Technological process scheme of the three-stage microwave convection hop drying

Abstract

At a temperature of 110 ° C, the concentration of alpha-acid reaches 67.5%, beta-acid - 59%, which reduces the consumer properties of hops. The aim of the study is to develop a microwave convective hop dry-er, which provides a process flow rate of less than 0.5 to equalize the mois-ture content of hops in the structure during transportation through a toroi-dal resonator. We used the programs CST Microwave Studio 2018, Com-pass 3D V20. The hop dryer contains two truncated conical and toroidal resonators. In the central cylinder of the toroidal resonator there is no EMPSWH, here the moisture in the hop cones is equalized. In the capacitor part of the resonator, the electric field strength is sufficient to reduce the bacterial contamination of hops. A dielectric grid electric drive conveyor and a perforated ceramic trough are laid along all resonators. The techno-logical scheme of the process provides for determining the amount of evaporated moisture from each resonator, air flow, and the required power of heat guns. The electrical circuit provides control of three magnetrons and a conveyor. The expected specific heat consumption is 3.54 MJ/kg. The total air consumption is 300 m3/h, with a hop dryer capacity of 100 kg/h.