DESIGN OF A RADIO FREQUENCY HEATING SYSTEM FOR

ELECTROLYTIC LIQUIDS AND SLUDGES

by

Md. Saimoom Ferdous

B.Sc., Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 2012

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCE

in

THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES

(Electrical Engineering)

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

(Okanagan)

January 2015

© Md. Saimoom Ferdous, 2015

Abstract

A radio frequency (RF) heating system has been designed to heat electrolytic liquids

and sludges in a pressurized test vessel. The RF heating system is designed to heat a 400 ml

load volume at a frequency of 13.56 MHz using a 1 kW RF generator. The primary

application for the heating system is to conduct experimental work on the pretreatment of

waste activated sludge, a byproduct of wastewater treatment plants. The dielectric properties

of waste activated sludge were analyzed and it was determined that ionic conduction heating

at a low frequency would be more efficient than microwave heating at a frequency of 2.45

GHz. The RF heating system was tested with sludge and salt water loads over a temperature

range of 20°C to 120°C. Power transfer efficiency from the generator to the load was

excellent and exceeded 86% over the entire temperature range for both loads.

An important part of this work was the design of the RF applicator. The applicator

consists of two circular electrodes mounted inside a Teflon cylinder to uniformly heat the

load. The Teflon cylinder has seals and can heat loads under pressure. The load cylinder is

enclosed in a coaxial housing and the geometry of the load cylinder and enclosure are

designed to provide a nominal impedance of 50 Ω to match the RF generator impedance. The

applicator has a thermocouple embedded in an electrode and a software control system is

implemented in LabView to adjust the generator power for a target ramp rate or to maintain a

steady state temperature. Extensive electromagnetic simulations were done to verify and

optimize the applicator design. Analytic, simulation and experimental results are compared

and very good agreement is obtained.

ii
Table of Contents

Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ii

Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... iii

List of Tables................................................................................................................. vi

List of Figures .............................................................................................................. vii

List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................... xii

Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... xiii

Dedication ................................................................................................................... xiv

Chapter 1: Introduction............................................................................................... 1

1.1 Literature Review.............................................................................................. 2

1.1.1 Heating Pretreatment Methods for Waste Activated Sludge .................... 2

1.1.2 Other Applications of RF Heating ............................................................ 3

1.2 Research Objectives .......................................................................................... 4

1.3 Overview of Chapters ....................................................................................... 5

Chapter 2: Selecting a Frequency for the RF Heating System ................................ 7

2.1 Conventional Heating versus Electromagnetic Heating ................................... 8

2.2 Principles of Electromagnetic Heating ............................................................. 9

2.2.1 Conductivity............................................................................................ 10

2.2.2 Ohmic Heating ........................................................................................ 13

2.2.3 Dielectric Heating ................................................................................... 14

2.3 Electrical Properties of Materials.................................................................... 18

2.3.1 Relaxation, Dispersion and the Debye Model ........................................ 18

2.3.2 Electrical Models for Cells and Tissues.................................................. 21

iii
 2.3.3 Dielectric Properties of Waste Activated Sludge.................................... 24

2.4 Selecting a Frequency for Heating Waste Activated Sludge .......................... 26

Chapter 3: Design of the RF Heating System .......................................................... 30

3.1 Electrical Properties of the Load..................................................................... 30

3.1.1 Waste Activated Sludge .......................................................................... 31

3.1.2 Equivalent Salt Water Loads .................................................................. 32

3.2 Heating Applicator Physical Design ............................................................... 36

3.3 Electrical Models of the RF Heating System .................................................. 43

3.3.1 Power Transfer ........................................................................................ 44

3.3.2 Equivalent Model for the Load ............................................................... 47

3.3.3 Electrical Model for the Enclosure ......................................................... 51

3.4 Analytic and Simulated Results for Power Transfer Efficiency ..................... 55

Chapter 4: Experimental Results .............................................................................. 60

4.1 Design of the Experimental Test Bed ............................................................. 60

4.1.1 RF Generator ........................................................................................... 62

4.1.2 Coaxial Cable Interconnect ..................................................................... 64

4.1.3 Heating Applicator .................................................................................. 67

4.1.4 Temperature Measurement System......................................................... 78

4.1.5 Control Software ..................................................................................... 80

4.2 Thermal Profiles of the RF Heating System ................................................... 83

4.2.1 Thermal Ramp Rate for a Salt Water Load ............................................ 83

4.2.2 Thermal Ramp Rate for Waste Activated Sludge ................................... 84

4.2.3 Thermal Settling Time for Heating at Constant Temperature ................ 86

iv
 4.2.4 Thermal Gradient between the Electrodes .............................................. 88

4.3 Impedance and Power Transfer Measurements .............................................. 96

4.3.1 Salt Water Load ...................................................................................... 96

4.3.2 Waste Activated Sludge ........................................................................ 100

4.4 Comparison of Analytic, Simulated and Measured Results ......................... 102

Chapter 5: Conclusion ............................................................................................. 105

5.1 Contributions................................................................................................. 105

5.2 Future Work .................................................................................................. 107

Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 109

v
List of Tables

Table 3.1 Electrical properties of waste activated sludge at a frequency of

13.56 MHz and at a temperature of 25°C. ............................................................. 31

Table 3.2 Comparison of the electrical properties of salt water and waste

activated sludge at a temperature of 25°C. ............................................................ 34

Table 3.3 Equivalent circuit and geometrical parameters for WAS and

salt water loads at 25°C. ........................................................................................ 49

Table 3.4 Capacitance and inductance of the connecting coaxial cable. ............................... 52

Table 3.5 Intrinsic capacitance and inductance for the heating apparatus. ............................ 54

Table 4.1 Effect of EMI on temperature measurements. ....................................................... 79

Table 4.2 Ramp rate of the RF heating device with 0.03315 N salt water load. ................... 84

Table 4.3 Comparison of ramp rates for 0.03315 N salt water and 4.5% WAS. ................... 86

Table 4.4 Summary of maximum and minimum temperatures across a

0.03315 N salt water load. ..................................................................................... 94

vi
List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Conventional and electromagnetic heating temperature profiles across the load. . 9

Figure 2.2 Conduction current flow through a metallic conductor. ....................................... 11

Figure 2.3 Ionic current flow through a salt water electrolyte. .............................................. 12

Figure 2.4 Ohmic heating from conduction current (left) and ionic current (right). ............. 13

Figure 2.5 Electric dipole synchronization with frequencies; left: perfect

synchronization at low frequencies; right: phase lag (relaxation loss)

at high frequencies. ............................................................................................... 15

Figure 2.6 Equivalent circuit for a medium with complex permittivity. ............................... 16

Figure 2.7 The real part (blue) and imaginary (part) of the complex permittivity

of water at 30ºC. ................................................................................................... 20

Figure 2.8 Single cell equivalent circuit. ............................................................................... 21

Figure 2.9 Current flow through tissues and cells. ................................................................ 22

Figure 2.10 Maxwell-Wagner effect. ..................................................................................... 23

Figure 2.11 Typical electrical properties of waste activated sludge. ..................................... 25

Figure 2.12 Complex permittivity of 4.5% waste activated sludge

(figure based on data obtained from [17]). ......................................................... 27

Figure 2.13 Complex permittivity of 18% waste activated sludge

(figure based on data obtained from [17]). ......................................................... 28

Figure 3.1 DC conductivity of salt water solution as a function of temperature. .................. 35

Figure 3.2 Real part of relative permittivity of salt water solution

as a function of temperature. ................................................................................. 35

Figure 3.3 Electric fields for a parallel plate structure (top) and a coaxial

vii
 structure (bottom).................................................................................................. 37

Figure 3.4 Electric fields in the environment around a parallel plate applicator. .................. 38

Figure 3.5 Parallel plate applicator enclosed in a coaxial cylinder. ....................................... 40

Figure 3.6 Dimensions and material specifications of the heating applicator

for a 0.03315 N salt water load. ........................................................................... 42

Figure 3.7 Dimensions and material specifications of the heating applicator

for a 0.069 N salt water load. ............................................................................... 43

Figure 3.8 RF heating system: (a) block diagram with equivalent circuit;

(b) power flow diagram. ....................................................................................... 46

Figure 3.9 Equivalent circuit representation of (a) WAS and (b) salt water solution. .......... 48

Figure 3.10 Impedance of salt water and WAS as a function of temperature. ...................... 50

Figure 3.11 Power transfer efficiency of salt water and WAS load

as a function of temperature. ............................................................................... 50

Figure 3.12 Connecting coaxial cable geometry: (a) cross section; (b) side view. ............... 52

Figure 3.13 COMSOL models of the heating applicator for

0.03315 N salt water (a) and 0.069 N salt water (b). .......................................... 55

Figure 3.14 Impedance of the RF heating system for a 0.03315 N salt water load. .............. 56

Figure 3.15 Impedance of the RF heating system for a 0.069 N salt water load. .................. 57

Figure 3.16 Power transfer efficiency of the RF heating system

for a 0.03315 N salt water load. .......................................................................... 58

Figure 3.17 Power transfer efficiency of the RF heating system

for a 0.069 N salt water load. .............................................................................. 58

Figure 3.18 Electric field across the load as function of distance (arc length)

viii
 for (a) 0.03315 N salt water load and (b) 0.069 N salt water load....................... 59

Figure 4.1 Pictures of the experimental test bed: (a) RF heating system

and software control; (b) components of the RF heating system.......................... 61

Figure 4.2 Components of the RF generator. ......................................................................... 63

Figure 4.3 Connecting coaxial cable (RG 58). ...................................................................... 65

Figure 4.4 Photo of the top electrode assembly in the heating apparatus. ............................. 69

Figure 4.5 Photos of the Teflon load vessel. .......................................................................... 71

Figure 4.6 Photos of the aluminum enclosure. ...................................................................... 73

Figure 4.7 Photo of the heating apparatus and the corresponding equivalent circuit model. 75

Figure 4.8 Measured intrinsic capacitance of the heating

applicator as a function of frequency. ................................................................... 77

Figure 4.9 Measured and modeled impedance of the heating applicator

with a 0.03315 N salt water load for a frequency range of 10-15 MHz. .............. 78

Figure 4.10 RF generator voltage (a) and load temperature (b) as a function of time........... 80

Figure 4.11 LabView front panel control interface: (a) temperature graph

and other control display/knobs; (b) instantaneous ramp rate and

PA input voltage display. .................................................................................... 82

Figure 4.12 Ramp rate measurement for salt water load with 250 V (blue line),

200 V (magenta line), 150 V (red line) and 100 V (yellow line)

input to the PA. .................................................................................................. 83

Figure 4.13 Ramp rate measurement for a 4.5% WAS load with 100 V input to the PA. .... 85

Figure 4.14 Settling time for a target temperature of 120 ̊C (blue line:

250 V and red line: 100 V). ................................................................................ 87

ix
Figure 4.15 Settling time for a target temperature of 30 ̊C (blue line:

250 V and red line: 100 V). ................................................................................ 88

Figure 4.16 Thermometer tip positions for measuring temperature across load. .................. 89

Figure 4.17 Marks on the mercury thermometer used to set insertion depth in the load....... 90

Figure 4.18 Thermal profile across 0.03315 N salt water load for a target

temperature of 30°C and 40°C with 250 V (blue line), 200 V (red line),

150 V (cyan line), 100 V (blue circle). .............................................................. 91

Figure 4.19 Thermal profile across 0.03315 N salt water load for a target

temperature of 50°C and 60°C with 250 V (blue line), 200 V (red line),

150 V (cyan line), 100 V (blue circle). .............................................................. 91

Figure 4.20 Thermal profile across 0.03315 N salt water load for a target

temperature of 70°C and 80°C with 250 V (blue line), 200 V (red line),

150 V (cyan line), 100 V (blue circle). .............................................................. 92

Figure 4.21 Thermal profile across 0.03315 N salt water load for a target

temperature of 90°C with 250 V (blue line), 200 V (red line),

150 V (cyan line), 100 V (blue circle). .............................................................. 92

Figure 4.22 Temperature gradient across the load due to heat conduction loss. ................... 95

Figure 4.23 Temperature gradient across the load due to heat conduction

loss and water density variation. ........................................................................ 96

Figure 4.24 Measured impedance of the RF heating applicator with a

0.03315 N salt water load for two different ramp rates. ..................................... 97

Figure 4.25 Impedances for the RF applicator and the RF applicator

plus the coaxial cable (overall system) with a 0.03315 N salt water load. ........ 98

x
Figure 4.26 Measured power transfer efficiency with a 0.03315 N salt water load. ............. 99

Figure 4.27 Measured impedance for the RF heating system with

a 4.5% waste activated sludge load................................................................... 100

Figure 4.28 Measured power transfer efficiency for the RF heating system

with a 4.5% waste activated sludge load. ......................................................... 101

Figure 4.29 Impedance comparison for the RF heating system between

salt water and WAS load................................................................................... 103

Figure 4.30 Power transfer efficiency comparison for the RF heating system

between salt water and WAS load. ................................................................... 104

xi
List of Abbreviations

CIH Conventional induction heating

DC Direct current

EM Electromagnetic

EMI Electromagnetic interference

HA Heating applicator

ISM Industrial, scientific and medical

MW Microwave

OH Ohmic

PA Power amplifier.

RF Radio frequency

WAS Waste activated sludge

xii
Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Thomas

Johnson for his generous support, guidance and encouragement throughout my research.

Besides teaching me scientific research know-how, he is an icon of enormous motivation and

patience that has helped me to focus and overcome many obstacles throughout my research.

I heartily thank Dr. Cigdem Eskicioglu and Dr. Kenneth Chau for supporting and

encouraging my research work.

I also sincerely thank Dr. Jake Bobowski and Ehssan Hosseini for their altruistic help

and fruitful discussions during my research.

I am also grateful to NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) of

Canada for funding my research.

Finally, I especially want to thank my parents for their selfless support and

encouragement to pursue education and scientific discovery.

xiii
Dedication

To my loving parents and brother Md. Sadman Ferdous.

xiv
Chapter 1: Introduction

This thesis is part of a larger research project focused on investigating methods to

enhance the bio-gas production from sludge generated by wastewater treatment plants. The

Bioreactor Technology Group at UBC is leading this work and several years ago a

multidisciplinary research team was setup to investigate electromagnetic heating methods to

pre-treat the water treatment sludge. More precisely, the sludge is called wasted activated

sludge, and the acronym WAS will be used interchangeably with the word ‘sludge’.

