PME Engineering explores the application of microwave heating in the food industry, highlighting its benefits such as reduced cooking times and uniform heating. Microwave energy, transmitted as electromagnetic waves, effectively penetrates food at specific frequencies to generate heat through ionic polarization and dipole rotation. The document explains the functionality of microwave ovens, including the role of the magnetron in generating high-powered radio waves that agitate food molecules for effective cooking.

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Microwave Heating
Introduction:
Microwave heating has gained popularity in food processing due to its ability to achieve high
heating rates, significant reduction in cooking time, more uniform heating, safe handling, ease
of operation and low maintenance.
Thus, food industry is said to be the largest consumer of microwave energy, where its
application has been utilized in thawing, baking, dehydration, melting, tempering, and
pasteurisation, sterilization, heating, and re-heating, etc.
Concept:
Microwave (MW) energy is a form of radiation. The term radiation means that the energy is
transported by the force fields of electromagnetic waves; they can radiate through a perfect
vacuum and do not need any medium to transfer energy from one object to another. All
electromagnetic waves have two components
1) Electric field 2) Magnetic field

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When a charge (electric or magnetic) in a medium changes its position in space, the
corresponding field that it produces also changes in space. These changes in electric and
magnetic fields produce an oscillatory wave, which is called an electromagnetic wave.
Electromagnetic waves are characterized by their frequency, velocity, and electric field
strength.
Principle: Microwave energy is transmitted as electromagnetic waves and the depth to which
these penetrate foods is determined by their frequency and the characteristics of the food
involved. Thus, frequencies ranging from 300 MHz to 300 GHz and wavelength of 1 mm to 1 m
are associated with microwaves. However, 0.915GHz and 2.45GHz frequencies are commonly
used for microwave heating because of two reasons. Firstly, they are frequencies allocated to
industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) radio bands, basically for non- communication purposes.
Secondly, penetration depth of microwave is greater and more effective at these lower
frequencies.
Although, heating is not necessarily increased with decreasing frequency as the internal field
can be low depending on the properties of the material. For this reason, 2.45GHz is widely used
in domestic microwave ovens and some industrial applications while 0.915 GHz is preferred for
industrial/commercial microwave ovens.
Mechanisms of microwave heating:
Heating with microwave frequency involves primarily 2 mechanisms-
1. Ionic polarization: When an electrical field is applied to food solutions containing ions, the ions move
at an accelerated pace due to their inherent charge. The resulting collisions between the ions cause the
conversion of kinetic energy of the moving ions into thermal energy.
2. Dipole rotation/Dielectric Heating:
Food materials contain polar molecules such as water. These molecules generally have a
random orientation. However, when an electric field is applied, then the molecules orient
themselves according to the polarity of the field.

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• In a microwave field, the polarity alternates very rapidly, e.g., at the microwave frequency of
2,450 MHz, the polarity changes 2.45 billion cycles per second.
• Such rotation of molecules leads to friction with the surrounding medium, and heat is
generated.
Loss Factor:
It is the measure of loss of energy in a dielectric material due to slow polarization or some other
dissipative phenomenon.
How does a microwave turn electricity into heat?
1. Inside the strong metal box, there is a microwave generator called a magnetron. When
you start cooking, the magnetron takes electricity from the power outlet and converts it
into high-powered, 12cm (4.7 inch) radio waves.
2. The magnetron blasts these waves into the food compartment through a channel called
a wave guide.
3. The food sits on a turntable, spinning slowly round so the microwaves cook it evenly.
4. The microwaves bounce back and forth off the reflective metal walls of the food
compartment, just like light bounces off a mirror. When the microwaves reach the food
itself, they do not simply bounce off. Just as radio waves can pass straight through the
walls of your house, so microwaves penetrate inside the food. As they travel through it,
they make the molecules inside it vibrate more quickly.

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The End-to-End Engineering Company in Food Industry
info@pmg.engineering | www.pmg.engineering
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5. Vibrating molecules have heat so, the faster the molecules vibrate, the hotter the food
becomes. Thus, the microwaves pass their energy onto the molecules in the food,
rapidly heating it up.