribution in the vacuum microwave dryer can never be even, uneven drying is a common issue to belt type vacuum microwave dehydrators.
Mainly for obtaining evenly dried products, tumbling type of vacuum microwave dehydrators are also widely used in commercial applications. Patent US 10, 178, 873 B2 and EP0113900B1 present similar concepts in which the product is tumbled in rotary drums. The difference between the 2 ideas is whether the drums, as material carriers, stay in the vacuum microwave chamber or be loaded in and out from the vacuum microwave chamber with organic products. But many organic products are not suitable for tumbling, especially if they are in high moisture contained (like watermelon chops), sticky (like fruit pulps) or crispy (like tofu or cheese chips). The tumbling type of vacuum microwave has the same issue as belt type vacuum microwave dehydrators that microwave power has to be reduced when organic products getting lower moisture to avoid ionisation and product burning, which leads to a decrease in the rate of drying and the use of the apparatus below its maximum yield.
The key factor which permits the apparatus and method innovation of this patent is the specific layout and concurrent use of both tumbling and belt type vacuum microwave drying, enabling the ability to dry organic materials of almost all physical properties, including liquid, pulp, solid and bulk.
Brief description of the invention According to the present invention, there is a vacuum microwave dehydrator for the continuous evaporation of a moisture containing material and preferably for the dehydration of water containing organic materials.
In accordance with the invention, the vacuum microwave dehydrating apparatus comprises a housing forming a closed elongated space, named vacuum chamber. The vacuum chamber has an inlet port for the introduction of the organic material to be dehydrated and a discharge port for removal of the dehydrated organic material. The apparatus has at least
2 Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-04 2 microwave sources and microwave transparent windows on the top of the vacuum chamber for transmission of microwave radiation from microwave sources into the vacuum chamber. The apparatus has an endless conveyor belt disposed longitudinally in the vacuum chamber to receive organic material to be dehydrated from the inlet port and convey the organic material to the other end of the conveyor belt. In the same vacuum chamber, the apparatus has a rotary drum to receive partially dried organic materials out of the conveyor belt to continue the vacuum microwave dehydration process until the organic material reaches desired moisture. The rotary drum is located in parallel directly under the conveyor belt. The partially dehydrated organic material is tumbled in the rotary drum and transferred from one end of the rotary drum to another end of the rotary drum, in which, partially dehydrated organic material absorbs the remaining microwave power that passed through the organic materials on the conveyor belt. During the whole dehydrating process, the organic material to be dehydrated will essentially move through the vacuum microwave chamber twice: once on the conveyor belt and once in the rotary drum. Thus, in the vacuum chamber, there is always enough load to absorb microwave power and organic material is uniformly dehydrated.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for dehydrating organic materials, the vacuum microwave dehydrating apparatus comprises a vacuum chamber. The vacuum chamber has an inlet port for the introduction of the organic material to be dehydrated and a discharge port for removal of the dehydrated organic material, at least 2 microwave sources and microwave transparent windows on the top of the vacuum chamber for transmission of microwave radiation from microwave sources into vacuum chamber, a conveyor belt and a rotary drum located under the conveyor belt.
Preferably the vacuum microwave dehydrating chamber is subdivided into several zones by means of metal plates having an opening for passage of the conveyor and rotary drum.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for dehydrating organic materials. A combination of a conveyor belt and a rotary drum handling soft, sticky or crispy organic material to be dehydrated is provided. The organic material to be dehydrated is pumped or loaded through an air-lock mechanism into the vacuum microwave chamber in which the pressure is less than atmospheric pressure. In the vacuum microwave chamber, organic material to be dehydrated is distributed evenly onto the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt conveys the organic material to pass through the
3 Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-04 vacuum chamber from one end to another, while the microwave power is applied to partially dehydrate the organic material. At the end of the conveyor belt, the partially dehydrated organic material is more rigid and less sticky. The partially dehydrated organic material then falls into the rotary drum through a hopper. In the rotary drum, the organic material is mixed and stirred to be evenly dehydrated by absorbing the microwave power which has been partially absorbed by organic material above on the conveyor belt. The dehydrated organic material will be discharged from the discharge port of the vacuum chamber through an air-lock mechanism.
4 Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-04

Claims (8)