The motivation for heating WAS is to breakdown the organic particles in the sludge

and preferably breakdown cell membranes to release intracellular material into the liquid

phase. After pretreating, the sludge is moved to a digester where anaerobic micro-organisms

convert proteins and complex carbohydrates into methane gas that can be captured and used

as an energy source. Pretreatment methods also have other advantages such as increasing the

throughput rate through the digester which reduces the volume of the digesters requirement,

killing pathogens and reducing the residual organic mass left after the digester phase.

WAS is a mixture of liquids and organic solids called bio-solids. The mass ratio of

solids to liquids is controlled and two common ratios are 4.5% and 18% where the ratio

specifies the percent content of solids in the total mass of the sludge.

Although the original intent of this research project was to investigate methods to heat

waste activated sludge, the work has led to the design of a RF heating apparatus that in

general can be used to heat liquids and sludges provided the material has certain electrical

properties that are compatible with the frequency of the generator used in this system. The

application of the apparatus to other potential applications is discussed in the conclusion.

1
 Within the environmental and civil engineering research community, experiments to

develop improved pretreatment methods to enhance the production of bio-gas from WAS has

been going on for many years. Amongst the various methods which have been evaluated to

pretreat WAS, microwave pretreatment and conventional heating are included. In microwave

pretreatment, the sludge is heated in a commercial microwave heating system used for

laboratory applications. These systems heat loads at a frequency of 2.45 GHz and are very

similar to domestic microwave ovens in that the principal heating mechanism relates to the

dielectric relaxation of water molecules. Conventional heating is a process where the load is

heated by a source using thermal convection. Ovens are an example of conventional heating

systems. The motivation for this research project is to answer the broader question: what is

the most efficient way to heat WAS?

1.1 Literature Review

1.1.1 Heating Pretreatment Methods for Waste Activated Sludge

In 1977, Haug et al. [1] demonstrated that adding a thermal pretreatment stage before

anaerobic digestion enhances the bio-degradability of organic materials. The enhanced bio-

degradability in this context means improved bio-gas production in the anaerobic digesters as

well as improvements in the ability to dewater the sludge and reduce the volume and cost of

disposing of the residual solids. The experiments conducted in Huang’s study used

conventional heating.

Over the past several decades many other pretreatment processes have been evaluated.

These methods include chemical and enzyme additives, high pressure homogenization,

microwave heating and exposure to pulsed electric fields [2-5]. The motivation for all these

pretreatment methods is to make organic materials present in the sludge more biodegradable

2
by physically reducing the size of organic structures and puncturing or rupturing cell

membranes [4]. Amongst all the pretreatment methods, thermal pretreatments have been very

effective for improving biogas production from WAS [6].

Studies have shown that both conventional and microwave heating pretreatment

methods can improve the bio-gas production from WAS. In a recent study by Mehdizadeh et

al. [6], a comparison was made between conventional heating and microwave heating at 2.45

GHz. The study showed, that under identical heating profiles, similar amounts of bio-gas are

produced. Therefore, there is no current evidence that the heating method of sludge has a

significant impact on bio-gas production. More important factors appear to be the thermal

ramp rate and the operating temperatures involved in the pretreatment process.

From a system perspective, the energy input to the heating system and the efficiency of

converting the energy to heat the load are very important. The evaluation of heating

efficiency involves both the electrical design of the heating system as well as an evaluation

of the heating uniformity across the load. There has been much less work focused on

investigating efficient heating methods and the question of how best to heat WAS has

motivated this research project.

1.1.2 Other Applications of RF Heating

As will be explained in Chapter 2, a radio frequency (RF) heating system for treating

WAS was selected with an operating frequency of 13.56 MHz. Therefore, it is relevant to

consider other applications of RF heating systems. Examples of other RF heating

applications include food and agriculture processes and wood drying [7].

RF heating methods were first employed in food processing as early as 1940 [8]. RF

heating has been used to dehydrate vegetables and fruits [9], bake cookies and crackers [10],

3
cook meat products [11], kill navel orangeworms in walnuts [12] and reduce microbial action

in fruit juices [13, 14]. Advantages of RF over conventional heating are improved product

quality and faster heating times.

Most RF heating systems in these applications use a frequency of 27.12 MHz which

corresponds to an allocated frequency band reserved for industrial, scientific and medical

(ISM) applications. Two other ISM frequency bands which can be used for RF heating are

13.56 MHz and 40.68 MHz and a few papers have reported on RF heating systems in these

bands [15, 16].

Although RF heating has been employed in different industrial applications, most of

the published work focuses on optimizing the process rather than optimizing the electrical

design of the heating system. Also, the majority of these systems are designed to heat loads

up to moderate temperatures usually below 100ºC. One of the requirements in this research

project was to heat liquid and sludge loads to temperatures up to 120ºC under constant

volume conditions. Consequently, a heating apparatus that can work under high pressure is

required.

1.2 Research Objectives

The primary objective of this research project was to design an electromagnetic heating

applicator that can efficiently heat WAS. After designing and implementing the heating

apparatus, the equipment will be used to conduct experiments to measure how effective the

heating method is in terms of enhancing bio-gas production from anaerobic digesters.

Unlike other published work on pretreatment methods using microwave or

conventional heating, this research began with a study of the electrical properties of WAS.

The dielectric properties of WAS were measured over a wide frequency range from 100 kHz

4
to 40 GHz and these results were published several years ago by other members of the UBC

research team [17]. The dielectric study provides a fundamentally different starting point for

investigating the efficiency of using electromagnetic heating by first focusing on analyzing

the electrical properties of the material and then selecting an optimum heating frequency.

Selecting an optimum heating frequency involves more than a study of material properties

and other important requirements are uniform heating throughout the load volume, efficient

high power RF generators, efficient matching between the generator and the load, and

constraints in terms of frequency bands which can be used for industrial heating applications.

After selecting a frequency, the next objective was to design an applicator which could

heat liquid and sludge loads over a temperature range of 20ºC to 120ºC. The minimum load

volume for the apparatus was 400 ml and the volume and temperature range requirement

relates to future experimental work on bio-gas production. Other requirements included

thermal ramp rates up to 15ºC per minute and a temperature measurement system that can be

used to control the heating rate.

1.3 Overview of Chapters

In Chapter 2, background on electromagnetic heating methods is presented. The

different mechanisms which can create heating in WAS are reviewed. It is shown that WAS

has significant ionic conductivity and that the bio-solids have a dielectric dispersion called β

dispersion related the electrical characteristics of cell membranes in the organic material.

Based on the electrical properties of WAS, a frequency of 13.56 MHz is selected to

efficiently heat the sludge.

In Chapter 3, the electrical design of a RF heating applicator is described. Analytic

models of load impedance as a function of temperature are derived based on matching the

5
ionic conductivity of WAS with an equivalent salt water load. The analytic models are used

to design an applicator which creates a uniform electric field between two electrodes. The

electrodes are mounted in a Teflon pressure vessel and the entire pressure vessel is enclosed

in a coaxial cylinder. A significant part of the design methodology is associated with

matching the load impedance to a 50 Ω high power RF generator. The final design is

simulated and optimized in an electromagnetic simulator.

Chapter 4 focuses on experimental results. The RF heating applicator was built and

tested. The RF heating test bed consists of a RF generator, an applicator, and software to

measure load temperature and control RF generator power. The applicator was tested with

salt water loads and samples of WAS. Loads were heated from room temperature to 120ºC

and impedance measurements of the applicator and load were made to verify the design.

Excellent results have been obtained and the RF heating applicator shows significant promise

as a method of heating liquid and sludge loads.

As with any design, improvements can be made. A summary of design improvements

and other potential applications for the RF heating system are described in the concluding

chapter.

6
Chapter 2: Selecting a Frequency for the RF Heating System

The theory of how electromagnetic fields interact with biological materials is essential

to the design of the heating system for WAS. A time varying electromagnetic field has both

an electric and magnetic field and the relations between the two fields are described by

Maxwell’s equations. From the heating perspective, heat is generated in dielectric and

metallic materials principally by the interaction of the electric field and charge.

Two important electrical properties of materials which relate to the efficiency of

heating using electromagnetic fields are conductivity and permittivity. Conductivity and

permittivity are frequency dependent properties and consequently electromagnetic heating is

frequency sensitive. The frequency dependence then raises the question: what frequency is

best for heating WAS?

Although the frequency dependence of material properties is important to assess, there

are other constraints which affect the selection of a heating frequency for WAS. The

penetration depth of the electromagnetic wave affects the heating profile through the

material. Since penetration depth varies inversely with frequency, a low frequency source has

advantages over high frequencye. Other practical constraints include regulatory issues which

limit specific frequency bands for heating applications as well as the cost and power

efficiency of the amplifiers used to generate the high frequency signals to heat the material.

The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. Background is given on the

electrical properties of materials and how the properties affect the heating process. The

electrical properties of materials are frequency dependent and these relations are described

for materials relevant to the WAS application. Finally, a frequency of 13.56 MHz is selected

7
for this design and a discussion of the factors which were considered in the selection of this

frequency is presented.

2.1 Conventional Heating versus Electromagnetic Heating

Heat is generated in a material from molecular agitation. Based on how agitation is

created in the material, heating methods can be broadly classified into two categories:

conventional and electromagnetic. In conventional heating, a heat source is applied outside

the material and thermal energy transfers by convection through the material from a region of

high temperature to low temperature. An example of conventional heating is a kitchen oven

where heating coils are the source and heat is conducted through the material created by the

temperature gradient between the source and load. Drawbacks of conventional heating are

uneven heating across the load because of the thermal conduction gradient and slow heating

rates. Uneven heating arises from the conventional heating can be made quite even by

inserting multiple electrodes inside the load, which requires intervening into the materials.

The second method of heating uses time varying electromagnetic fields. In an

electromagnetic heating process, the electric field interacts directly with the molecules in the

load and increases the kinetic energy of the molecules to heat the load. Electromagnetic

waves propagate with very high velocity, and providing the electric field penetrates through

the load, uniform and near instantaneous heating can be obtained. Because the field

penetrates the entire volume, the term volumetric heating is sometimes used to distinguish it

from conduction heating. The primary drawback of electromagnetic heating is that its

efficiency depends significantly on the electrical properties of the material. Typical

temperature profiles for conventional and electromagnetic heating processes are shown in

Figure 2.1.

8
 Molecular vibration

Temperature Temperature

Distance Distance
Conventional heating Volumetric heating

Figure 2.1 Conventional and electromagnetic heating temperature profiles across the load.

2.2 Principles of Electromagnetic Heating

When an electromagnetic field interacts with a material, power can be dissipated. The

dissipation of power in a material from electromagnetic waves is described by the

fundamental equations of electromagnetics given by Maxwell’s equations. The fields defined

by Maxwell’s equation are linked by three constitutive parameters which relate to the

material properties and the fields that can exist in the material. The constitutive parameters

are: conductivity (  ), permittivity (  ) and permeability (  ). Of the three material

properties, conductivity and permittivity are relevant to heating for non-magnetic materials.

9
2.2.1 Conductivity

Conductivity, which is denoted as  DC , is a material property that is described by a

purely real number and ideally measured at DC (0 Hz)1. The conductivity of a material

relates to the movement of free charge. When an electric field is present in a material, the

electric field exerts a force on free charge, and the charge drifts through the material. The

relationship between charge ( q ), electric field ( E ) and force ( F ) is given by the

fundamental definition of an electric field:

F  qE (N). (2.1)

Examples of free charge are electrons that move through a metal lattice in a conductor or free

ions that move through an electrolyte.

The movement of electrons through a conductor is called electronic current flow and

does not involve the net movement of mass. Electrons in the valence band of a metal are

easily removed by a low energy electric field and they drift from atom to atom. The

movement of free charge is created by electron-hole pairs and the atomic lattice is unchanged

by the movement of charge. An illustration of electronic conduction current flow is shown in

Figure 2.2. Current flow through a metallic conductor does not involve any electrochemical

reactions at the electrodes (anode and cathode) and the only chemical reaction is in the

battery which provides an electromotive force to sustain current flow.

1
Experimental measurements of conductivity at DC can be complicated by
electrochemical reactions between the electrodes and the material being measured. Therefore,
DC conductivity may be extrapolated from low frequency measurements where
electrochemical reactions do not contribute significantly to experimental errors in the
measurement of conductivity.
10
 Figure 2.2 Conduction current flow through a metallic conductor.

Ionic current flow is distinct from electronic current flow. In ionic current flow, ions

(atoms or molecules with a net charge) physically move and there is a net movement of mass.

Under a static (DC) electric field, ions will drift in an electrolyte and eventually current flow

can cease if there is no mechanism for generating new ions.

An illustration of ionic current flow through salt water (NaCl) is shown in Error!

Reference source not found.. Salt water is an electrolyte and salt molecules separate into

positively charged sodium cations (Na+) and negatively charged chlorine anions (Cl-). In an

electric field created by the potential difference between the two electrodes, ions drift to the

charged electrodes. The positive electrode is called the cathode and attracts negatively

charged chlorine ions, while the negatively charged electrode is called the anode and attracts

positively charged sodium ions. At the electrodes, a chemical reaction is required to generate

free electrons which can then create electronic current flow through the wires to the battery.
11
The electrochemical reaction at the electrodes creates chlorine gas at the cathode and

hydrogen gas at the anode. As times goes by, due to chemical reactions at the electrode

interfaces, all the ions in the electrolyte will eventually be depleted. Neutrally charged

molecules build up at the electrodes and this leads a condition known as electrode

polarization.

Figure 2.3 Ionic current flow through a salt water electrolyte.

From a heating application, the electrochemical reactions at the electrodes are

undesirable because they produce gas and the electrochemical processes can be reduced by

converting to an alternating current source with a sufficiently high frequency. For salt water,

the electrochemical reactions are negligible above 10 MHz. Biological material has

12
significant electrolytic properties and ionic current flow is relevant to the heating mechanism

used in this research project.

2.2.2 Ohmic Heating

As electrons or ions drift through a material in the presence of an electric field,

collisions with atoms and molecules generate heat. The amount of energy released depends

on the mobility of the charge carriers (conductivity) and the intensity of the electric field.

Heat generated by conduction current, either electronic or ionic, is called ohmic heating. An

illustration of electronic and ionic ohmic heating is shown in Figure 2.4.

