Heating performances of high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic particles in a microwave chamber

Abstract Performances of high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic particles heated in a microwave chamber were detailed and the effects of chamber volume (100 ml, 150 ml, and 200 ml), feeding load (10 g, 20 g, and 30 g), and microwave power (500 W, 700 W, and 900 W) were investigated. The results showed that the temperatures of HDPE plastic particles increased to 220.2 °C, 288.3 °C and 352.3 °C during the sixty minutes for the 100 ml, 150 ml and 200 ml chamber volumes, and the average heating rates were 3.36 °C/min, 4.49 °C/min and 5.5 °C/min, respectively. The temperatures of HDPE plastic particles increased to 150.8 °C, 155.4 °C and 220.2 °C for the 10 g, 20 g and 30 g feeding loads, and the average heating rates were 2.22 °C/min, 2.29 °C/min and 3.36 °C/min, respectively. The temperatures of HDPE plastic particles increased to 161.5 °C, 192.8 °C and 220.2 °C for the 500 W, 700 W and 900 W microwave powers, and the average heating rates were 2.38 °C/min, 2.89 °C/min and 3.36 °C/min, respectively. Equations were proposed to estimate the temperatures, and the relative errors were mainly between −16.46% and 16.03%.