A coaxial Antenna for Microwave Assisted Soil Decontamination

In this paper, a coaxial antenna design for soil decontamination with high power microwaves is presented. It is intended mainly for the remediation of soils with volatile organic compounds. The antennas for this purpose have to radiate omnidirectional in the azimuthal direction as well as uniformly over the length of the antenna. For this reason, leaky coaxial antennas are chosen. A further requirement is a good matching of the antenna over a wide range of dielectric permittivity and loss factors of the soil indicating different moisture contents. The operating frequency is 2.45 GHz. A possible antenna design is shown with simulations of the reflection coefficient and field distribution inside the antenna and the surrounding soil. A comparison of measured and simulated values is given and finally the temperature distribution inside the soil in the laboratory setup is presented