Anion
- Electron - Na+ Cl-
H 2O Na+
Na+
Nucleus + - + - Dipolar molecule
Cl-

+ - - - - - H 2O
Cl- H 2O
+
Cl- Cation
+ - + -
H 2O Na+ Cl- Na+
-

Resistor Electrolyte

Figure 2.4 Ohmic heating from conduction current (left) and ionic current (right).

Ohmic heating is described by Ohm’s law. The conduction current density Jc through a

material with conductivity  DC is

J c   DC E (A/m2) (2.2)

The power dissipated per unit volume in the material is

13
 pc   DC E (W/m3)
2
(2.3)

The total power dissipated in a volume is found by integrating the power density over the

volume. In general, the electric field varies as a function of the spatial position ( x, y,z ) in the

volume and a triple integral is required to calculate the total power dissipated in the material.

Pc   pc dv    DC E(x, y, z) dv (W)

2
(2.4)
v v

In this work, the integral is evaluated numerically using an electromagnetic modeling tool

called COMSOL. The power dissipated in the material creates heat.

Conductivity is a temperature dependent material property; therefore, as the material is

heated, the conductivity increases because of the increased mobility of charges. If the

conductivity changes significantly with temperature, then the net energy absorbed by a load

depends on time and the current temperature of the load. The temperature dependence of

materials is important in this work and ranges from 20ºC to 120ºC.

2.2.3 Dielectric Heating

When a material with bound charge is placed in an electric field, a polarization charge

( P ) is induced within the material. The polarization charge can be visualized as the atomic

realignment of charge where electrons are attracted in a direction of increasing potential and

positive charge is repelled in a direction of decreasing potential. The atomic structure and

chemical bonds in the material may prevent the charge from moving and the charge

redistribution is localized within the atomic lattice; hence the name bound charge.

Materials may also be composed of polar molecules. An example of a polar molecule is

water. The orientation of polar molecules is affected by the presence of an electric field and

there can be a net alignment of molecules which also creates a polarization charge in the

material.

14
 When material is exposed to a time varying electric field, the polarization charge

oscillates as the polarity of the electric field changes direction. As frequency increases, the

polarization charge cannot maintain perfect synchronization with the oscillating electric field

and the polarization charge starts to lag behind the polarity of the electric field. The phase lag

means energy from the electric field is absorbed by the material and dissipated as heat. This

type of energy loss is called relaxation loss. Relaxation loss is frequency dependent and the

physical characteristics of this loss mechanism are captured in the imaginary component of

the dielectric constant   . Figure 2.5 illustrates the dielectric relaxation loss mechanism.

Electric Electric
field field

-
+ - +
Dipolar
molecule
orientation Following Following
delay delay
+
- + -
Low frequency High frequency (~22 GHz)

Figure 2.5 Electric dipole synchronization with frequencies; left: perfect synchronization at low

frequencies; right: phase lag (relaxation loss) at high frequencies.

To show that the imaginary part of the complex permittivity results in dissipation,

consider the time harmonic form of Maxwell’s equation

 H = (  j ) E (2.5)

Expand the right hand side by replacing  with    j  :

 H =  E + j (  - j ) E
(2.6)
 (   ) E + j E

15
The term   contributes to an effective conduction current ( J c ) that leads to dissipation in

the material. The real part of complex permittivity is associated with a reactive current flow

called displacement current ( J d ).

The distinction between conduction current flow and displacement current flow in a

material can be used to construct an equivalent circuit model of the medium. The circuit

consists of a shunt conductance (resistance) and a capacitance. To show this, assume a

material is sandwiched between two parallel plates as shown in Figure 2.6.

Electric B= 1
X G= 1
+ field, E Plate R
+Q A
area, A ωε r (ω)ε 0 ( +ωε(ω)ε ) A
d r 0
d
-

-
+

Lossy
-

d
+

Dielectric
-
-

Susceptance
+
+

due to
+

Dielectric
-
-Q
Charge
-

Conductance due to
+

dielectric loss

Figure 2.6 Equivalent circuit for a medium with complex permittivity.

Assume the plate area is large and fringing fields are small such that the electric field

between the plates is uniform. The capacitance of the parallel plate structure is

A
C  (F) (2.7)
d

16
where  is the complex permittivity, A is the area of the plates and d is the distance between

the plates. The admittance of the capacitor is Y ( )  jC which expands into

(   j ) A
Y ( )  j
d
(S) (2.8)
  A   A
 j  Gd ( )  jBd ( )
d d

The admittance Y ( ) of the dielectric material can be modeled by a shunt conductance

Gd ( ) and a shunt capacitance with susceptance Bd ( ) . If the material also has finite

conductivity, then there is a second shunt conductance term equal to

A
Gc  (S) (2.9)
d

for the parallel plate structure. Note that unlike the conductance in the dielectric model where

Gd ( ) is a function of frequency, the conductance Gd is independent of frequency. The total

equivalent admittance of the material including permittivity and conductivity is

Y ( )  Gc ( )  Gd ( )  jBd ( )
(   ) A   A (S) (2.10)
 j
d d

This equation shows that an equivalent circuit model for modeling conductivity and complex

permittivity is a shunt conductance and capacitance. The equivalent circuit model is very

useful and enables the design of matching circuits to couple power to the material. The

equivalent circuit model also provides a way to use measurements of admittance or

impedance to determine the values of the material properties.

To show how measurements of admittance can be used to extract conductivity and

permittivity, rewrite (2.10) as

17
 0 A 
Y ( )  j [  ( )  j(  + )] (S) (2.11)
d
r r
 0

Let C0   0 A / d which is the capacitance of the test structure assuming the dielectric is a

vacuum. The normalized admittance is then

Y ( ) 
  r ( ) - j ( r( ) + ) (S) (2.12)
jC0  0

The equation shows that the material properties as function of frequency can then be obtained

from measurements of admittance as function of frequency. The real component of the right

hand side of (2.12) is the real relative permittivity,  r ( ) , and the imaginary component is

dependent on both the imaginary component of the complex permittivity,  r( ) , as well as

the conductivity of the material. The conductivity dominates the low frequency

characteristics while the imaginary part of the complex permittivity dominates the high

frequency characteristics. Examples plots of the right hand side of (2.12) are shown later.

2.3 Electrical Properties of Materials

The complex permittivity of a material depends on frequency and there are models that

have been developed to relate the characteristics to the atomic structure of the material. An

important model that is widely used is called the Debye model. The Debye model leads to

dispersion which means that the permittivity does not have linear characteristics as a function

frequency.

2.3.1 Relaxation, Dispersion and the Debye Model

As described earlier, polarization charge oscillates in a time varying electric field. For

low frequencies, polarization charge can follow the field variation, but as frequency is

increased, the polarization charge starts to lag the variation in the field. The lag between the

18
polarization charge and the electric field can be modeled in the time domain by a relaxation

time constant.

Let D(t) be the electric flux density as a function of time and assume the flux density

is to be changed from an initial state D to a new state D0 . An external electric field is

pulsed to create the flux density change in the material. Similar to the transient response of a

circuit with a conductance in shunt with a capacitance, the response can be modeled as an

exponential with a relaxation time constant  . The flux density is then given by

t

D(t )  D  ( D  D0 )(1  e  ) (2.13)

Equation (2.13) is called the Debye dispersion equation. The equation shows that in one time

constant, the flux reaches 63.2% of its final value, and in 5  , the flux is 99.3% of the final

value D0 . For example, water has a relaxation time of 7.2 ps at a temperature of 30ºC.

The Debye dispersion equation can also be written in the frequency domain by taking

the Laplace transform of (2.13) and then evaluating the transform along the imaginary axis

( j in the complex frequency plane) to obtain the corresponding frequency response. The

Debye model for complex permittivity in the frequency domain is expressed as

( s    ) (2.14)
 r ( )       r ( )  j  r( )
1  j

where,  s is the steady state (DC) dielectric constant,   is the dielectric constant at optical

(infinite) frequencies, and  is the relaxation time.

As an example, the Debye model for water at a temperature of 30ºC is  s = 76.47,   =

4.9, and  = 7.2 ps. A plot of the real and imaginary parts of the complex permittivity of

water is shown in Figure 2.7.

19
 80

70
Complex relative permittivity (  r )
60

50

40

30

20

10

0 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
10 10 10 10 10 22.1 10 10
Frequency (Hz) GHz

Figure 2.7 The real part (blue) and imaginary (part) of the complex permittivity of water at 30ºC.

As shown, significant dispersion in the dielectric properties occurs in a frequency range from

2 GHz to 200 GHz. Below 2 GHz,  r   s and above 200 GHz,  r    . Around 22 GHz, the

imaginary part of the permittivity peaks and this frequency corresponds to the frequency

where the most power is dissipated in the water. A microwave oven operates at a frequency

of 2.45 GHz and balances dissipation (heating), penetration depth (uniform heating) and the

cost of the microwave power source.

In more complex materials with heterogeneous molecules, there may be multiple

dispersion regions which relate to multiple relaxation time constants. Also, high ionic

conductivity in electrolytes can significantly dominate low frequency characteristics.

Biological materials are examples of materials with more complex characteristics and these

are described in the next section.

20
2.3.2 Electrical Models for Cells and Tissues

The electrical properties of cells and tissues have been the subject of much research

[18]. From this research, equivalent circuit models for cells and tissues have been developed.

An example of an electrical model is shown in Figure 2.8.

Equivalent
Resistance
Equivalent
capacitance
Extracellular fluid
Intracellular fluid
Cell membrane

Figure 2.8 Single cell equivalent circuit.

Plant and animal tissues are heterogeneous cellular structures and tissues are composed of

many cells of varying types and sizes. Each cell within a tissue is encapsulated by a cell

membrane that separates intracellular fluid from extracellular fluid in the tissue. If two

parallel plate electrodes are inserted into the extracellular fluid, current can be passed through

the tissue and cells. The current flow is frequency dependent because the medium is

21
heterogeneous with different electrical properties for different parts of the tissue. The

extracellular and intracellular fluids are electrolytic and an ionic conduction current can flow

through the fluids. The cell membrane is permeable but has much lower conductivity and

membrane can be modelled as dielectric sandwiched between the inner and outer ionic

(conductive) mediums. Therefore the cell membrane is analogous to a parallel plate capacitor

structure and current flow through the cell membrane is primarily displacement current rather

than conduction current. Based on the circuit model, at DC and very low frequencies, ionic

conduction current can flow between the electrodes, and the current path is primarily through

extracellular fluid. As the frequency increases, a displacement current can flow through the

cell membrane and the net current flow between the electrodes is composed of both

conduction and displacement currents. The current flow paths are illustrated in Figure 2.9.

Low frequency current path

High frequency current path
Extracellular fluid
Intracellular fluid
Cell membrane

Figure 2.9 Current flow through tissues and cells.

22
 The current flow through the cell membrane is more complex than shown in the

simplified model of Figure 2.8. At the exterior interface between the cell membrane and the

extracellular fluid, and at the interior interface between the cell membrane and the

intracellular fluid, there is a wet dielectric boundary. In general, each medium at an interface

has different conductivity (  ) and permittivity (  ) properties as shown in Figure 2.10.

ε1 σ1 ε2 σ2
R1 R2

C1 C2

 d l
Relative
permittivity
 dl
Frequency f = 1
dl
(Hz) 2πτdl

Figure 2.10 Maxwell-Wagner effect.

The conductivity in each medium can be modeled as a conductance and the permittivity can

be modelled as a capacitance. For a parallel plate structure, the capacitance and conductance

of the mediums is given by (2.9) and (2.11), respectively. The conductance and capacitance

in each medium are connected in shunt and the electrical circuit has a time constant,

23
 dl  C / G . The time constant is similar to the relaxation time constant in the Debye model

except that it arises from a different physical phenomenon where free charge carriers

accumulate at the interface surface of the two media.

The accumulation of a charge layer created by different time constants at a dielectric

interface is called the Maxwell-Wagner effect [18]. The Maxwell-Wagner effect creates an

effective frequency dependent complex permittivity in a double layer (dl) composite

medium. The effective complex permittivity is given by

 dl (2.15)
 dl   dl  j
 0

and the effective time constant is  dl   dl /  dl . The Maxwell-Wagner effect leads to a

dielectric dispersion that is similar to a Debye dispersion and an example of the dispersion

characteristic is shown in Figure 2.10. In biological materials, the dispersion characteristic

created by the cell membrane interface is called β dispersion.

2.3.3 Dielectric Properties of Waste Activated Sludge

The primary load to be heated is WAS which is a complex mixture of organic solids

immersed in an inorganic liquid composed mostly of water and electrolytes. The solid

content in WAS is specified by a mass ratio of solids to liquids and two common mixture

ratios are 4.5% and 18%. The solid content in WAS, also called floc, is composed of a

heterogenous mixture of inorganic and organic solids where the organic solids have

properties similar to biological tissues. An example of a floc structure is shown in [19].

A dielectric study of 4.5% and 18% WAS was made by the UBC research group

several years ago [17]. The results of these measurements have been analyzed and an

example of the typical WAS electrical properties is shown in Figure 2.11.

24
 150

100
( 'r )
50 Bulk water
Dominant biological characteristics characteristics
0 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Frequency (Hz)
4
10
( "r+/0 )

 dispersion Ionic conduction loss

bulk water relaxation
2
10

0
10 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
10 10 13.56 10 10 10 22.1 10 10
MHz Frequency (Hz) GHz

Figure 2.11 Typical electrical properties of waste activated sludge.

The electrical characteristics are shown in the form of (2.14) where the real part is  r and the

imaginary part is  r   DC  0 . At low frequencies below 300 MHz, ionic conductivity

dominates the imaginary component of the dielectric characteristics. The liquid is composed

of electrolytes such as salt which makes the sludge conductive. The ionic component

corresponds to the term  DC  0 and this leads to a straight line slope on a log-log plot.

Within the 1-10 MHz range, dispersion is evident in the real part  r of the complex

permittivity. The response can be compared to the graph shown in Figure 2.10 (Maxwell -

Wagner effect). The β dispersion is attributed to the organic nature of the bio-solids in the

sludge. From 10 MHz to 5 GHz the real part of the permittivity is approximately flat and

equal to the permittivity of water (~80). At a frequency of 22 GHz, the Debye relaxation

associated with water is clearly visible. This leads to a decrease in the real part of

permittivity and a corresponding peak in the imaginary component. The power absorbed by

25
water molecules is maximized at a frequency of 22 GHz but the penetration depth of the

electromagnetic wave is very shallow. Microwave ovens balance penetration depth with the

optimum frequency for heating water and a frequency of 2.45 GHz is used in most

microwave heating systems.