Patent:
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR VACUUM MICROWAVE-DEHYDRATING OF
ORGANIC MATERIALS
1. An apparatus for dehydrating organic material, comprising:
A vacuum chamber having a loading port for introduction organic material into the vacuum chamber and a discharge port for removal of the dehydrated organic material;
The apparatus has at least 2 microwave sources and corresponding microwave transparent windows on the top of the vacuum chamber for transmission of microwave radiation from microwave sources into vacuum chamber;
The apparatus has an endless conveyor belt disposed longitudinally in vacuum chamber to receive organic material to be dehydrated from the loading port and convey the organic material to another end of the conveyor belt;
The apparatus has a rotary drum exposed longitudinally in vacuum chamber under the conveyor belt in parallel;
means for loading the organic material input loading port of the vacuum chamber;
means for transferring partially dehydrated organic material from conveyor belt to rotary drum;
means for rotating the rotary drum inside the vacuum chamber;
means for discharging the dehydrated organic material from the vacuum chamber at the discharge port.
2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein rotary drum exposed under the conveyor belt, the rotary drum is in parallel with the conveyor belt.
3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein rotary drum, is made of microwave transparent low dielectric material.
4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein conveyor belt, is made of microwave transparent low dielectric material.
5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein rotary drum, having a plurality of fins exposed on the inner surface of the rotary drum to stir and transfer organic material toward discharge port.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-04
6. An apparatus according to claim 1, in the vacuum chamber 1, vacuum microwave dehydrating chamber is subdivided into several zones by means of metal plates having an opening for passage of the conveyor belt and rotary drum 10.
7. An apparatus according to claim 1 and 3, the rotary drum sits on drive wheels to be able to rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise.
8. A method for dehydrating an organic material, comprising the steps of:
Load organic material to be dehydrated into vacuum chamber;
Distribute the loaded organic material on the conveyor belt evenly;
The conveyor belt with organic material on it passes subdivided vacuum microwave dehydrating zones;
At the end of the conveyor belt, partially dehydrated organic material is collected and guided into the rotary drum exposed under the conveyor belt.
In the rotary drum, partially dehydrated organic material is stirred and conveyed from one end of the rotary drum to another end. During transferring, the organic material is dehydrated by the microwave power that has been partially absorbed by organic material on the conveyor belt.
At the other end of rotary drum, one or several holes on the rotary drum allow dehydrated organic material to be dropped into the discharge port. By passing through an air-lock mechanism, the dehydrated organic material is discharged from the vacuum chamber eventually.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-04
CA3108130A 2021-02-04 2021-02-04 Apparatus and method for vacuum microwave-dehydrating of organic materials Abandoned CA3108130A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA3108130A CA3108130A1 (en) 2021-02-04 2021-02-04 Apparatus and method for vacuum microwave-dehydrating of organic materials

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA3108130A CA3108130A1 (en) 2021-02-04 2021-02-04 Apparatus and method for vacuum microwave-dehydrating of organic materials

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA3108130A1 true CA3108130A1 (en) 2022-08-04

Family

ID=82693743

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA3108130A Abandoned CA3108130A1 (en) 2021-02-04 2021-02-04 Apparatus and method for vacuum microwave-dehydrating of organic materials

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CA (1) CA3108130A1 (en)

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
JP6042996B2 (en) Microwave vacuum drying of organic matter
US4640020A (en) Zoned microwave drying apparatus and process
US10578359B2 (en) Microwave vacuum-drying of organic materials
Liu et al. Radio-frequency/vacuum drying of softwoods: drying of thick western red cedar with constant electrode voltage
EP3675914A1 (en) Method and apparatus for pasteurizing and dehydrating marijuana
CA3108130A1 (en) Apparatus and method for vacuum microwave-dehydrating of organic materials
US20240280318A1 (en) Methods and apparatus for drying cannabis
RU2642079C2 (en) Dry potato puree production line
US2144333A (en) Process of drying starch
US2638687A (en) Apparatus for cooling and dehydrating hot pulpy solids
US20220183329A1 (en) Vacuum microwave drying of high sugar content liquids
SU1067320A1 (en) Method and apparatus for stocking green fodders
RU197371U1 (en) Apparatus for microwave - fermentation of essential oil rose flowers
Ryszard et al. Microwave treatment of materials in low pressure
RU2826041C1 (en) Method of drying grains and green mass of herbs
WO2009006891A1 (en) Method for freeze-drying a product and freeze-drying apparatus for carrying out the method
RU2786708C1 (en) Method for producing a powder from dried cones of humulus lupulus in the uhf field
RU2119624C1 (en) Continuous vacuum sublimation drier for loose and granulated products
RU2491124C1 (en) Shelling drier
PL238222B1 (en) Method for drying of timber
KR20030070560A (en) A continuous vaccum grain drier
RU2629109C1 (en) Method for drying green vegetable materials with use of microwave treatment
US3489355A (en) Device for conditioning products
KR910004933B1 (en) Method and apparatus for gelatinizing of grains
RU2122324C1 (en) Dry product line and drier

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
FZDE Discontinued

Effective date: 20230130

FZDE Discontinued

Effective date: 20230130