Development of a continuous operation hop-kiln with power supply

Introduction. Hop production in the Russian Federation averages 116 thousand tons from 54 thousand hectares. The HS-400 hop-kiln used in the hop drying process line is energy-intensive. The concept of hop growing development in the Chuvash Republic for 2020–2025, approved by the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chuvash Republic (dated 20.08.2020 No. 738-r), provides for the development of up to 45–50 hectares of new areas for hop, at the rate of 15–17 hectares per one hop-kiln HS-400. To expand the production of hop, it is necessary to effectively master innovative technologies and installations for drying freshly harvested hop that are not inferior in technical and economic parameters of foreign analogues. The development of a hop-kiln that provides dehydration and disinfection of freshly harvested hop, pre-servs consumer properties with reduced operating costs, is currently relevant.
Methodology. The electrophysical parameters of hop cones (according to the Rogov method) were analyzed depending on the frequency of the electromagnetic field, humidity and temperature, heat and mass transfer processes during the supply of convective heat to the volumetric resonator of the microwave installation were theoretically investigated, and the effective technological parameters of the hop-kiln were determined. Studies of the electromagnetic field strength, current density, and intrinsic Q-factor of resonators were carried out in the CST Studio Suite 2017 three-dimensional computer modeling program and its CST Microwave Studio subprogram.
Results. A multi-resonator hop-kiln with an energy supply in an electromagnetic field has been developed. The proposed hop-kiln contains resonators sequentially arranged in a horizontal plane with curved surfaces, docked through ceramic biconvex perforated plates. The design and technological scheme of the hop-kiln has been developed. The intrinsic Q-factor of elliptical toroidal resonator is 14600, of triangular prismatic resonator — in the range of 9000–1200, depending on the degree of concavity of the upper face. The calculation of the installation productivity amounts to 180–200 kg/h with a power of 15.66 kW, which made it possible to determine energy costs — to 0.1 kWh/kg.

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