The imaginary part of the complex permittivity determines how efficient the material

can be heated using electromagnetic waves. Microwave heating at 2.45 GHz falls in the

valley between the low frequency slope and the dispersion at 22 GHz. Below 100 MHz, it is

clear that heating is even more efficient than the dispersion peak at 22 GHz. Furthermore, the

rising slope as frequency decreases suggests a lower frequency is the best.

2.4 Selecting a Frequency for Heating Waste Activated Sludge

Based on the electrical properties of WAS, a low heating frequency appears to be the

most optimal in terms of maximizing the dissipated power density in the load. A low

frequency also has advantages in terms of a long wavelength which leads to deep penetration

depth. According to the slope in Figure 2.11, one might be tempted to conclude that the best

heating frequency would be 0 Hz; in other words DC. The issue with heating at DC is that

electro-chemical reactions are necessary at the electrode interfaces to create free electrons

which can flow through the external circuit. This was illustrated earlier in Error! Reference

source not found.. The electro-chemical reactions have other byproducts including the

generation of gases and polarization charge on the surface of the electrodes. Therefore, there

are issues with operating at too low a frequency. A summary of the different heating

mechanisms and the associated dielectric characteristics for WAS is shown in Figure 2.12

and Figure 2.13.

26
 Figure 2.12 Complex permittivity of 4.5% waste activated sludge (figure based on data obtained

from [17]).

27
 Figure 2.13 Complex permittivity of 18% waste activated sludge (figure based on data obtained

from [17]).

The problems with electro-chemical reactions and electrode polarization are

significantly reduced for frequencies above a few MHz [17] (region B in the figures). There

are also limitations in the available frequency bands which can be used for industrial heating

28
applications. The appropriate frequency bands for heating are associated with frequency

bands reserved for industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) applications. The lowest

frequency band which falls near the low end of the MHz frequency range is at 13.56 MHz.

The corresponding free space wavelength at 13.56 MHz is 22 meters which means the field

variation over distances of a few meters is nearly constant.

The other advantage of operating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz is that it falls very near

the β dispersion associated with cell membranes (region B). Since the objective of the

heating process is to disassociate tissues and cells, absorption of power in the cell membranes

is beneficial and this heating mechanism is absent in region C. However, the heating

associated with dispersion is expected to be much less than ionic conduction heating and the

outcome of bio-gas production from pretreatment at this frequency needs to be evaluated.

More discussion on the relative power dissipation for ionic heating and dielectric relaxation

heating from β dispersion is discussed in the next chapter. Therefore, based the preceding

analysis of heating at different frequencies, it was decided to implement a design at a

frequency of 13.56 MHz.

29
Chapter 3: Design of the RF Heating System

In this chapter, the electrical design of a RF heating applicator is described. Analytic

models of the load impedance as a function of temperature are derived based on matching the

ionic conductivity of WAS with an equivalent salt water load. The analytic models are used

to design an applicator which creates a uniform electric field between two electrodes. The

electrodes are mounted in a Teflon pressure vessel and the entire pressure vessel is enclosed

in a coaxial cylinder. A significant part of the design methodology is associated with

matching the load impedance to a 50 Ω high power RF generator. The final design is

simulated and optimized in an electromagnetic simulator and then compared with the analytic

model.

3.1 Electrical Properties of the Load

After selecting a frequency of 13.56 MHz for the RF heating system, detailed electrical

properties of the load at a frequency of 13.56 MHz need to be known to design a RF

applicator that is impedance matched to a 50 Ω RF generator. The dielectric characteristics of

WAS were obtained from another study which was carried out by the UBC research group

[17]. From this study, values for conductivity and complex permittivity of WAS are known.

Although heating WAS is the final objective of this project, it is very useful to work

with a controlled load with well-known electrical characteristics. Salt water, with a controlled

molarity, can be prepared to have similar conductivity to WAS. Advantages of salt water

include a homogenous composition relative to the heterogeneous composition of sludge,

accurate DC conductivity, and a load that is free of bio-hazards which makes handling and

testing easier. There are also excellent literature references which have empirical equations

for predicting how conductivity and complex permittivity vary with temperature. The

30
temperature characteristics of salt water are used in the design to predict how the impedance

match between the load and the generator will vary over temperature. The electrical

properties of WAS and an equivalent salt water load are presented next.

3.1.1 Waste Activated Sludge

WAS samples consist of a liquid with a controlled amount of bio- solid content. The

samples are specified by a ratio of the mass of the solids to the mass of the liquid and two

ratios, 4.5% and 18%, are commonly available from wastewater treatment plants. Based on

the experimental measurements presented in [17], the electrical properties of WAS are

summarized in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 Electrical properties of waste activated sludge at a frequency of 13.56 MHz and at a

temperature of 25°C.

Material property 4.5% WAS 18% WAS

 r 92.5 138.8

 r 2.8 35.6

 DC (1m-1 ) .34 .68

Important limitations of this data should be noted. First, the electrical properties were

measured at a single temperature of 25°C. Second, the measurements are based on a small

number of samples and some variation in the electrical characteristics is expected. Third, the

extraction of  r from the original measurement data reported in [17] is sensitive to

measurement error at a frequency of 13.65 MHz because  r is much less than  /  0 .

Despite these limitations, within the scope of this project, the reported measurements are

used as a basis for the applicator design. As shown later in Chapter 4, experimental results

31
differ from the design target, but the variation is within acceptable margins and efficient

heating is obtained despite the variability in the load.

The total amount of power which is dissipated in WAS at a frequency of 13.56 MHz

can be found by modifying equation (2.3) in Chapter 2 to include dielectric heating losses

and a time-harmonic electric field. The total power density is

1 1 
p  ( DC   r 0 ) E  ( DC   r) 0 E (W/m3)
2 2
(3.1)
2 2  0

which can be decomposed into a conduction heating component

1
pc   DC E (W/m3)
2
(3.2)
2

and a dielectric heating component

1
pd   r 0 E (W/m3)
2
(3.3)
2

Using these equations and Table 3.1, the ratio of ohmic heating to total heating can be

calculated. For 4.5% sludge, ohmic heating accounts for 99.4% of the dissipation in the load,

while ohmic heating accounts for 96.2% in 18% sludge. Clearly, at frequency of 13.56 MHz,

ohmic heating is expected to be the dominant heating mechanism.

3.1.2 Equivalent Salt Water Loads

At a frequency of 13.56 MHz, the primary heating mechanism in WAS is ohmic

heating. As described earlier, it is convenient to have a controlled load for testing the heating

apparatus. Given that heating in WAS is dominated by ionic ohmic heating at a frequency of

13.56 MHz, salt water is a good choice for creating an equivalent load with similar heating

properties. Stogryn et al. [20], presented a method of determining the amount (molarity) of

sodium chloride salt required in pure distilled water to achieve specific dielectric

32
characteristics. A model for the complex permittivity of a saline water solution (  SW ) as a

function of temperature (T) in degrees Celsius, salinity (N) in moles per liter of solution and

frequency (ω) is

 0 _ SW (T , N ) -   _ W  DC _ SW (T , N )
 SW (T , N ,  )    _ W  j
1- j SW (T , N )  0 (3.4)

In this equation,   _W is the high frequency permittivity of water and equal to 4.9. The other

terms in the equation are dependent on temperature and salinity, and the equations for these

terms are given below [19].

 0_ SW (T , N )  (87.74 - 4T  9.39 104 T 2  1.41106 T 3 )a( N ) (3.5)

 SW (T , N )  (1.1110-10 -3.83 1012 T  6.94 1014 T 2  5.09 1016 T 3 )b(T , N ) (3.6)

 DC _SW (T , N )   DC _SW (25, N )[1-1.96 10-2   8.08 10-5  2

-N{3.02 10-5  3.92 10-5   N (1.72 10-5  6.85 10-6 )}] (3.7)

a( N )  1  .25N  5.15 102 N 2  6.88 103 N 3 (3.8)

b(T , N )  .15 102 NT  1  .05N  .03N 2  5.64 103 N 3 (3.9)

 DC _ SW (25, N )  N (10.39 - 2.37 N  .68N 2 -.13N 3  1.0110-2 N 4 ) (3.10)

  25  T (3.11)

Using the salt water model equations, the molarity of the solution can be found to have

a dissipation at 13.56 MHz which is equivalent to WAS. For 4.5% WAS, the equivalent

molarity (N) is 0.03315 N, and for 18% sludge, the equivalent molarity is 0.069 N. The

electrical properties of the equivalent salt water loads are summarized in Table 3.2.

33
 Table 3.2 Comparison of the electrical properties of salt water and waste activated sludge at a

temperature of 25°C.

 r  DC  r  DC
 r 
 0

4.5% WAS 92.5 454 2.8 .34

0.03315 N salt 77.69 454.11 0 .342

water

18% WAS salt 138.8 937 35.6 .68

water

0.069 N 76.99 937.56 0 .705

Comment WAS has higher Dissipation No β dispersion Dominant loss

εr because of terms matched in salt water. mechanism in

the presence of for WAS and both WAS and

β dispersion. salt water. salt water.

The electrical property equations (3.4) through (3.11) are very useful to model the

impedance changes in the load as a function of temperature. In order to gain insight into the

temperature sensitivity of conductivity and  r , the equations are plotted for a temperature

range of 20°C to 120°C in Figure 3.1 and Figure 3.2, respectively. The temperature range

corresponds to the operating temperature range of the RF heating applicator. The DC

conductivity of 0.03315 N and 0.069 N salt water changes significantly and increases by

approximately a factor of four from 20°C to 120°C. The relative permittivity of salt water

changes less and decreases from approximately 79 at 20°C to 55 at 120°C. The temperature

34
variations of the material properties are used later to find the best compromise in terms of

matching the RF generator impedance to the load impedance.

3
0.069 N salt water
0.03315 N salt water
2.5
DC conductivity (S)

1.5

0.5

0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 3.1 DC conductivity of salt water solution as a function of temperature.

80
0.03315 N salt water
0.069 N salt water
75
Real part of relative permittivity ( 'r)

70

65

60

55

50
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 3.2 Real part of relative permittivity of salt water solution as a function of temperature.

35
3.2 Heating Applicator Physical Design

The physical geometry of the heating applicator is very important and affects the

heating profile across the load as well as the load impedance. Many different design concepts

were evaluated and a summary of the methodology employed to arrive at the final design is

summarized.

Uniform heating across the load requires a uniform electric field. An electric field is

created by applying a potential difference across two electrodes, and of all possible

geometries, a parallel plate structure is the only geometry that creates a uniform electric field.

An example of a parallel plate structure is shown in Figure 3.3. Although the ideal parallel

structure has a uniform electric field, a practical parallel plate structures has a fringing

electric fields that need to be minimized.

36
 Electric field

Uniform electric
field
A

VAB
d E= =constant
d

B
Non-uniform
electric field

r
B A

1
E
r
(E field decays w ith (r))

Figure 3.3 Electric fields for a parallel plate structure (top) and a coaxial structure (bottom).

Other geometric configurations of electrodes could be used and the geometry could be

scaled to minimize the variation of the electric field throughout the volume of the load. For

example, in Figure 3.3, a design with coaxial electrodes is shown. For this geometry the

electric field between the two plates varies as 1/r where r is the radial distance from the

center of the cross-section. If the inner conductor diameter is large such that the distance

between the electrodes is small, then the field variation can be reduced. The disadvantage of

37
the coaxial design is that there would be a large volume in the center which cannot be used.

Therefore, to create a compact design, a parallel plate structure is selected.

Although the parallel electrode structure provides a starting point for the design it is

not ideal. First, the electrodes need to be connected to a coaxial connector to interface to the

RF generator. The electrode connections and wiring introduce parasitic inductance and

capacitance that must be minimized and controlled. Second, the load is a liquid and needs to

be enclosed in a container. The container must be physically capable of operating under

pressure as the maximum operating temperature is above 100°C. Third, very high electric

fields are used to heat the load and the radio frequency fields can radiate into the surrounding

environment causing electromagnetic interference (EMI). Therefore, it is very desirable to

completely shield the load and the electrodes. These factors are illustrated in Figure 3.4.

Inner conductor
A Electric field in between
parallel plate capacitor

+
d Leakage electric field
- spread into space
Coaxial cable
Electric field inside
coaxial cable
B

Outer conductor

Figure 3.4 Electric fields in the environment around a parallel plate applicator.

As a way to control the electric fields from the connector interface to the parallel plate

applicator, a hybrid design is created which encloses the parallel plate structure in a coaxial

38
structure. The design concept is shown in Figure 3.5. At the top of the enclosed structure is a

coaxial cable which connects to the RF generator. The cable is physically attached to the

applicator through a coaxial connector. The outside of cylinder is grounded and completely

envelopes the load. The bottom electrode is connected to the outside shield through an

elevated post. The top electrode is attached by a second post which connects to the center

conductor of the coaxial cable. Since the outside structure is a cylinder, the electrodes are

circular disks. The fringing fields inside the enclosure are controlled by adjusting the distance

between the electrodes and the outside walls.

39
 Figure 3.5 Parallel plate applicator enclosed in a coaxial cylinder.

There are thermal and mechanical considerations that must be considered in selecting

the materials for the heating applicator. Starting with the load, a vessel is required to contain

the liquid load and attach the electrodes to the load. The container must be a dielectric and

Teflon is selected for the load container. Teflon has excellent electric characteristics with

very low dielectric losses. Teflon also has excellent thermal properties. The thermal

conductivity of Teflon is 0.25 W/m/K and has approximately half the thermal conductivity of

40
water, 0.58 W/m/K. Because the load container is operated under pressure, the wall thickness

of the Teflon pressure vessel must be large to handle the mechanical stress.

The electrodes contact the load and they need to be electrically conductive. Suitable

materials include copper or aluminum. Aluminum electrodes are selected as aluminum has

lower thermal conductivity (238 W/m/K) than copper (401 W/m/K) which reduces thermal

losses through the electrodes. Aluminum is also lighter than copper, 2700 kg/m3 versus 8960

kg/m3. The electrical conductivity of aluminum (3.77×107 S/m) is lower than copper

(5.9×107 S/m), but still has much higher conductivity than the load and ohmic losses in the

electrodes are negligible. Another consideration is electrode corrosion. In this application, the

pH of WAS is approximately neutral (7) and electrode corrosion is not expected to be a

significant issue.

