Evaluation of two microwave surface distribution systems designed for substratum and agricultural soil disinfection

Abstract

Heat treatment by microwave for soil disinfection may represent an alternative to chemical treatments. One of the main problems in the design of microwave applicators for agricultural soil disinfection is to achieve a homogeneous surface energy distribution. This work has been carried out in order to evaluate two systems which can solve this problem: the first one is based on the use of a slotted waveguide and the other is based on overlapping the radiation of several magnetrons working simultaneously. Initially, the systems were modelled using an algorithm based on Maxwell equations in order to give a first overview of the system functioning. In a second step, the models were validated by comparison with thermal maps obtained empirically. As a consequence of this work we propose a redesign of the slotted waveguide system to improve the homogeneity of the temperature distribution over a large radiation area. The overlapping system gave adequate homogeneity for commercial purposes.