INDUSTRIAL SCALE-UP
FROM DEVELOPED PROCESS TO INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS
Once a microwave process is understood at development scale, the next step is to increase power, throughput and operating scale while maintaining the required process behaviour.
AMT works with clients and project partners to develop and validate microwave processes under increasingly representative industrial conditions.
SCALE-UP IS MORE THAN ADDING POWER
Increasing throughput can change energy distribution, material handling, heat losses, residence time, impedance matching and process control.
Scale-up therefore involves developing the microwave system and the wider process together, while collecting the operating data needed for the next stage of engineering.
The aim is to establish how the process behaves at meaningful power and throughput before committing to commercial-scale equipment.
TYPICAL SCALE-UP WORK
Depending on the process, scale-up may include:
POWER & PROCESS
Energy and microwave power requirements
Throughput and residence time
Heating and process uniformity
Continuous, batch or semi-continuous operation
Performance over longer operating periods
APPLICATOR & PROCESS HARDWARE
Applicator geometry and field behaviour
Impedance matching and power distribution
Materials handling and product movement
Process vessels, conveyors, rotary systems or other specialised equipment
MONITORING & CONTROL
Temperature and process measurement
Forward and reflected microwave power
Flow, throughput and other process-specific measurements
Data acquisition and operating trends
Control strategy and operating sequences
SCALE-UP THROUGH COLLABORATION
Industrial scale-up usually involves several engineering disciplines.
AMT works with the client and appropriate project partners, typically contributing microwave process development, applicator engineering, simulation, microwave power systems, testing, instrumentation and control.
Mechanical equipment, materials handling, specialist process engineering, fabrication and plant integration can be developed by the appropriate members of the wider project team.
The project structure is matched to the process and the capabilities already available within the client’s organisation.
PILOT SYSTEMS & HIGHER-POWER TESTING
Scale-up may involve adapting existing equipment for higher-power trials or developing a dedicated pilot system with more representative throughput, material handling and operating conditions.
The objective is to test the process at the smallest scale that provides useful information for the next engineering decision, rather than moving prematurely to full commercial equipment.
AMT also has industrial microwave generators available for development and pilot work from approximately 1–100 kW at 2.45 GHz, 915 MHz and 922 MHz, allowing higher-power testing without requiring a generator purchase at the start of the program.
FROM SCALE-UP TO COMMERCIAL ENGINEERING
Successful scale-up should provide the measured information needed to support commercial system design and implementation.
This may include validated power and energy requirements, throughput, operating conditions, applicator behaviour, materials-handling requirements, monitoring and control requirements, together with the remaining constraints that need to be addressed at full scale.
Where the process has been sufficiently validated, AMT can continue providing specialist microwave engineering as part of the wider commercial project team.
READY TO SCALE A MICROWAVE PROCESS?
Tell us what has already been developed, the throughput or operating scale you need to achieve, and what still needs to be demonstrated.
AMT can help define an appropriate scale-up step and work with your project team to develop and validate it.