The outside enclosure needs to be electrically conductive and the diameter was selected

based on the availability of standard sizes of aluminum piping. In this design, 8 inch diameter

piping with a wall thickness of 5/16 inch is used. The posts used to provide electrical

connections to the electrodes are also machined from aluminum stock.

The optimization of the heating applicator geometry including load matching was done

using an electromagnetic simulator (COMSOL). The final dimensions for the heating

applicator are shown in Figure 3.6 and Figure 3.7. Two different designs are made to match

to the two different loads: 0.03315 N salt water or 4.5% WAS and 0.069 N salt water or 18%

WAS. The electrical circuit model of the load corresponding to the final geometry is

described in the next section.

41
 Inner conductor
Outer conductor

.1 2.54
.22 Inner conductor
3.25
6.27 (Aluminium)
Outer conductor
1.27 (Aluminium)
Air
12.06
24.6 Load
25.8

10.45 Dielectric
.42 .69 (Teflon)
6.27
1.48 1.28

.632
20.24
(All digits are in cm)
Figure 3.6 Dimensions and material specifications of the heating applicator for a 0.03315 N salt

water load.

42
 Inner conductor
Outer conductor

.1 2.54
Inner conductor
.22 (Aluminium)
2.73
6.27 Outer conductor
(Aluminium)
1.27 Air
Load
17.12
29.66 Dielectric
30.86 (Teflon)

10.45
.42 .69
6.27
1.48 1.28

.632
20.24
(All digits are in cm)
Figure 3.7 Dimensions and material specifications of the heating applicator for a 0.069 N salt

water load.

3.3 Electrical Models of the RF Heating System

The RF heating apparatus is designed to transfer power from a source to a load. The

source in this system is a high power RF amplifier and the load is salt water or WAS. The

overall heating efficiency of the system depends on the how much power is transferred from

the source to the load. Electrically, power transfer from the source to load is maximized

43
providing the impedance of the load is conjugately matched to the impedance of the

amplifier. Since the load impedance in this system changes with temperature, the amount of

power delivered to the load varies with temperature. When the source and load are not

matched, there is a mismatch loss which reduces the efficiency of transferring power to the

load. In the design of the RF heating applicator it is important to analyze the mismatch loss in

the system over temperature and maximize power transfer over the operating temperature

range.

The analysis of the power transfer from the source to load is done by converting the

load and the applicator into an equivalent circuit model. The equivalent circuits are derived

from the geometry of the load and applicator as well as the electrical properties of the load.

In the next section, a brief summary on the concept of matching and transfer is described.

This is followed by a description of equivalent circuit models for the load and the RF

applicator. After the electrical models for the load and RF applicator are available, power

transfer from the amplifier to the load is analyzed. The equivalent circuit models provide a

way to optimize the geometry of the RF applicator to maximize power transfer to the load.

3.3.1 Power Transfer

A model of the RF heating system is shown in Figure 3.8 (a). The source consists of a

13.56 MHz oscillator followed by a 1 kW power amplifier. The amplifier is designed to drive

a 50 Ω load. The RF heating apparatus and load are generically called the load. The load

impedance is Z L and the impedance is temperature dependent because the dielectric

properties and conductivity of the load change with temperature. If the load is 50 Ω, then the

maximum available power Pav from the amplifier is delivered to the load. When the load

impedance is not 50 Ω, there is a mismatch loss and the total power delivered to the load is

44
 PL  (1-  L ) Pav (W)
2
(3.12)

where  L is the load reflection coefficient defined as

Z L - Z0
L  ( ) (3.13)
Z L  Z0

The reference impedance Z 0 is equal to 50 Ω and the reflection coefficient is zero

when Z L  Z 0 . Under this condition, PL  Pav . If the reflection coefficient is not zero because

of an impedance mismatch between the source and load, then PL  Pav . The power flow

diagram of the RF heating system is shown in Figure 3.8 (b) and a transfer efficiency of

power from the generator to the load can be defined as

PL
Transfer efficiency  ( ) 100% (3.14)
Pav

45
 Load
LCC L HA
R S =50Ω
ZEQ ZHA CHA Zload Rload Cload
CCC

AC

13.56 MHz
oscillator and
power amplifier Coaxial cable(CC)

RF generator

Heating applicator(HA) including load

PL
U

(a)

Pav PL

Pref

(b)

Figure 3.8 RF heating system: (a) block diagram with equivalent circuit; (b) power flow diagram.

46
3.3.2 Equivalent Model for the Load

As shown in Figure 3.5, the load is a cylindrical volume sandwiched between two

circular plates. The plates have area A and are separated by distance d . With reference to

(2.11), the dielectric and conductivity characteristics of the load can be separated into three

components: 1) the real part εr of the complex permittivity, 2) the imaginary part  r of the

complex permittivity, and 3) the DC conductivity  DC . Each of these three parts can be

associated with an electrical model. A lossless parallel plate capacitor is created by the

dielectric  r sandwiched between the two electrodes. The capacitance is

 r 0 A
C  (F) (3.15)
d

A shunt conductor modeling dielectric losses is created by the imaginary component of the

dielectric and given by

A
GDE  ( r 0 ) (S) (3.16)
d

where  is the frequency of the oscillator in the heating system. A second shunt conductance

is created by the ionic conductivity of the load and equal to

A
GDC  ( DC ) (S) (3.17)
d

The total admittance of the load is YL and equal to

YL  GDC  GDE  j0C  GL  jBL (S) (3.18)

The admittance is complex and the real part is conductance ( GL ) and the imaginary part ( BL )

is susceptance.

The equivalent circuit for the salt water and WAS loads are shown in Figure 3.9. The

salt water load consists of two circuit elements: a capacitance created by the dielectric

47
constant of water and a shunt conductance to model the ionic conductivity of the solution.

WAS is modeled by three circuit elements: a capacitance created by the real part of the

dielectric constant, a shunt conductance associated with the imaginary part of the dielectric

constant which relates to the β dispersion characteristics of the biological material, and a

second shunt conductance corresponding to the ionic conductivity of WAS. The two

conductances in the circuit model for WAS can be combined into a single shunt conductance

as shown in Figure 3.9.

BWAS GWAS _ DC GWAS _ beta GWAS  GWAS _ DC  GWAS _ beta

(a)

GWAS  Gsalt

Bsalt  BWAS

(b)

Figure 3.9 Equivalent circuit representation of (a) WAS and (b) salt water solution.

As shown in (3.15) through (3.18), the electrical model is dependent on the ratio of the

area of the plates to the separation of the plate, A / d . The physical scaling ratio A / d can

therefore be used to adjust the admittance or impedance ( Z L  1/ YL ) of the load. Since the

electrical properties of the load are temperature dependent, the physical scale ratio is selected

48
to create the best matching condition at the mid-point of the temperature range. The

operating temperature range for the heating system is from room temperature (20°C) to

120°C with a mid-point temperature value of 70°C.

At 70°C, the physical scale ratio is adjusted such that the real part of the load

impedance is equal to 50 Ω. The residual imaginary part of the load impedance, which is

capacitive, is compensated in the design of the RF heating apparatus by adding series

inductance so that the overall impedance of the load is ideally 50 Ω at a temperature of 70°C.

The design values for the plate area and plate separation are summarized in Table 3.3 for a

load volume of 400 mL. The table also includes circuit values for the load.

Table 3.3 Equivalent circuit and geometrical parameters for WAS and salt water loads at 25°C.

Load B (S) GDE (S) GDC (S) r (cm) d (cm) A (cm2)

.03315 N 7.97 104 - 4.65 103 3.25 12.06 33.18

salt water

4.5% 9.48 104 2.87 105 4.62 103

WAS

.069 N salt 1.65 103 - 2 102 2.73 17.125 23.38

water

18% WAS 2.97 103 1.93 102 7.63 104

Although the design so far includes only the load, it is insightful to evaluate the

transfer efficiency at this point. The impedance and transfer efficiency of the analytic load

model is shown in Figure 3.10 and Figure 3.11. It turns out that the imaginary component of

the load impedance (reactance) is quite small relative to the real part of the load impedance

and the transfer efficiency is nearly 100% at a temperature of 70°C. Over the entire operating

49
temperature range, the power transfer efficiency is greater than 84.5%. The results confirm

that using the physical area and separation of the plates shown in Table 3.3 provide a good

match to the RF amplifier.

120
R0.03315N
100 X0.03315N
R4.5%WAS
80 X4.5%WAS
R0.069N
Impedance ( )

60
X0.069N
40 R18%WAS
X18%WAS
20

-20

-40
20 25oC 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 3.10 Impedance of salt water and WAS as a function of temperature.

100

98
Power transfer efficiency in (%)

96

94

92

90

88 0.03315 N salt water

4.5% WAS
0.069 N salt water
86
18% WAS

84
20 25oC 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 3.11 Power transfer efficiency of salt water and WAS load as a function of temperature.

50
3.3.3 Electrical Model for the Enclosure

The coaxial load enclosure and the cable interface from the RF applicator add

additional capacitance and inductance to the system. Since the total load impedance

presented to the amplifier is measured at the connector interface to the amplifier, the

additional capacitance and inductance modifies the net load impedance. An equivalent circuit

model for the complete heating apparatus is shown in Figure 3.8 (a). The load is modeled by

a shunt resistor Rload and shunt capacitor with reactance X load . The load model corresponds to

the equivalent circuits developed before in section 3.3.2.

The coaxial enclosure that encapsulates the load also has stray capacitance and series

inductance. The capacitance is primarily associated with the top plate which is electrically

isolated from the grounded outside cylinder that shields the load. The metal post which

connects the top electrode to the center conductor of the coaxial connector and the metal post

that connects the bottom electrode to ground have a small amount of inductance. The

capacitance and inductance of the enclosure are modeled by an LC section with inductance

LHA and CHA as shown in Figure 3.8 (a).

The last section of the equivalent circuit model is a LC section which models the

capacitance and inductance of the coaxial cable which connects the amplifier to the heating

apparatus. A short length of the RG-58/U coaxial cable is used for the connection and

analytical models for the capacitance and mutual inductance of the cable are readily available

from any introductory book on electromagnetics [21]. In this design, the cable length is 30.48

cm, the inner conductor has a radius of 1.1 mm and the dielectric has a radius of 3.57 mm. A

diagram of the cable geometry is shown in Figure 3.12. The dielectric is Teflon with a

51
  = 2. With these values, the capacitance and inductance of the
relative permittivity of  TF

cable can be calculated as shown in Table 3.4.

rout  3.57 mm

rin  1.1mm

(a)

 30.48cm

(b)

Figure 3.12 Connecting coaxial cable geometry: (a) cross section; (b) side view.

Table 3.4 Capacitance and inductance of the connecting coaxial cable.

0 rout  0
2 TF
LCX = ln( ) (nH) CCX = (pF) ZCX= LCX (Ω)
2 rin r
ln( out ) CCX
rin

71.85 28.77 49.97

All element values of the equivalent circuit model are known except for the enclosure

capacitance and inductance. There are no readily available equations to calculate these values

52
because the geometry involved is complex. An alternate way to determine the equivalent

circuit values is to find the energy stored in the electric and magnetic fields and then

calculate capacitance and inductance from energy.

The energy in the fields can be obtained from electromagnetic simulations of the

enclosure. A simulation tool called COMSOL is used for the simulating the fields in the

enclosure. Once the fields are found, the electric energy We and the magnetic energy Wm can

be found. The stored energy is partitioned between the load which corresponds to the fields

within the cylindrical load between the electrodes, and the stray fields inside the enclosure

but outside the load cylinder. If the total electric energy stored inside the heating apparatus is

We and the total electric energy stored within the load cylinder is We,load , then

1
We - We _ load  CHAVm 2 (J) (3.19)
4

In this equation CHA is the effective capacitance of the enclosure (see Figure 3.8) and Vm is

the peak voltage of the source used in the simulation.

In this work, there are two different physical design configurations corresponding to

the design of a heating applicator for 4.5% WAS and 18% WAS. The equivalent salt water

loads are 0.03315 N and 0.069 N, respectively, and from electromagnetic simulations using

salt water loads, the capacitance, CHA , is estimated to be 9.6 pF and 11.3 pF, respectively.

A similar calculation can be made to estimate the inductance of the enclosure. Unlike

the calculation of the equivalent capacitance of the enclosure where the load and enclosure

both have capacitance, the load does not have significant inductance and the inductance is

primarily related to the enclosure only. Recall that the load models in section 3.3 do not

include any inductive elements - only resistance and capacitance. Therefore, the total

53
magnetic energy integrated over the interior volume of the enclosure can be used to estimate

the equivalent inductance of the enclosure. The relation between magnetic energy Wm and the

inductance of the enclosure LHA is

1
Wm  LHA I m 2 (J) (3.20)
4

where I m is the peak current of the source used in the simulation. Using this method, the

estimated inductance of the enclosure for 4.5% WAS is 117 nH and for 18% WAS is 143 nH.

The estimated values of the capacitance and inductance of the enclosure were obtained

from electromagnetic simulations using a salt water load at a temperature of 70°C. The

equivalent model values are ideally constant and independent of the load temperature.

However, the stray electric field does change slightly because the load capacity changes and

there is a small variation in the equivalent component values of the enclosure depending on

the temperature used in the simulation. The results are summarized in Table 3.5. As shown

the maximum variation in capacitance is 0.5 pF and the maximum variation in inductance is

3.7 nH. The variations are within 5% of the average values, and in the following sections, the

equivalent circuit model for the enclosure uses the average values to calculate transfer

efficiency.

Table 3.5 Intrinsic capacitance and inductance for the heating apparatus.

Load LHA (nH) LHA (nH) LHA (nH) CHA (pF) CHA (pF) CHA (pF)

(Average) (Maximum) (Minimum) (Average) (Maximum) (Minimum)

0.03315 N 116.7 117.6 113.9 9.68 9.70 9.16

0.069 N 143.4 144.4 140.7 11.27 11.07 11.22

54
3.4 Analytic and Simulated Results for Power Transfer Efficiency

The equivalent circuit models developed in the previous section are used to calculate

analytic values for the impedance and power transfer efficiency as a function of temperature.

In this section, the analytic results are compared with a full electromagnetic simulation of the

heating applicator.

The COMSOL models for the two different heating applicator designs are shown in

Figure 3.13. The DC conductivity is larger for the higher molarity (0.069 N) load;

consequently, the area of the electrodes is reduced and the spacing between the electrodes is

increased relative to the 0.03315 N design to maintain a nominal 50 Ω load impedance. The

simulation includes conductivity and dielectric material property changes as a function to

temperature.

