Electric field and temperature distributions of a continuous fluidized bed microwave paddy drying system

A fluidized bed microwave drying system was proposed for paddy drying. It consisted of two applicators which each had four perpendicular slots. The applicator was excited by two magnetrons. The analysis of electric field intensity distribution when paddy orientation was taken into account revealed that suitable paddy density in the applicator volume is 40%. Then, an investigation on the cumulative distribution function of temperature in paddies was divided into three cases: fluidized bed microwave with air temperatures of 30degC, 60deg C and 90deg C. It was relevant that when a higher temperature was utilized, the probability of paddies exposed to high temperature was increased. Although a temperature of 90deg C provided the best results, it needed higher power consumption. On the other hand, the system with 60deg C air temperature consumes lower power with a performance equivalent to those of 30deg C air temperature but drying time was reduced from 6 minutes to 4 minutes.