Fuel 256 (2019) 115966

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Full Length Article

Drying kinetics of coal under microwave irradiation based on a coupled T

electromagnetic, heat transfer and multiphase porous media model
He Lia, Chunshan Zhengb, , Jiexin Lua, Li Tiana, Yi Lua, Qing Yea, Wenke Luoa, Xiangnan Zhuc
⁎

a
School of Resource, Environment and Safety Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, China
b
School of Energy and Safety Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, Anhui 232001, China
c
College of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong 266590, China

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Microwave has gained widespread popularity in coal drying. In the current electromagnetic models, coal is
Coal always assumed as a solid continuum. The thermodynamic evolution and the fluid migration in coal cannot be
Microwave accurately predicted. In this study, a fully coupled electromagnetic, heat transfer and multiphase porous media
Drying model was developed to investigate the drying kinetics of coal under microwave irradiation. Results show that
Multiphase porous media model
the temperature rise of coal during microwave irradiation is characterized by “fast-slow-fast”, and water eva-
Water evaporation
poration is the key factor in thermal distribution. The water in the hot spot decreases, while the vapour increases
and migrates towards the cold spot. The saturation time of the water always lags behind that of the vapour. In
addition, the higher the microwave power, the quicker the fluid reaches the ultimate value. The nonuniform
microwave heating enhances the thermal gradient and gas pressure gradient in coal, leading to irreversible
damage. Outcomes of this study can be used to identify the drying behaviors of coal during microwave irra-
diation and thereby help to optimize the microwave applicators.

1. Introduction
Coal is estimated to be the largest endowment of fossil fuels on
Earth [1–7]. With the development of industrial sector and increasing
energy demand in developing countries, more coal is being used
[8–13]. As a mixture of organic and inorganic matters, coal is hetero-
geneous, porous and amorphous [14–19]. Coal drying is important
before comprehensive utilization. In recent years, microwave heating
has gained widespread popularity in coal drying [20–23].
Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation having fre-
quencies of 0.3–300 GHz [24]. Materials in the microwave field are
usually categorized into insulators, conductors and absorbers [25]. In-
sulators can be penetrated by microwaves without any energy losses,
conductors totally reflect microwaves, while absorbers can absorb the
microwave energy and convert it into heat (e.g., water). Although the
coal matrix is transparent to microwaves, polar molecules such as water
can absorb microwaves and thus be heated (see Fig. 1) [26,27]. Mi-
crowave heating takes place instantaneously and volumetrically be-
cause it is realized by the conversion of electromagnetic energy to heat
[22]. The homodromous and synchronous transfer between heat and
moisture results in rapid drying [28,29].
Although experiment is the most direct way to study microwave
drying of coal, the thermal evolution and the migration of water/va-
pour in the coal sample cannot be physically predicted [30]. Recently,
numerical simulation has become a promising tool to visualize and
quantize microwave heating of materials. Yang and Gunasekaran de-
monstrated that the predictions about the temperature distribution in-
side agar gel cylinders during microwave heating based on the Max-
well’s equations are more accurate than those based on the Lambert’s
law [31]. Cherbanski and Rudniak found local overheatings in water
during microwave heating. Fu et al. investigated the microwave energy
distribution in lignite spheres through numerical simulation based on
the Maxwell’s equations [32]. However, these models ignored the
variation in the dielectric property during microwave irradiation.
It is acknowledged that the electric field is highly sensitive to the di-
electric property of a material, and the dielectric property is a strong
function of temperature and moisture content [33–35]. Therefore, tem-
perature and humidity variation during microwave heating will critically
affect microwave-material interactions [36]. Rattanadecho simulated the
temperature dependence of the dielectric property of wood through an
iterative process in a finite difference time domain (FDTD) scheme [37].
Pitchai et al. developed a finite element model to understand the tem-
perature-dependent dielectric properties of chicken nuggets [38]. How-
ever, phase change has not been considered in these models.

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chunshanzheng@aust.edu.cn (C. Zheng).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115966
Received 19 June 2019; Received in revised form 24 July 2019; Accepted 5 August 2019
Available online 13 August 2019
0016-2361/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Li, et al. Fuel 256 (2019) 115966

Fig. 1. Mechanism of microwave heating of coal.