(a) (b)
Figure 3.13 COMSOL models of the heating applicator for 0.03315 N salt water (a) and 0.069 N

salt water (b).

55
 By measuring the ratio of the phasor voltage over the phasor current at the coaxial

connector interface, the equivalent impedance of the heating applicator can be determined

from the simulation. The simulation results for the two applicator designs are shown in

Figure 3.14 and Figure 3.15. The figures include the corresponding analytic results derived

from the equivalent circuit models for the enclosure and load. As shown, the simulated and

analytic results are nearly identical.

100
Analytical (resistance)
Analytical (reactance)
Simulation (resistance)
Simulation (reactance)

50
Impedance ( )

-50
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 3.14 Impedance of the RF heating system for a 0.03315 N salt water load.

56
 150
Analytical (resistance)
Analytical (reactance)
Simulation (resistance)
Simulation (reactance)
100
Impedance ( )

50

-50
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 3.15 Impedance of the RF heating system for a 0.069 N salt water load.

The simulated impedance results can be used to predict the efficiency of transferring

RF generator power to the load using (3.12) through (3.14). The simulated efficiency

characteristics are shown in Figure 3.16 and Figure 3.17. Analytic model results are included

for comparison and similar to impedance, there is close agreement between simulated and

analytic results.

57
 100

98
Power transfer efficiency (%)
96

94

92

90

88

86

84 Analytical
Simulation
82
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 3.16 Power transfer efficiency of the RF heating system for a 0.03315 N salt water load.

100

98
Power transfer efficiency (%)

96

94

92

90

88

86
Analytical
Simulation
84
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 3.17 Power transfer efficiency of the RF heating system for a 0.069 N salt water load.

The COMSOL electromagnetic simulation results can also be used to predict the

uniformity of the electric field between the electrodes. The simulator calculates the electric

field in a three dimensional model and the field variation in a YZ plane that passes through

58
the center of the load is shown in Figure 3.18. The field intensity between the electrodes is

plotted as a function of distance from the top electrode. The input power is 1 kW and the

electric field is approximately 37 V/cm for the 0.03315 N load and 26 V/cm for the 0.069 N

load. A larger field is expected for the 0.03315 N load, since the electrodes are spaced closer

than in the 0.069 N design. In both designs, the field is uniform and uniform heating is

expected.

Figure 3.18 Electric field across the load as function of distance (arc length) for (a) 0.03315 N salt

water load and (b) 0.069 N salt water load.

59
Chapter 4: Experimental Results

A prototype RF heating applicator was built and tested. The RF heating system

includes the RF generator, the applicator, and software to measure load temperature and

control RF generator power. The applicator was tested with salt water loads and samples of

WAS. Loads were heated from room temperature to 120ºC and impedance measurements of

the applicator and load were made to verify the design. Excellent results were obtained and

the RF heating applicator shows significant promise as a method of heating liquid and sludge

loads.

4.1 Design of the Experimental Test Bed

As described in Chapter 3, the RF heating system consists are three main components:

1) the RF generator, 2) the RF heating applicator, and 3) a coaxial cable to connect the RF

generator to the applicator. A software control system is also required to control the load

temperature in the applicator. An experimental test bed for heating WAS with a 4.5% bio-

solid content was implemented. Pictures of the test bed are shown Figure 4.1 and annotations

are added to identify the primary components in the system. A detailed description of the

implementation of each of the heating system components is described in the following

sections.

60
 Figure 4.1 Pictures of the experimental test bed: (a) RF heating system and software control; (b)

components of the RF heating system.

61
4.1.1 RF Generator

The RF generator is the source in the heating system and delivers the required power to

heat the load in the applicator. As described in section 2.4, a frequency of 13.56 MHz was

selected for the design based on the dielectric properties of the load and the frequency falls

within a band that is allocated to industrial, scientific and medical applications.

The RF generator consists of a 1 kW class E power amplifier (PA). The power

amplifier module is commercially available as an evaluation unit from Directed Energy, Inc,

Colorado, model number PRF-1150. The input signal to the amplifier is a sinewave source

generated by an arbitrary waveform generator, Standford Laboratories model DS345. The

power amplifier module requires three external power supplies. A 5 V power supply (Agilent

6824A) is required for DC logic and control circuits in the module, a 15 V power supply

(Agilent E3632A) is required for the driver stage, and the output power stage requires a high

voltage DC supply (Ametek XFR 300-4) that can range from 100 V to 300 V. The power

amplifier, waveform signal generator, and the DC power supplies are shown in Figure 4.2.

The entire RF generator system is equivalent to a sinusoidal source at a frequency of 13.56

MHz with 50 Ω output impedance.

62
 5V DC power supply
Signal generator Voltmeter
PA

15V DC
power supply
300V DC power supply

R s =50Ω

AC

Figure 4.2 Components of the RF generator.

63
 The amplitude of the RF generator is dependent on the high voltage DC supply voltage

which powers the amplifier module. Power is proportional to the square of voltage; therefore

there is ideally a square law relationship between the DC supply voltage and the power

delivered to the load. The square law relationship is ideal and does not consider the losses in

the amplifier circuit. The implication of losses is that the power efficiency of the amplifier

varies with the supply voltage which leads to a deviation from the square law relation

between supply voltage and the power delivered to the load.

4.1.2 Coaxial Cable Interconnect

A short length of coaxial cable (RG-58/U) is used to connect the RF generator to the

heating applicator. A photograph of the coaxial cable is shown in Figure 4.3. The coaxial

cable has a length of 30.5 cm with two male BNC connectors attached to each end of the

cable. The output connector on the power amplifier module is a female BNC connector. The

heating applicator has a female N-type coaxial connector and an adapter (BNC to N) is used

to connect the cable to the applicator. The cable and connectors have a characteristic

impedance of 50 Ω, and if the generator and load are perfectly matched, the cable does not

introduce any significant mismatch loss in the heating system.

64
 C CX LCX

Figure 4.3 Connecting coaxial cable (RG 58).

Since the load is not a constant 50 Ω impedance, the impedance presented to the RF

generator interface is modified by the coaxial cable. In Chapter 3, the cable was modeled as a

LC lumped element circuit. The equivalent circuit component values can be determined

experimentally by measuring the input impedance of the cable for different termination

conditions at the other end of the cable.

Impedance measurements are made with an Agilent model 5061A vector network

analyzer. The network analyzer measures impedance as a function of frequency at a

65
calibrated reference plane. With reference to Figure 4.3, the equivalent circuit model for the

coaxial cable consists of a series inductor series inductor LCX and a shunt capacitor CCX . The

model is valid at low frequencies and the cable length is much less than the wavelength at

13.56 MHz. The inductance and capacitance of the cable are found by measuring the input

impedance of the cable with a short circuit termination at the other end of the cable. With a

short circuit on the right-hand interface in Figure 4.3, the input impedance looking in from

the left-hand side is a parallel resonant circuit. At low frequencies, the impedance of the

parallel resonant circuit is dominated by the inductor, while at high frequencies, the circuit is

dominated by the capacitance. There is also a resonant frequency where the reactance of the

two elements completely cancels and the input impedance is nearly zero because of the short

circuit termination. Therefore, at low frequencies ( flow )

Zin  j 2 flow LCX (Ω) (4.1)

and at resonance ( f r )

1
Zin  0  CCX  (4.2)
(2 f r )2 LCX

Input impedance measurements were made over a frequency sweep range of 300 kHz

to 500 MHz with a short circuit termination. At a low frequency ( flow ) of 300 kHz, the

extracted value of the inductance is 75 nH. The input impedance had a parallel resonance at a

frequency of 339.8 MHz from which an equivalent cable capacitance of 29.2 pF is obtained.

In Chapter 3, the analytic and modeled values for the equivalent circuit were presented, and

the cable inductance was 72 nH and the cable capacitance was 28.7 pF. The analytic and

measured values are similar, and the close agreement supports the choice of the equivalent

circuit model topology used for analysis.

66
4.1.3 Heating Applicator

The electrical design of the RF heating applicator was described in Chapter 3, and for a

4.5% WAS load, the dimensions of the applicator were given in Figure 3.6. From the

electrical design, the size and spacing of the electrodes were determined to provide a good

match between the load and the RF generator for a load volume of 400 ml. The electrical

design included modeling the coaxial connector interface to the electrodes and the coaxial

enclosure which shields the applicator.

Although the electrical design determined the principal geometry of the applicator,

there are also very important mechanical design requirements for the heating applicator.

Since the apparatus is designed to heat liquid and sludge loads above 100°C, the applicator

must heat the load under pressure to maintain a constant volume. In other words, the RF

heating applicator can be thought of as a RF or electromagnetic pressure cooker. Since the

applicator operates under pressure, the design requires materials, seals, and safety valves that

are consistent with a maximum operating temperature range of 120°C. The mechanical

design of the heating system was done by another member of the research team, Ehssan

Koupaie. Ehssan is a PhD student in environmental engineering and he will use the RF

heating applicator to conduct experiments with WAS.

The heating applicator was built in the machine shop at UBC and a picture of the final

prototype is shown in Figure 4.1. The prototype consists of three main parts: 1) a top

electrode assembly which includes an aperture for a pressure relief valve and a temperature

sensor, 2) a thick walled Teflon pressure vessel with seals and a capacity of 400 ml, and 3) a

coaxial aluminum enclosure that has the RF connector which connects to the RF generator.

More detailed photographs of the top electrode assembly are shown in Figure 4.4. The

67
electrode is an aluminum disk cut from half inch aluminum plate. The electrode has blind

holes that are used to mount the electrode to a Teflon cap and aluminum plate. The Teflon

cap matches the outside diameter of the Teflon pressure vessel and the aluminum plate is

used to clamp the assembly to the outside aluminum enclosure.

68
Figure 4.4 Photo of the top electrode assembly in the heating apparatus.

69
 The Teflon pressure vessel is shown in Figure 4.5. At the bottom of the vessel is the

bottom electrode which is connected to a coaxial N type connector. An O-ring seal is

sandwiched between the electrode and the Teflon vessel. At the top of the Teflon vessel, a

second O-ring seal is used to seal the top electrode to the container walls.

70
Figure 4.5 Photos of the Teflon load vessel.

71
 Photographs of the aluminum enclosure are shown in Figure 4.6. Looking in from the

top of the enclosure shows a hole where the RF connector on the Teflon pressure vessel

passes through to the outside of the enclosure. Since the bottom electrode is sealed inside the

Teflon pressure vessel, the port for the connector does not require additional seals. The

enclosure is made from 8’’ aluminum pipe with a 5/16’’ wall thickness. Two flanges are

welded to the enclosure. The top flange has holes to bolt the top plate of the applicator to the

enclosure. The bottom flange is used as a base for the applicator.

72
Figure 4.6 Photos of the aluminum enclosure.

73
 After fabricating the prototype, the electrical characteristics of the applicator were

measured. As described in Chapter 3, the load in the pressure vessel can be modeled as a

shunt resistor and capacitor. The resistance and capacitance are temperature dependent and

designed to be matched to 50 Ω at a temperature of 70°C. The enclosure adds parasitic

inductance ( LHA ) and capacitance ( CHA ), and the values are measured experimentally to

compare with values obtained from electromagnetic simulations. Figure 4.7 shows the

applicator and the equivalent circuit model.

74
Figure 4.7 Photo of the heating apparatus and the corresponding equivalent circuit model.

75
 A two-step process was used to measure and extract the equivalent circuit model for

the applicator. First, an impedance measurement is made without a load in the applicator.

The load capacitance is small in this case because the dielectric is air. From this

measurement, the capacitance of the enclosure is estimated. A second measurement was

made with a calibrated salt water load. The load was a salt water solution of 0.03315 N at a

temperature of 22.8°C, and the equivalent circuit values for the load are derived from the

analytic model in Chapter 3.

Starting with the no load measurement, the capacitance is measured over a frequency

range from 10 MHz to 15 MHz. In this case, the capacitance is the sum of the capacitance of

the enclosure, CHA , and the capacitance of the load cylinder, Cload , estimated to be 0.25 pF.

The capacitance of the enclosure is then determined by subtracting the load cylinder

capacitance from the measured capacitance. The inductance, LHA , does not contribute

significantly to the impedance measurement. Therefore, under this condition

1
Zin  (Ω) (4.3)
j 2 f (CCX  Cload )

The corresponding capacitance of the enclosure extracted using this method is shown in

Figure 4.8. At a frequency of 13.56 MHz the intrinsic capacitance of the enclosure is

approximately 13.9 pF.

76
 13.98

13.96

13.94
Capacitance (pF)

13.91 pF

13.92

13.9

13.88

13.86
10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14 14.5 15
Frequency (MHz)

Figure 4.8 Measured intrinsic capacitance of the heating applicator as a function of frequency.

Once the capacitance of the heating applicator is known, the impedance is measured

with a calibrated salt water load. Since CHA , Rload and Cload are all known, the inductance

LHA is found by tuning the impedance of the analytic model until it matches the experimental

results. A Smith chart is used to compare the experimental and model values as shown in

Figure 4.9. Over a frequency range of 10-15 MHz, the inductance of the enclosure is

estimated to be 115 nH. Note that it is difficult to see the two traces in Figure 4.9 which

shows that the modeled and measured values match very well. The extracted value of 115 nH

is very close to 117 nH which was the value derived from COMSOL simulations shown in

Chapter 3. The experimental values of the enclosure capacitance and inductance are used

later to generate power transfer models for the experimental heating apparatus.

77
 Figure 4.9 Measured and modeled impedance of the heating applicator with a 0.03315 N salt water

load for a frequency range of 10-15 MHz.

4.1.4 Temperature Measurement System

The purpose of the RF heating system is to heat the load in a predictable and controlled

way. Therefore, temperature measurements and temperature profiles across the load are very

important.

A K-type thermocouple, model GK11M from Test Product International, Inc. is used to

measure the temperature of the load. A small hole is drilled through the top electrode and the

tip of the thermocouple extends about 1 mm into the load. Because the vessel is under

pressure, the thermocouple is sealed into the top electrode using an adhesive called JB Weld.

The location of the temperature sensor on the top electrode is shown in Figure 4.4.

A thermocouple consists of two different metals, and at the tip, the metals are joined.

Through a diffusion process, a potential difference is developed across the two wires which

can be measured with a digital voltmeter. The digital voltage meter is shown in Figure 4.2.

