The potential for material processing by microwave energy

This paper presents the potential applications for material processing by microwave energy which is electromagnetic waves that penetrates material and cause its molecules to rotate and generate heat. In this paper, potential uses of microwave energy in iron and steel making processes will be discussed in detail. Actually, microwave energy has been in use for various applications for over half century. One of the most well known applications is drying and cooking of food. Currently, industrial uses of microwave energy include direct-reduced iron making, wood processing, sintering, coke making, and so on. And moreover, CO₂ and CH₄ can be decomposed by super heating effect of microwave energy which can also be called as high temperature plasma furnace. In conventional heating processes, the materialpsilas surface is heated first and then the heat moves inward, while the material is heated the entire volume at about the same time, in microwave heating processes. Microwave heating method can be used in addition to conventional heating techniques to enhance the reaction of the material processing.