To describe heat and mass transfer processes in foods, Datta pro- 8) Air circulation is negligible.
posed a multiphase porous media model involving internal evaporation
[39]. Halder and Datta presented a conjugate model, including both the 2.3. Electromagnetic excitation
porous medium food and the outside environment during microwave
heating [40]. Kumar et al. developed a model considering gases, liquid The frequency domain Maxwell’s equation is solved to compute the
water and the solid matrix inside the food during microwave drying electromagnetic field in the microwave cavity [30]:
[41]. Based on the model, water evaporation and the vapour pressure
were discussed. Others multiphase porous media models considering j
× µr 1 ( × E) k 02 r E=0
temperature-dependent dielectric properties and phase change can be 0 (1)
found in literatures [42,43].
where µr and r denote the relative permeability and permittivity, E is
Electromagnetic simulation of microwave heating was focused on
the electric field intensity (V/m), k 0 is the free space wave number, is
food, wood and minerals, but very little has given attention to coal.
the conductivity (S/m), is the angular frequency (rad/s), and 0 is the
Hong et al. estimated the heating behaviors of coal based on a finite
permittivity of vacuum.
element method [44]. Huang et al. proposed a coupled electromagnetic,
When microwave irradiation is applied to the coal sample, part of
heat and mass transfer model to investigate the thermal effects of mi-
the electromagnetic energy will be converted into heat [51]:
crowaves on coal [45]. Nevertheless, there is no complete multiphase
porous media model available to describe microwave drying of coal. 1
Qe = Qrh + Qml = Re (J E* + i B H*)
The main objective of this paper is to establish a coupled electro- 2 (2)
magnetic, heat transfer and multiphase porous media model to in- where Qrh and Qml represent the resistive loss and magnetic loss (kJ), J
vestigate the drying kinetics of coal under microwave irradiation. is the current density (A/m2), B is the magnetic flux density (Wb/m2),
Thermal-dependent dielectric permittivity, heat transfer in porous and H is the magnetic field intensity (A/m).
media, phase change, multiphase transport and mechanical damage
were comprehensively included in this model.
2.4. Multiphase porous media model

2. Model formulation
2.4.1. Representative elementary volume
In the model, coal is assumed as a porous medium consisting of solid
2.1. Problem description
matrix, liquid water, vapour and air. Fig. 4 illustrates a Representative
elementary volume (REV) of coal, which can be divided into solid and
Coal is a multiphase porous medium, composed of organic and in-
fluid phases [36]:
organic minerals, which in turn, contain many elements and com-
pounds [46–50]. Microwave heating of coal involves complicated V = Vs + Vf = Vs + Vw + Vg (3)
electromagnetic excitation, multiphase heat and mass transfer and
where V , Vs , Vf , Vw and Vg are the volume of REV, solid, fluid,
phase change. As shown in Fig. 2, the microwave heating apparatus
water and gas (m3).
consists of a multimode resonant cavity, two microwave generators,
The porosity of coal can be expressed as [43]:
two sets of waveguides, a gas tank, a water tower and a console. Given
that the electromagnetic field is confined to the cavity and the wave- Vw + Vg
= = +
guides, other components have been excluded from the geometrical V w g (4)
model (Fig. 3). A cylindrical coal sample is placed at the bottom of the
where and are the volume fraction of water and gas.
cavity. w g

2.4.2. Momentum conservation

2.2. Assumptions
Darcy's law is used to describe the bulk flow of fluids in porous
media [52]:
The following assumptions were made to simplify the problem and
reduce the computational time: ki, i kr , i
vi, s = pi
µi (5)
1) The wall of the cavity and waveguides is a perfect conductor.
2) The microwave frequency is fixed to 2.45 GHz. where vi, s is the velocity of fluids relative to the coal matrix (m/s), ki, i
3) The rectangular port is excited by a transverse electric (TE) wave. and kr , i are the intrinsic permeability (m2) and relative permeability, µi
4) The electromagnetic and thermal properties of coal are isotropic. is the dynamic viscosity of fluid (Pa·s), and pi is the pressure of fluid
5) Chemical reactions are negligible. (MPa).
6) Heat and mass transfer occurs only in the coal domain.
7) All materials with different phases are continuous media. 2.4.3. Mass conservation
Mass conservation equations for fluids are given by [41]:

2
H. Li, et al. Fuel 256 (2019) 115966

Fig. 2. Microwave heating apparatus.

cw
+ n w, s = I
t (6)

cg
+ n g, s = I
t (7)

(cg v)
+ n v, s = I
t (8)

where c w and cg are the mass concentration of water and gas (kg/m3),
n w, s , ng, s and n v, s are the mass flux of water, gas and vapour relative to
the coal matrix (m2/s), v is the mass fraction of vapour in gas and I
represents the phase change. The mass concentration of fluids can be
expressed as [41]:

cw = w Sw

cg = g Sg (9)
Fig. 3. Geometry model of the microwave heating apparatus.
where w and g are the density of water and gas (kg/m3), and Si is the
relative saturation of fluids:

Fig. 4. Multiphase porous media model of coal [51].

