Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1002/ceat.201700328
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Title (Primary) Chemical-free pest control by means of dielectric heating with radio waves: selective heating
Author Kraus, M.; Holzer, F.; Hoyer, C.; Trommler, U.; Kopinke, F.-D.; Roland, U.
Source Titel Chemical Engineering & Technology
Year 2018
Department TUCHEM
Volume 41
Issue 1
Page From 116
Page To 123
Language englisch
Supplements https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1002%2Fceat.201700328&attachmentId=208974845
Keywords Pest control; dielectric heating; radio waves; selective heating
UFZ wide themes RU3;
Abstract Dielectric heating with radio waves (RW) and microwaves (MW) are alternatives to treatments with hazardous chemicals or hot air for pest control. In particular, RW can be used to heat up bulky materials with larger size (in the meter range) homogeneously and smoothly in order to eliminate embedded pest organisms. Dielectric heating, in principle, enables selective overheating of certain materials in a heterogeneous mixture. This unique feature of electromagnetic heating methods, in contrast to techniques being based on thermal conduction, is caused by significant differences in the dielectric properties of pest organisms and matrix materials. The present study proves unambiguously that selective heating of cylindrical pest organisms in wood matrices occurs under defined conditions. The selective heating effect strongly depends on the orientation of the pest organisms in the electric field. For a parallel alignment, maximum overheating factors (ratio of adiabatic local heating rates) of 2 to 3 were determined experimentally. In case of a perpendicular alignment, no overheating was detected. A simulation of electric field and power loss density distributions in pest organisms and in their vicinity in the wood matrix, using a finite element method, can qualitatively explain the experimental results. According to the simulation, the overheating occurs not directly within the pest organism but in the wood matrix in the vicinity on both ends of the cylinder-shaped pest organism
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=19476
Kraus, M., Holzer, F., Hoyer, C., Trommler, U., Kopinke, F.-D., Roland, U. (2018):
Chemical-free pest control by means of dielectric heating with radio waves: selective heating
Chem. Eng. Technol. 41 (1), 116 - 123 10.1002/ceat.201700328