Application of microwave equipment in the field of tea drying

China is a big producer of tea, and the tea-making industry is a traditional industry in China. After years of exploration and research, microwave application in the field of tea drying has made a great breakthrough. It provides a feasible idea for microwave equipment to improve the processing quality of tea and industrial modernization. The expected microwave technology has a good application prospect in tea leaves.

In the application of tea leaves, microwave heating is used to passivate the activity of phenol oxidase, evaporate part of the water, volatilize the smell of grass, and soften the tissue. At present, the production is commonly used for finishing processing; a few places use the steam finishing method. The test results show that the quality of the tea processed by microwave curing and frying is good, and there is no obvious difference between the microwave equipment, but the time of microwave curing is short (1/8 of the frying time) and can be carried out continuously. Due to the high water content of the steam, the outer layer of the raw material is affected by the high temperature, so the tea leaves almost lose weight, some chlorophyll is damaged, and the raw material The nutrients are partially lost in condensed water, and the quality is not ideal. The application of microwaves to tea leaves is mainly due to their thermal effect. When the magnetron produces microwave and shines on the tea, the polar molecules inside the microwave equipment are affected by the periodic change of the microwave and are periodically active with the microwave. Due to the high frequency of microwaves, the collision of the molecules inside the tea leaves occurs at high speed and produces a lot of friction heat to rapidly increase the temperature of the material, so as to achieve the effect of rapid heating.

In the application of microwaves in the tea drying process, the material is heated externally, the surface is dry, and the heat is transferred inward. Its direction is opposite to the direction of water diffusion transmission, which affects the outward evaporation of water. Microwave equipment and microwaves are the internal heating and high water content of the part of the heating quickly. Therefore, in the microwave drying process, the water migration speed from the inner layer to the outer layer is fast, and the drying speed is obviously faster than the hot air drying speed. The application of microwave drying to tea drying has the following advantages: fast drying speed; good product quality; because the tea surface temperature is not too high, there are fewer chlorophyll changes, green color, hidden resistance, and aroma loss. microwave equipment Dry evenly; due to the fast water evaporation speed, it is easy to form porous material, the product is good, and the contents are easily dissolved when making tea. The tea cured by microwave can improve the quality of the tea industry by one to two grades on the basis of traditional technology. At present, the tea drying equipment successfully developed by our company includes honeysuckle drying equipment and chrysanthemum drying equipment.