Shaojin Wang

College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling,
Shaanxi 712100, China

Recent pathogen incidents and increased regulations on fumigants have forced agricultural product industry to seek alternatives for postharvest pasteurizations and disinfestations of agricultural products. Radio frequency (RF) has been identified as one potential treatment method to replace chemical fumigations and other conventional thermal methods because it is relatively easy to apply and leave no chemical residues. RF equipment is commercially available today, and is commonly used by the baking industry for final drying of crackers and by the other industries. It involves the direct transfer of electromagnetic energy into bulk materials, initiating volumetric heating. This presentation introduces the RF heating principle and systems, explores the difference between free running oscillator and 50 W systems, and finally demonstrates some recent developments and applications of RF systems for pasteurization and disinfestations of agricultural products, including safety and top electrode voltage determinations of the RF systems, industrial applications of RF disinfestations for walnuts and milled rice, small scale RF system development and RF heating uniformity improvements using computer simulation.