Novel microwave technology
The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BmEL) invests in its innovation research program in a project that aims to make food more innovative, more sustainable, and more efficient and energy efficient through the study of novel microwave technology.
Microwave technology for heating or thawing food is standard in households, but less so in the industrial production of edible food. Product safety and quality-saving heating on a large scale are still subject to considerable uncertainty. A major reason for this is that until now it has not been possible to achieve a uniform coupling and distribution of the energy into the treatment chamber when generating microwaves via so-called magnetrons.
The from the BmEL funded research projects are investigating a new way to electrotechnically generate microwaves using semiconductor technology. Diodes generate standing waves focused on the food and are therefore intended to achieve a uniform field distribution. This eliminates the root cause of uneven heating.
Thus, the advantages of the volumetric energy input by microwaves can be used. Together with the possibilities of product design in terms of size, shape and composition, as well as packaging, this new microwave technology makes it possible to access and preserve foods in an innovative way. These advantages should also be applied to drying processes, which are thus performed faster and gentler. The fast and uniform heating and drying by means of semiconductor-generated microwaves is an innovative process that enables new pasteurization and drying processes that are energy efficient, without time-consuming wear by the microwave generating components and without plasma formation.
The BmEL promotes the research project with around 890 000 Euro, which is around 67 percent of the project's planned total cost.
Project partners are the Technical University of Munich, Weihenstephan Science Center, Department of Engineering, Department of Food and Bio-Process Engineering (Prof. Dr, -Ing. Ulrich Kulozik) and Fricke and Mallah Microwave Technology GmbH (Marcel Mallah).
