We propose the development of a new radio-frequency vacuum dryer that utilizes an overmoded resonant cavity to couple power to wood. The device will be much more energy-efficient than capacitor-plate devices that are currently in use. The increase in energy efficiency compared to capacitor-plate devices is great enough that the initial cost of our proposed dryer will be recovered in just a few years due to the savings in electric power consumption. Based upon research results, wood quality resulting from radio-frequency vacuum drying is equal to the quality of wood dried by conventional techniques, except that drying occurs more than 17 times faster. Since conventional drying is a slow process, substantial revenues are lost due to large inventories of wood that are tied up during processing. This monetary loss can be avoided using rapid radio-frequency vacuum drying, making the process competitive with conventional techniques. Since most of the cost of processing wood is incurred in the drying process, and because a tremendous volume of wood is processed worldwide, the economic gains of a high-speed, energy-efficient wood dryer would be enormous.
Anticipated Results:A high-speed, high-efficiency radio-frequency vacuum dryer of the type we propose would reduce the overall cost of processing valuable hardwoods. Reduced cost would stimulate widespread use of our proposed dryer on a worldwide scale. Enormous economic benefits are anticipated because of the large volume of hardwoods utilized worldwide.
