High Temperature Chemical Processing via Microwave Absorption^*

Abstract

AbstractMicrowave energy has been used to heat various classes of solid compounds to temperatures of up to 1900° C. This leads to a number of potential aplications in the chemical process industries. Preliminary investigations of several processes have been conducted, and the results of these studies are reported here.Heating rates of oxides and or sulphides of a dozen metals, in powder or pellet form, have been determined using a standard 2450 MHz microwave oven equipped with field stirrer. In general, dark colored materials may be rapidly heated to temperatures of about 1000° C, where a cut-off occurs. Light colored materials on the other hand, required longer times for heating, but in certain cases temperatures reached were much higher. Uranium oxide fuel pellets were sintered, and a comparison made between the results obtained and those of the conventional process. Finally, a number of high temperature reactions for which microwave energy may advantageously be used are presented. Notes* Paper presented by the author at the 2nd Symposium on Microwave Power Stanford University, March 29, 1967.