Heating performances of corn straw particles in a microwave chamber

Heating performance of biomass is of significant importance for the followed chemical reactions i.e. pyrolysis, gasification, combustion, etc. Corn straw (CS) is an important renewable resource. Microwave (MW) heating performances of corn straw particles affected by corn straw mass (10, 16, 22, 28 and 34 g), corn straw particle size (0.075, 0.125, 0.200, 0.355 and 0.600 mm) and microwave power (400, 450, 500, 550 and 600 W) were explored in detail in this study. It can be obtained that when the microwave powers were 400, 450, 500, 550 and 600 W, the average heating rates were 23.06, 33.19, 61.35, 88.70 and 101.46°C/min, respectively. When the corn straw particle sizes were 0.075, 0.125, 0.200, 0.355 and 0.600 mm, the average heating rates were 101.46, 61.07, 52.70, 37.34 and 56.04°C/min, respectively. When the corn straw masses were 10, 16, 22, 28 and 34 g, the average heating rates were 36.31, 46.24, 101.46, 92.95 and 46.01°C/min, respectively. Formulae were further proposed to estimate the transient temperatures of biomass particles, and the R² values ranged from 0.984 to 0.999.