Chemical-Free Pest Control by Means of Dielectric Heating with Radio Waves: Selective Heating
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Ulf Trommler; Frank-Dieter Kopinke; Ulf Roland; Frank Holzer; Christian Hoyer; Markus Kraus
- Source
- Chemical Engineering & Technology. 41:116-123
- Subject
- 0106 biological sciences
Materials science
business.industry
General Chemical Engineering
Electrical engineering
Pest control
General Chemistry
Dielectric
Thermal conduction
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
010602 entomology
Electric field
Dielectric heating
Quantitative Biology::Populations and Evolution
Composite material
business
Overheating (electricity)
Microwave
Radio wave
- Language
- ISSN
- 0930-7516
Dielectric heating with radio waves (RW) and microwaves is an alternative treatment to hazardous chemicals or hot air for pest control. RW can be used to heat large bulky materials homogeneously and smoothly to eliminate embedded pest organisms. Dielectric heating enables selective overheating of certain materials in a heterogeneous mixture. This feature of electromagnetic heating methods, in contrast to techniques based on thermal conduction, is caused by significant differences in the dielectric properties of pest organisms and matrix materials. This study proves unambiguously that selective heating of cylindrical pest organisms in wood matrices occurs under defined conditions. The selective heating effect strongly depends on the orientation of the pest organisms in the electric field.