A number of chemical, biochemical and extraction processes in the industry have high potential to be carried out with much more effectiveness through microwave assistance. A great amount of recent studies have emerged from universities and small research teams, proving the advantage of microwave heating.
On the other hand, while this novel heating technique has been developing in the R&D efforts, it remains far from real applications in the industry.
The executives of many companies in chemical, biochemical and extraction processing either do not know about the possibility for using the potential of microwave heating, or they are skeptical about the implementation of this method for their specific needs.
The main reason for the skepticism is the perception that microwave-heated processes are not scalable for large commercial production. The latter is true only if we try to follow laboratory routines, where the samples are usually placed inside modified microwave oven and irradiated. This methodology is convenient for research purposes, but it is generally unsuitable for larger-scale processing, because of the following reasons:

             1. Electromagnetic energy has limited penetration depth - microwaves can completely penetrate a small sample, but they will be absorbed close under the surface in a bigger volume.

             2. The distribution of the microwave energy in the processing cavity is not uniform - there are so called standing waves, with high electromagnetic intensity (hot spots) and nothing in between (cold spots).

             3. Expensive process monitoring - special fiber-optic sensors are required inside microwave processing cavity.

             4. Batch microwave-heated processing is used - in most cases an effective continuous microwave-heated processing is hard to be realized.

In industry-scale production the requirements for uniform microwave heating, energy efficiency and control over the entire process are critical, and in many cases, continuous flow is required. Therefore the methods and equipment will differ from those used in the laboratory.
Also, the larger-scale microwave-heated processes and equipment should be precisely designed for optimal working conditions and safety.
Atlanta Chemical Engineering integrates R&D techniques and industrial chemical engineering. Our scientists evaluate the feasibility of the specific process under electromagnetic irradiation. Furthermore the chemical engineers continue with the actual production scale process design, based on microwave-heated plug flow (tubular) unit. The latter allows for flexible implementation of various chemical, biochemical, and extraction processes in the industry.
The dynamic information and data sharing between the scientific and engineering departments in the company makes our work extremely productive and therefore more beneficial for the client.
By combining the scientific and industrial aspects of microwave-heated processes, we are better able to provide our customers with accurate and meaningful information about their prospective production project.