DESIGN OF THE MICROWAVE CELL BOMB TUNNELThis is a featured page


MICROWAVE CELL BOMB PROCESS Copyrighted 2009, James E. Miller. All rights reserved.

At some point the cells are as full of water and hexose as possible – the point of diminishing returns. We then heat the cells to 90 degrees or so and pipe them through the microwave tunnel. A short, high burst of energy causes the water in the cell to vaporize, creates explosive pressure, which splits the cell wall open, rather than fracture it in many small particles like the screw press does.
The opened cells and the liquid contents are separated by the vibratory membrane separator. The trick is that by keeping the burst cell wall mostly intact, we have a larger particle and thus the holes in the membrane can be larger and therefor allow for faster processing of the mix of opened sells and liquid.

The microwave tunnel consists of the following:
  • The in-line pre-heater.
  • A Pyrex tube 18” long and two inches in diameter.
  • An insert in the form of a screw inside the tube
  • Three or six magnetron tubes, set 120 degrees apart along the tube at four inch intervals. Waveguides should be used to focus the microwave energy on the target areas.
  • Reflective surfaces in or around the tube would cause MW energy not absorbed by the cells to bounce around in the target area, thus enabling additional hits.
  • An adjustable timer which pulses the microwave tubes, one or two seconds.
  • A pump to move the slurry through the tube
  • An adjustable flow control to change the dwell time, as needed.
  • Sensors for heat and pressure
  • Data logger and computer software to display and record readings
  • Microscope to verify cell lysis yield.
  • Enclosure with shielding.
  • Electrical power source.
  • Dosing tube pump for the ethanol (adjustable).

The process is continuous for both the microwave tunnel and the vibratory membrane separator.


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jimmiller5417 		Latest page update: made by jimmiller5417 , Sep 16 2009, 7:09 PM EDT (about this update About This Update jimmiller5417 Edited by jimmiller5417

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