The voltmeter is an Agilent 34401A unit and measurements of the thermocouple voltage are

read by a computer controlled interface to the instrument. Software implemented in LabView

78
converts the voltage measurements into temperature and displays the temperature of the load

on a graph. The temperature of the load is calculated using the following equation

T  T0  K slopeVTC (4.4)

In this equation, T0 is room temperature, K slope is temperature constant for the K type

thermocouple (24.454°C/mV), and VTC is the thermocouple voltage. The K-type

thermocouple has an operating temperature range of -40°C to +510°C. The room temperature

calibration constant T0 was determined by measuring a load in thermal equilibrium using a

mercury thermometer and the thermocouple.

One problem with the thermocouple measurement system is the susceptibility to

electromagnetic interference (EMI). It was found that the electric fields at the surface of the

electrodes are sufficiently large to create significant errors in the measurement of

thermocouple voltage. Experiments were made to shield the thermocouple wires but the

results always had significant error. An example of the interference problem is shown in

Table 4.1 where thermocouple temperature measurements are compared with a mercury

thermometer. The errors increase as the supply voltage (electric field) increases.

Table 4.1 Effect of EMI on temperature measurements.

Applied voltage (V) Thermocouple Mercury Ttc -Tmt

Error= 100 %
Ttc
temperature reading, thermometer

Ttc (°C) temperature reading,

Tmt (°C)

100 41.7 51.5 19.03

200 21.6 51.5 58.06

79
 As a way to mitigate the sensitivity of the thermocouple to electromagnetic

interference, temperature measurements are made periodically by turning of the DC supply to

the power amplifier module. The DC supply is pulsed off for 2 seconds while a temperature

measurement is made and then turns on for 10 seconds. Using this method, accurate

temperature measurements are obtained from the thermocouple. An example of temperature

measurements with and without the pulsing scheme is shown in Figure 4.10.

25
Temperature (oC)

EMI free measurement

20 EMI prone measurement

15

10
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (sec)
(a)
DC power supply voltage (V)

100

50

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (sec)
(b)

Figure 4.10 RF generator voltage (a) and load temperature (b) as a function of time.

4.1.5 Control Software

There are two modes that will be used with the heating apparatus. The first mode heats

the material under test at a specific thermal ramp rate specified in °C per minute. The second

mode heats the material at a target steady state temperature for a specific length of time. In

both heating modes, the heating rate is controlled by the DC voltage applied to the RF power

amplifier. The output power from the amplifier is proportional to the DC voltage and, by

80
measuring the temperature of the load, software implemented in LabView can control the

thermal ramp rate and heat material at a constant temperature.

Although an open loop control method can be implemented using a look-up table, there

are limitations to this method. Ideally, the power delivered to the load has a square law

relation with the power supply voltage. However, the load impedance is nonlinear which

creates deviation from the square law relation. Other significant limitations of open loop

control include increasing thermal losses as the temperature gradient between the load and

ambient temperature increases, as well as the nonlinear relationship between the power

efficiency of the amplifier and the DC supply voltage.

Given the limitations of open loop temperature control, a closed loop temperature

control system is implemented. An adaptive control loop is implemented using the least mean

square algorithm. The algorithm measures the error between the desired (reference)

temperature and the actual temperature measured using the thermocouple. The power supply

voltage is then periodically adjusted in a direction dependent on the magnitude and sign of

the error. At steady state, there is a small oscillation and the magnitude of the variance at

convergence depends on a step size parameter µ.

All the software control is implemented in LabView 2013. The software includes

graphs that show the load temperature as a function of time as well as power supply control

panels. A picture of the user interface is shown in Figure 4.11.

81
 Figure 4.11 LabView front panel control interface: (a) temperature graph and other control

display/knobs; (b) instantaneous ramp rate and PA input voltage display.

82
4.2 Thermal Profiles of the RF Heating System

Experiments were made to verify the operation of the RF heating system. The

experiments include heating salt water and WAS at different thermal ramp rates, as well as

heating loads at a constant temperature. Experiments were also made to measure the

temperature variation across the load volume since uniform heating is important.

4.2.1 Thermal Ramp Rate for a Salt Water Load

The first test conducted to verify heating profiles was to measure the thermal ramp rate

for a salt water load. A salt water load of 0.03315 N is used and the DC voltage was set to

four different voltages: 100 V, 150 V, 200 V, and 250 V. The salt water was initially at room

temperature, approximately 22.5°C, and heated to a target temperature of 80°C. The time

required to reach the target temperature was recorded and the corresponding thermal ramp

rate was calculated from the measurements. The experimental results are summarized in

Figure 4.12 and Table 4.2.

90

80

70
Temperature (oC)

60

50

40

30

20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (minute)

Figure 4.12 Ramp rate measurement for salt water load with 250 V (blue line), 200 V (magenta

line), 150 V (red line) and 100 V (yellow line) input to the PA.

83
 Table 4.2 Ramp rate of the RF heating device with 0.03315 N salt water load.

Applied voltage Room Target Time to reach Ramp rate

(V) temperature temperature 80 ̊C (min) (̊C/min)

(̊C) (̊C)

250 22.5 80 4.22 13.63

200 22.58 80 6.635 8.66

150 22.8 80 10.06 5.68

100 24.9 80 36.68 1.502

For 100 V, the thermal ramp rate is 1.5°C per minute and progressively higher ramp

rates are measured for higher voltages. The highest thermal ramp rate is 13.6°C per minute

for a voltage of 250 V. The data show that the thermal ramp rate and the corresponding

voltage are not linear. For example, the thermal ramp rate increases from 1.5°C to 5.7°C for a

50 V change from 100 V to 150 V, while the thermal rate changes from 8.7°C to 13.6°C for a

50 V step from 200 V to 250 V. The nonlinear relationship between the voltage step and the

thermal ramp rate step is related to the square law relationship between voltage and power as

well as differences in the power efficiency of the amplifier as a function of DC supply

voltage. The amplifier is most efficient at high power (high voltage) and power efficiency

decreases for lower operating voltages.

4.2.2 Thermal Ramp Rate for Waste Activated Sludge

Limited samples of WAS were available for testing and, at this point in the research

project, testing was conducted for 100 V only.2 The results for heating 4.5% WAS are shown

2
Testing is conducted in a conservative manner with the least aggressive ramp rate first. This
caution was exercised as the RF amplifier can be damaged if a test did not work as expected.
84
in Figure 4.13. For comparison, the heating for an equivalent salt water load is shown. The

sludge was heated from an initial temperature of 22.2°C to a final temperature of 80°C over a

time interval of 42.5 minutes. Therefore the average ramp rate for the sludge is 1.35°C per

minute compared to 1.5°C per minute for the equivalent salt water load (see Table 4.3).

Although salt water has similar electrical characteristics compared to sludge, the physical

characteristics of sludge and salt water are different. Sludge is heterogeneous and has 4.5%

bio-solid content from organic matter, while salt water is homogenous and the thermal

characteristics of salt water are primarily determined the properties of water. The

measurements show that a slightly lower thermal ramp rate can be expected for the sludge.

Figure 4.13 Ramp rate measurement for a 4.5% WAS load with 100 V input to the PA.

85
 Table 4.3 Comparison of ramp rates for 0.03315 N salt water and 4.5% WAS.

Load Room Target Time to reach Ramp rate

temperature temperature 80 ̊C (min) (̊C/min)

(̊C) (̊C)

0.03315 N salt 24.9 80 36.68 1.502

water

4.5% WAS 22.2 80 42.52 1.35

4.2.3 Thermal Settling Time for Heating at Constant Temperature

After ramping the temperature of the load to a target temperature, the load needs to be

maintained at a constant temperature. At a constant temperature, the load loses heat to the

ambient environment. The load is contained in a Teflon vessel and the enclosure is

aluminum. Each of these materials conducts heat from the load and power must be

periodically applied to maintain a constant temperature. For this project, a steady state

temperature is obtained when the load temperature is within ± 0.5°C of the target

temperature.

After experimenting with different pulsing schemes to maintain constant temperature,

the DC power supply is pulsed on at a voltage of 75 V after reaching the target temperature.

Using this scheme, the settling times for a salt water load were measured and the results are

shown in Figure 4.14. For a low thermal ramp rate of 1.5°C per minute using a 100 V supply,

the settling time is negligible. The load has been ramped up to a temperature of 120°C and

the pulsing scheme maintains a steady state temperature of 120°C. A second experiment was

run for the most aggressive thermal ramp rate (13.6°C per minute) using a 250 V supply. For

the fast ramp rate, the load is heated quickly and once the target temperature is reached there

86
is an initial overshoot in temperature. For this experiment with salt water, it took 9.53

minutes for the load to settle to the target temperature of 120 ± 0.5°C.

140
settling time= 9.53 minutes settling time=0 minute
120
tolerance
limit
100
Temperature (oC)

Steady state region

80
Transient
region
60
Heating
region
40

20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Time (minute)

Figure 4.14 Settling time for a target temperature of 120 C

̊ (blue line: 250 V and red line: 100 V).

The thermal gradient between the load and the ambient environment is large at a target

temperature of 120°C. If the target temperature is reduced, then the thermal settling time is

reduced. This is illustrated by measurements for a target temperature of 30°C as shown in

Figure 4.15. Similar to the experiment with a target temperature of 120°C, a low ramp rate

using 100 V does not require any settling time. For an aggressive thermal ramp rate using a

250 V supply, the thermal settling time is 6.1 minutes, approximately 3.5 minutes less than

for a 120°C target temperature. Based on these experiments, a thermal settling time of 10

minutes is recommended to cover the fastest thermal ramp rate and highest target

temperature which can be obtained using the experimental heating system.

87
 32

30 tolerance limit
settling time=0 minutes
settling time= 6.1 minutes

Temperature (oC) 28

26

24

22

20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time (minute)

Figure 4.15 Settling time for a target temperature of 30 ̊C (blue line: 250 V and red line: 100 V).

4.2.4 Thermal Gradient between the Electrodes

An important objective for the RF heating system was to design a heating system

which produces uniform heating across the load. The electrical design of the apparatus

consists of two electrodes, and providing the leakage fields outside the Teflon cylinder are

small, the field is expected to be approximately uniform across the load.

The electromagnetic simulations of the electric field profile across the load were shown

earlier in section 0. If there were no thermal losses in the system, a uniform electric field

would create uniform heating and the temperature would be constant across the load.

However, there are thermal losses in the RF heating system which creates a deviation from a

uniform thermal profile. Thermal conduction losses include heat loss through the aluminum

electrodes, the Teflon vessel, and the aluminum enclosure.

The thermal profile of the temperature between the electrodes was measured by

inserting a mercury thermometer into the load through a small hole in the electrode. The hole

88
in the top electrode was shown earlier in Figure 4.4 and the hole is normally used for a

connection to the pressure relief valve. An illustration of the measurement method is shown

in Figure 4.16. The thermometer is inserted into the load at five different depths. The five

depths are uniformly spaced across the load in 30.15 mm increments. In order to calibrate the

insertion depth, the thermometer was marked as shown in Figure 4.17.

Figure 4.16 Thermometer tip positions for measuring temperature across load.

89
 Figure 4.17 Marks on the mercury thermometer used to set insertion depth in the load.

A large number of experiments were run with the salt water load to measure the

temperature gradient across the load. Measurements were made at steady state temperatures

from 30°C to 90°C in 10°C steps. A thermal settling time of ten minutes was used before

each measurement was made. The upper limit of 90°C is the maximum temperature before

the volume of the load expands significantly and starts to bubble through the hole in the top

electrode. For each temperature step, the thermal gradient was measured for four different

initial ramp rates using 100 V, 150 V, 200 V and 250 V. The results for each steady state

temperature measurement are shown in Figure 4.18 through Figure 4.21.

90
 50

Temperature (oC)
Top heating plate Bottom heating plate
40

30

20

10
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Distance across load (mm)

60
Temperature (oC)

50

40

30

20
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Distance across load (mm)

Figure 4.18 Thermal profile across 0.03315 N salt water load for a target temperature of 30°C and

40°C with 250 V (blue line), 200 V (red line), 150 V (cyan line), 100 V (blue circle).

70
Temperature (oC)

60

50

40

30
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Distance across load (mm)

80
Temperature (oC)

70

60

50

40
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Distance across load (mm)

Figure 4.19 Thermal profile across 0.03315 N salt water load for a target temperature of 50°C and

60°C with 250 V (blue line), 200 V (red line), 150 V (cyan line), 100 V (blue circle).

91
 90

Temperature (oC)
80

70

60

50
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Distance across load (mm)

100
Temperature (oC)

90 11.3
mm
80

70
region of -2oC lower than target temperature
60
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Distance across load (mm)

Figure 4.20 Thermal profile across 0.03315 N salt water load for a target temperature of 70°C and

80°C with 250 V (blue line), 200 V (red line), 150 V (cyan line), 100 V (blue circle).

110

105

100
Temperature (oC)

95

90

85

80

75

70
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Distance across load (mm)

Figure 4.21 Thermal profile across 0.03315 N salt water load for a target temperature of 90°C with

250 V (blue line), 200 V (red line), 150 V (cyan line), 100 V (blue circle).

92
 From the experiments, the following observations are made:

1. The thermal gradients are independent of the initial ramp voltage. This provides

additional confirmation that ten minutes is an adequate settling time for the RF

heating apparatus.

2. The temperature near the top electrode where the temperature sensor is located is

close to the target temperature.

3. The temperature in the middle of the load is slightly higher than the target

temperature.

4. The temperature near the bottom electrode is less than the target temperature and the

deviation from the target temperature increases as the temperature increases. The

maximum and minimum temperatures measured across the load are summarized in

Table 4.4. For a target temperature of 40°C the maximum temperature deviation is

+2/-3°C and for a target temperature of 90°C the maximum temperature deviation is

+2/-11°C.

5. The thermal gradient near the bottom electrode is confined to a small region of

approximately 1 cm. As an example, with reference to Figure 4.20, for a target

temperature of 80°C and with a voltage ramp of 250 V, the temperature varies from

78°C at a distance of 11.3 mm from the bottom electrode to a temperature of 70.8°C

(Table 4.4) at the surface of the bottom electrode. Over the remainder of the load

volume, the temperature is within 2°C of the target temperature.

