A process and apparatus for drying materials inside a kiln that sends heat produced from a wood burning furnace through an air-to-air heat exchanger that extracts recycled air from the kiln, heats the recycled air, and sends the recycled air back into the kiln.

Leaking of high-temperature gas inside a furnace to the outside of the furnace via a furnace body opening portion and entry of normal-temperature air outside the furnace into the furnace via the furnace body opening portion are effectively prevented. A central vent that forms an airflow curtain in a target object passage region of a furnace body opening portion and left and right side vents that form airflow curtains respectively in gap regions between the target object passage region and left and right side walls of the furnace body opening portion are provided as vents for forming airflow curtains, an airflow fa for forming an airflow curtain blows from the central vent toward the inner side of the furnace diagonally downward at an inclination angle that is smaller than 40° relative to a horizontal direction, and airflows for forming airflow curtains blow from the left and right side vents vertically downward or toward the inner side of the furnace diagonally downward at an inclination angle that is larger than 60° relative to the horizontal direction.

Systems and processes for curing a wet coating of a coated substrate are disclosed. The system includes a ventilation system and a curing room configured to receive the coated substrate being displaced along a displacement axis and includes at least an upstream curing section and a downstream curing section. The upstream curing section includes an upstream catalytic infrared heating system for producing an upstream infrared radiation at an upstream radiation intensity to heat and partially cure the wet coating while the coated substrate is being displaced through the upstream curing section. On the other hand, the downstream curing section includes a downstream catalytic infrared heating system for producing a downstream infrared radiation at a downstream radiation intensity, being lower than the upstream radiation intensity, to further cure the wet coating while the coated substrate is being displaced through the downstream curing section for producing a cured coating.

A continuous wood modification by heat process, that comprises: stacking wooden boards on a trolley at intervals; exerting pressure on said wooden boards; transferring said wooden boards to a heating kiln, pre-heated by microwave and hot air circulation, that has a water vapor flow of 2-5 meter3/hour, a temperature range of 60-100° C., and a humidity range of 50%-100%; transferring said wooden boards to a shallow drying kiln, pre-heated by microwave and hot air circulation, that has a drying temperature of 100-120° C.; transferring said wooden boards to a deep drying kiln, pre-heated by microwave and hot air circulation, that has a drying temperature of 120-120° C., an oxygen content range of 1-10%, and a water vapor flow rate of 1-10 m3/hour; transferring said wooden boards to a carbonization kiln, pre-heated by microwave and hot air circulation, that has a temperature range of 120-180° C., an oxygen content range of 1%-5%; transferring said wooden boards to a slow cooling kiln, that has a temperature range of 120-130° C., and an oxygen content range of 1%-10%; transferring said wooden boards to a fast cooling kiln, that has a temperature range of 90-100° C.; transferring said wooden boards to a rewetting kiln, that has a humidity range of 50%-100%; providing water vapor to said rewetting kiln; while being in said rewetting kiln, and when a temperature range of said wooden boards is 40-60° C., and a moisture content of said wooden boards is 6%-10%, transferring said wooden boards out of said rewetting kiln; wherein each of said heating kiln, said shallow drying kiln, said deep drying kiln, said carbonization kiln, said slow cooling kiln, said fast cooling kiln, and said rewetting kiln comprises a fan, a partition board, a shunt hood, and an exhaust port; wherein said partition board divides an interior of each of said heating kiln, said shallow drying kiln, said deep drying kiln, said carbonization kiln, said slow cooling kiln, said fast cooling kiln, and said rewetting kiln into an upper chamber and a lower chamber; wherein said shunt hood is disposed in said upper chamber; wherein said fan, said shunt hood, and said lower chamber are connected and form a air channel; wherein said lower chamber comprises a shunt plate, disposed along left and right walls of a kiln; wherein said shunting plate comprises a plurality of sieve holes that are disposed gradually dense from top to bottom; wherein one end of said shunt plate is connected with said partition board and the other end is connected with the bottom of a kiln.

Embodiments provide a unidirectional multi-path kiln with two or more chambers and generally parallel flow paths extending through the kiln, on opposite sides, from charge entry portals at a first end of the kiln to charge exit portals at a second end of the kiln. Moist heated air flowing from the second heated chamber is received in the first chamber and circulated around the lumber charges with one or more fans. The lumber charges proceed in the same direction on the flow paths through the heated second chamber, which may be an existing kiln. Charge exit portals at the distal end of the kiln and/or intermediate charge portals between the second chamber and a third chamber may be provided with insulating members configured to reduce airflow from the second chamber through the charge exit portals.

The present invention relates to a method for drying wood by using microwaves. The method for drying wood by using microwaves, according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprises the steps of: preparing wood; wrapping at least a portion of the wood by using a wrapping member; applying microwaves to the wood wrapped with the wrapping member to raise the temperature inside the wrapping member; removing the wrapping member from the wood wrapped with the wrapping member; and drying moisture of an outer layer of the wood from which the wrapping member has been removed.

A method for reducing moisture of a material includes applying microwave radiation combined with RF to the material to heat and evacuate moisture from the material during a heating cycle and optionally alternating heating cycles with drying/cooling cycles. In particular, a method is disclosed to reduce a moisture content level of a material that comprises introducing the material or plant vertically into a drying enclosure using a vertical feed mechanism. The method further includes irradiating a portion of the material or plant with microwave to heat and vaporize moisture within the material or plant during a heating cycle; combining or alternating the microwave with RF heating for a time interval during the heating cycle to reduce the moisture content level of the material or plant; and alternating the heating cycle with a cooling cycle. In certain aspects or embodiments, the system comprises at least an enclosure, a vertical track mechanism, a microwave delivery device, a radio-frequency emitter and power supply.

A process and apparatus for drying materials inside a kiln that sends heat produced from a wood burning furnace through an air-to-air heat exchanger to separate the dirty particles from the wood burning process, after which the clean hot air enters the kiln to dry the materials.

Drying device for drying hygroscopic material, for example wood, has a drying chamber for accommodating material to be dried, and air conditioning for setting a drying climate in drying chamber during drying process. Air conditioning sets drying climate, at least in part, as a function of moisture of material to be dried. There are bar-like support devices for storing material to be dried in drying chamber during drying process. At least one bar-like support device has scale for measuring weight of material to be dried that is stored on support device. Scale is in signal transmission connection with a control apparatus designed and programmed so that moisture of material to be dried is determined from weight measured by scale. Control apparatus is designed and programmed for controlling air conditioning so drying climate is set as a function of moisture of the respective material to be dried, as determined from the weight measured.

A kiln moisture measurement method and system is provided for measuring the moisture level of a charge of timber in a timber drying kiln. The method includes steps of: transmitting electromagnetic radiation from a transmitter; receiving the electromagnetic radiation at a receiver; wherein the transmitter and receiver are configured such that the electromagnetic radiation passes through at least part of the charge of timber. An electronic data processor determines the gain of the electromagnetic radiation by comparing the intensities of the transmitted and received electromagnetic radiation; and subsequently determines a moisture level of the charge based on the gain of the electromagnetic radiation.