The TORWAVE processor is a new technology that changes the process industry landscape, delivering microwave energy with precision, thereby setting a new paradigm for industrial microwave processing and extending the range of capabilities of thermal processing equipment. Built on hundreds of sales of proven processing systems including one that was retrofitted with an industrial microwave after production, TORWAVE processors combine Torftech’s expertise in the TORBED processor and the industrial microwave processing analytical and engineering and skills of the University of Nottingham.

TORWAVE processors offer: a processing revolution by enabling large scale, high temperature, and reliable industrial microwave processing. We understand the difficulties of industrial microwave processing, so TORWAVE has been designed from the ground up with a focus on creating a robust, scalable, and flexible system. A robust system, it can operate continuously at high temperature with no issues from materials of construction or bed presentation. TORWAVE is unique in the market for thermal processing equipment.

Our technology is already making a contribution to industrial decarbonisation strategies by intensifying processes thereby reducing resource and energy use.  The TORBED processor can make use of waste heat, maximising energy efficiency.  It can also provide all electric alternatives to some gas-fired processes, facilitating commercial gas carbon substitution.  The TORWAVE processor extends the scope of our ability to support decarbonisation, extending the range of all-electric process possibilities.

As mentioned above, the TORWAVE processor, which has been specially engineered to accommodate industrial microwaves, is not the first time that a TORBED reactor has been equipped with a microwave generator. In 1999, Torftech collaborated with a project, funded by the EU and conducted by the Netherlands’ Agrotechnological Research Institute, that equipped a conventional T400 food machine with a microwave power source in addition to its standard electric heating. These combined energy sources were applied to a range of different diced vegetables, with the following results;

• very fast heating of the entire volume of the product;
  
  
• better expansion or bloating of the product due to combined fast surface heating of both the outside and inside of particles simultaneously;
  
  
• lower process air temperatures can be applied, so less overheating of the surface and temperature sensitive products can be better treated;
  
  
• improved colour due to the lower surface temperatures;
  
  
• larger sized products can be treated due to the combination heating;
  
  
• shorter process times due to more efficient heating;
  
  
• better controlled process due to instant control of heating profile by modifying the microwave power input.

These results, extracted from the report submitted to the project’s EU funding body convinced us, when the opportunity arose, that developing the TORWAVE processor would enable us to extend the range of capability of thermal processing equipment and offer superior control and results to our clients across a range of processes. Whilst much test work has focussed on foodstuffs, the first commercial TORWAVE processor has been purchased for a mineral drying application where the TORWAVE processor’s ability to loosen moisture in the centre of granules both makes the process more energy efficient and avoids over-heating of the outside of the particles.