93
 Table 4.4 Summary of maximum and minimum temperatures across a 0.03315 N salt water load.

Target temperature ( ̊C) Maximum temperature ( ̊C) Minimum temperature ( ̊C)

30 30.8 28

40 42 37

50 52.5 46

60 62.8 55.8

70 73 64.5

80 83.1 70.8

90 92 79

A temperature gradient near the electrodes is expected because of the thermal

conduction through the aluminum electrodes. Thermal conduction through the electrodes was

considered in the design phase and thin posts are used to connect the electrodes the electrical

source. Since the mechanical design of the top and bottom electrodes is similar, a uniform

thermal conduction gradient was expected as shown in Figure 4.22. Obviously the

measurements show an asymmetric thermal gradient in the region of near the electrodes, and

upon further analysis, the asymmetric gradient can be explained by a change in density as the

load is heated. With reference to Figure 4.23, as the load is heated, the density decreases

because of the increase in kinetic energy of the molecules in the load. The less dense

molecules float to the top of the Teflon enclosure and gravity acts on the colder molecules

that are denser. The movement of mass is a thermal convection process, and in steady state,

the temperature at the bottom of the vessel is cooler than the top of the vessel. The same

observation can be made after heating a cup of water in a microwave oven. Therefore, the

94
primary reason for the steeper temperature gradient at the bottom electrode arises from the

orientation of the experimental apparatus where the electrodes are in a vertical profile.

Improvements in the apparatus could include mechanisms to rotate or stir the load. These

recommendations are included in Chapter 5 under the discussion of future work.

Figure 4.22 Temperature gradient across the load due to heat conduction loss.

95
 Figure 4.23 Temperature gradient across the load due to heat conduction loss and water density

variation.

4.3 Impedance and Power Transfer Measurements

Experimental measurements of impedance were made with an Agilent model 5061A

vector network analyzer. The impedance measurements were made at different temperatures,

and from the impedance data, the transfer efficiency of power from the RF generator to the

load can be calculated using equations shown in section 3.3. The experimental results for a

salt water load and WAS are described next.

4.3.1 Salt Water Load

A series of impedance measurements were made for a 0.03315 N salt water load over a

temperature range of 30°C to 120°C. The load was heated using two different ramp rates and

then held at a steady state temperature for ten minutes before making an impedance

96
measurement with the network analyzer. The ramp rates correspond to 100 V and 250 V

power supply voltages, and for each ramp rate, the load temperature was increased in 10°C

steps from 30°C to 120°C. At each temperature step, a dwell time of ten minutes was used

such that the load reached a steady state temperature. After reaching a steady state

temperature, the RF heating applicator was disconnected from the RF generator and

connected to the vector network analyzer to measure impedance. Two impedance

measurements were made at a frequency of 13.56 MHz. The first measurement was made at

the RF generator interface to measure the total impedance of the overall system presented to

the RF generator and the second measurement was made at the connector interface to the

applicator (see Figure 3.8). The impedance measurements for all the experiments are

summarized in Figure 4.24 and Figure 4.25.

100
Resistance (100 V)
Resistance (250 V)
80 Reactance (100 V)
Reactance (250 V)

60
Impedance ()

40

20

-20
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 4.24 Measured impedance of the RF heating applicator with a 0.03315 N salt water load for

two different ramp rates.

97
 100
Resistance (HA including load)
Reactance (overall system)
80 Resistance (overall system)
Reactance (HA including load)

60
Impedance ()

40

20

-20
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 4.25 Impedances for the RF applicator and the RF applicator plus the coaxial cable (overall

system) with a 0.03315 N salt water load.

Several observations can be made from the impedance measurement data.

1. The impedance measurements for the 100 V ramp rate and the 250 V ramp rate

are very similar (see Figure 4.24). This result is expected because the load is

held at a steady state temperature for each temperature step and the ramp rate

only affects how fast the load can be heated.

2. The real part of the impedance (resistance) is very close to 50 Ω at a

temperature of 70°C (see Figure 4.24). The 70 °C reference point for the best

match is consistent with the design objective where the match is optimum near

the midpoint of the operating temperature range. These measurements confirm

that the experimental apparatus meets the original design specifications for a

calibrated salt water load.

3. With reference to Figure 4.25, the impedance measurements of the RF heating

apparatus and the measurements with the addition of the coaxial cable (overall

98
 system) are similar. This shows that when the applicator is designed to be

matched to 50 Ω, the additional coaxial transmission line with a characteristic

impedance of 50 Ω does not significantly modify the impedance presented to

the RF generator.

The impedance measurements can be used to calculate the efficiency of power transfer

from the RF generator to the load using equations shown in section 3.3. The corresponding

power transfer characteristics are shown in Figure 4.26. The power transfer efficiency is

greater than 93% over the entire operating temperature range, and peak efficiency occurs

between 60°C and 70°C. The peak efficiency point is where the load impedance is very close

to 50 Ω.

100

99
Power transfer efficiency (%)

98

97

96

95

94

93
Heating applicator
Overall system
92
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 4.26 Measured power transfer efficiency with a 0.03315 N salt water load.

99
4.3.2 Waste Activated Sludge

The input impedance of the RF heating apparatus was measured with WAS. The load

was heated using a 100 V ramp and then held at a steady state temperature for ten minutes

before making an impedance measurement with the network analyzer. Impedance

measurements were made in 10°C increments over a temperature range from 30°C to 120°C.

At each temperature point the impedance was measured at both the connector reference plane

and at the RF generator plane which includes the coaxial cable. The real (resistive) and

imaginary (reactive) components of the impedance measurements are shown in Figure 4.27.

80
Resistance (HA including load)
70 Reactance (overall system)
Resistance (overall system)
60 Reactance (HA including load)
50
Impedance ()

40

30

20

10

-10

-20
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 4.27 Measured impedance for the RF heating system with a 4.5% waste activated sludge

load.

From the impedance measurements, the real part of the impedance is approximately 50

Ω at a temperature of 40°C. The design objective was to match the real part for a temperature

range of 70°C which is the midpoint of the 30°C to 120°C operating temperature range. The

difference between the measured result and the design objective can be attributed to the

variation in the dielectric properties of the sludge. The design was based on a dielectric study

100
carried out several years ago and the samples tested for this experiment were recently

obtained from the Kelowna water treatment plant. Although both samples have a bio-solid

content of 4.5% the ionic conductivity of the samples is different. Many more samples would

have to be tested to determine the standard deviation of the dielectric characteristics and this

is recommended in future work.

Despite the variance in the dielectric characteristics of WAS, sludge samples can still

be heated very efficiently using the RF heating system. This is illustrated by the power

transfer efficiency graphs shown in Figure 4.28. Power efficiency from the generator to the

load is greater than 86% over the entire operating temperature range. Efficiency peaks around

40°C which corresponds to the temperature where the real part of the load impedance is 50 Ω

as shown in Figure 4.28. The results demonstrate that the sludge can be heated very

efficiently using the RF heating apparatus.

100
Heating applicator
Overall system
98
Power transfer efficiency (%)

96

94

92

90

88

86
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 4.28 Measured power transfer efficiency for the RF heating system with a 4.5% waste

activated sludge load.

101
4.4 Comparison of Analytic, Simulated and Measured Results

As a summary of the RF heating system, a comparison is made between analytic

results, electromagnetic simulation results and experimental results. An important design

objective has been to implement a system that is matched to 50 Ω. Factors which affect the

match are the load impedance, the area of the electrodes, the distance between the electrodes,

and the parasitic inductance and capacitance of the enclosure and the coaxial cable. The load

impedance is the most significant variable in the design and the load impedance varies with

temperature. The operating temperature range of the heating system is 20°C to 120°C, and

the impedance match is designed for a temperature of 70°C such that the overall power

transfer to the load remains high over the entire operating temperature range.

A summary of the impedance characteristics of the overall heating system including the

coaxial cable is shown in Figure 4.29. For the salt water load with a concentration of 0.03315

N there is very close agreement between analytic, simulated and measured results. Salt water

is a homogenous load with well controlled electrical characteristics that make it ideal for

design and verification.

After verifying the RF heating system with a salt water load, the system was tested

with WAS. The sludge samples were obtained from effluent at the Kelowna wastewater

treatment plant and the electrical properties of sludge are much more variable than a prepared

salt water solution. The sludge is heterogenous and has 4.5% organic solid content. The

experimental results in Figure 4.29 show that a 50 Ω match is obtained at approximately

40°C compared to the salt water load which is matched at 70°C. Since the resistance of the

sludge is lower than the salt water load, the ionic conductivity of the sludge is higher than the

salt water load.

102
 100
Resistance of salt water (measurement)
Resistance of salt water (simulation)
Resistance of salt water (analytical)
Reactance of salt water (simulation)
Reactance of salt water (analytical)
50 Resistance of WAS (measurement)
Reactance of WAS (measurement)
Impedance ()

Reactance of salt water (measurement)

-50
20 40 60 80 100 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 4.29 Impedance comparison for the RF heating system between salt water and WAS load.

The impedance characteristics shown in Figure 4.29 can be used to calculate the power

transfer efficiency from the generator to the load (Figure 4.30). When the load is not equal to

the source impedance (50 Ω) there is a mismatch loss that reduces the efficiency of

delivering power to the load. The analytic, simulated and measured power transfer

characteristics for a salt water load are similar and peak efficiency is centered at 70°C. The

power transfer efficiency curve for WAS is also shown. The efficiency peaks at 40°C and

remains above 86% efficiency over the entire operating range. Therefore, despite the shift in

peak efficiency from a 70°C target, the load can still be heated very efficiently.

103
 100

98

Power transfer efficiency (%) 96

94

92

90

88

86 Measurement (salt water)

Analytical (salt water)
84 Simulation (salt water)
Measurement (WAS)
82
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Temperature (oC)

Figure 4.30 Power transfer efficiency comparison for the RF heating system between salt water

and WAS load.

104
Chapter 5: Conclusion

The motivation for this research project was to design an electromagnetic heating

system for treating WAS. The heating process is used as a pretreatment method to

breakdown cell walls in organic material, and after pretreatment, the organic waste is

processed in an anaerobic digester to generate bio-gas. The heating methods used in research

projects to investigate the pretreatment of sludge have so far been limited to conventional

heating process using thermal conduction and microwave heating at a frequency of 2.45

GHz. These heating processes have been selected primarily based on the convenience of

accessing commercial equipment that is readily available for conventional and microwave

heating, and there appears to be no prior work that has investigated the design of more

optimal heating systems for WAS.

5.1 Contributions

The dielectric properties of WAS were measured over a wide frequency, and based on

these measurements, a frequency of 13.56 MHz was selected for heating. The dielectric

properties show that sludge has significant ionic conductivity as well as β dispersion

associated with the cell membrane. At a frequency of 13.56 MHz, WAS has significant ionic

electrical properties that can lead to efficient ohmic heating. There is also dielectric heating

associated with β dispersion, although the heating associated with this mechanism is

expected to be much less than ohmic heating.

The efficiency of ohmic heating could be increased by reducing the frequency below

13.56 MHz but other issues including electro-chemical reactions and electrode polarization

start to become problems. Therefore, heating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz is a good

compromise.

105
 Other advantages of heating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz include uniform volumetric

heating through the load rather than conventional heating processes that rely on thermal

gradients. The wavelength of a 13.56 MHz source transmitting electromagnetic power

through a liquid medium like water is 16.6 meters and therefore, the depth of penetration of

the electric field is large. Microwave heating on the other hand has a wavelength of .092

meters in water and has a much shallower penetration depth. RF heating at 13.56 MHz also

has other advantages over microwave heating in terms of the power efficiency of the

generator. A typical domestic microwave oven has a 1.2 kW microwave tube with a power

efficiency of approximately 60%. By comparison, the RF power module in this research

project delivers 1 kW with a power efficiency of 85% and the design is implemented with

solid-state devices in a compact module. Therefore, RF heating has advantages in terms of

the power efficiency of the RF generator and higher penetration depth compared to

microwave heating systems.

Once the frequency of the RF heating apparatus was selected, the impedance

characteristics of the load were known, and an applicator to uniformly heat a load was

designed. Different design concepts were evaluated using electromagnetic simulation tools

and eventually a design based on a coaxial enclosure with two electrodes was selected. The

geometry of the design was optimized to intrinsically match the load to 50 Ω generator

impedance over an operating temperature range of 20°C to 120°C. The design included

important mechanical design requirements to operate under pressure and maintain a constant

load volume.

The design was fabricated and tested. A salt water load with similar electrical

characteristic to WAS was initially used to verify the design. Analytic, simulated and

106
experimental results using the salt water load were in close agreement. Thermal ramp rates

from 1.5°C to 13.5°C were measured and measurements were also made to evaluate the

temperature across the load. Uniform heating across the load was measured and the only

significant deviation occurred near the bottom electrode. A change in density with

temperature and convection flow in the load reduces the temperature near the bottom

electrode. Methods to improve uniform heating are discussed in the next section on future

work.

After salt water load testing, the RF heating apparatus was used to heat samples of

WAS. The dielectric characteristics of sludge are much more variable than salt water, and

despite the variation, sludge was efficiently heated to a temperature of 120°C. The RF

heating apparatus will now be used by the environmental engineering group at UBC to

evaluate pretreatment methods for WAS at a frequency of 13.56 MHz, and the heating

method will be compared with conventional and microwave heating methods.

5.2 Future Work

The RF heating system is very attractive for heating electrolytic liquids and sludges. In

addition to heating, the design can operate under pressure, and there are many other potential

applications for this technology; examples include heating processes for food and biofuels,

and heating to treat organic sludges from beer and wine making processes.

There are many design improvements which could be made to improve the RF heating

system. The temperature gradient near the bottom electrode could be reduced by changing

the orientation of the applicator or incorporating a way to stir or turn the load. Other ways to

improve uniform heating could be the implementation a tapered cylinder such that the

heating at the bottom of the pressure vessel is higher to compensate for the density and

107
convection flow in the load. Larger volumes could be heated with an array of electrodes.

Separate RF generators could be used to power different sets of electrodes to improve heating

uniformity across large volumes. A dynamic matching structure with tunable inductors or

capacitors could be used to track the load impedance as a function of temperature and

maintain very high power transfer efficiency to the load. Thermal conduction losses from the

pressure vessel could be reduced by changing the electrodes from aluminum to stainless

steel. Also, insulation could be added to the air cavity in the coaxial enclosure to reduce the

thermal gradient between the pressure vessel and the ambient environment. With many

possible improvements to this design, future research projects are possible and these may

lead to useful commercial applications of this RF heating technology.

108
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