3
H. Li, et al. Fuel 256 (2019) 115966

Si =
Vi
=
Vi
, i = w, g 2.4.5. Energy conservation
Vf V (10) The energy conservation equation involves heat conduction and
convection, evaporative heat dissipation and microwave heating [51]:
T
2.4.4. Mass flow Cp, eff + (ni (Cp, i T )) = (keff T ) I + Qe
eff
t i = w, v , a (15)
The mass flux of water relative to the coal matrix can be expressed
3
as [51]: where eff is the effective density of coal (kg/m ), Cp, eff is the effective
specific heat capacity (J/(kg·K)), keff is the effective heat conductivity
kin, w kr , w kin, w kr , w (W/(m·K)), T is temperature (K), and is the latent heat of evaporation
n w, s = w pw = w (pg pc )
µw µw (J/kg). eff , Cp, eff and keff can be obtained by:
kin, w kr , w kin, w kr , w kin, w kr , w pc
= w pg + w pc = w vw , s + w cw eff = (1 ) s + (S w w + Sg g ) (16)
µw µw µw cw
(11) Cp, eff = ms Cp, s + m w Cp, w + mg Cp, g (17)
Since the capillary diffusivity Dw, cap is defined as keff = (1 ) ks + (Sw k w + Sg ( v kv + a ka )) (18)
kin, w kr , w pc
Dw, cap = w µw cw
, Eq. (18) can be written as:

n w, s = w vw , s Dw, cap c w (12) 2.4.6. Phase change

An explicit expression, I is used to describe the phase change
The mass flux of gas relative to the coal matrix can be expressed by throughout the coal domain [40]:
Darcy’s law:
I = K evap ( v, eq v ) Sg (19)
ki, g kr , g
n g, s = g pg where v and v, eq denote the current and equilibrium vapour density
µg (13) (kg/m3), K evap is the evaporation rate constant (1/s), which is defined as
The mass flux of vapour relative to the coal matrix can be expressed the reciprocal of the equilibrium time for the phase change.
by combining Darcy’s law and Fick’s law [41]:
2.5. Multiphysics coupling
cg2
n v, s = v vg , s Mv Ma Dv, a v
Our model includes physics of electromagnetic wave, heat transfer
g (14)
in porous media and multiphase flow. Multiphysics coupling is solved
where Mv and Ma are the molar mass of vapour and air (kg/mol), and using the finite element method (FEM) in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2a,
Dv, a is the diffusivity of vapour in air (m3/s). as depicted in Fig. 5. The electromagnetic losses calculated by Eqs. (1)

Fig. 5. Fully coupled electromagnetic, heat transfer and multiphase porous media model for microwave heating of coal [51].

4
H. Li, et al. Fuel 256 (2019) 115966

and (2) are regarded as a heat source in the heat transfer part of the =
2
f2 fc2
model. Multiphase heat and mass transport in porous media involves c (22)
momentum, mass and energy conservation. Microwave heating can
where f is the microwave frequency (Hz).
lead to the variation of the temperature and moisture, which in turn
As the base of the coal directly touches the cavity, the thermal in-
affects the dielectric property of coal. Once the dielectric property is
sulation boundary condition is applied at this surface, indicating that
updated, the electromagnetic field will be refreshed, making the pro-
there is no heat flux across the surface:
blem fully coupled.
n q=0 (23)

2.6. Boundary conditions The convective heat flux boundary is applied at the coal surface
except the base:
As displayed in Fig. 3, the impedance boundary is applied at the
wall of the cavity and waveguides where the electromagnetic field
q0 = h (T0 T) (24)
penetrates only a short distance outside the boundary: where h is the surface convection heat transfer coefficient (W/(m ·K)). 2

µ 0 µr
n×H+E (n E ) n = (n Es ) Es
0 r j / (20) 2.7. Input parameters

where Es is the source electric field (V/m). The input parameters for simulations are summarized in Table 1.
The port boundary is applied at the entrance of the waveguides. The Water transport under the capillary force is simulated as diffusion in
rectangular waveguides are excited by a TE wave, and the cutoff fre- coal, and the capillary diffusivity can be expressed by [51]:
quency (Hz) for different modes is given as:
Dw, cap = 1 × 10 8exp ( 2.8 + 2.0M ) (25)
2 2
c m n
(fc )mn = + where M is the dry basis moisture content. The Binary diffusivity of
2 a b (21) vapour in air can be defined as:
where m and n are the mode numbers (for the TE10 mode, m = 1, Dv, a = 2.6 × 10 5 (Sg )3 / (26)
n = 0), a and b are the dimensions of the cross section of the rectan-
gular waveguides (cm), and c denotes the speed of light (m/s). The port where Sg denotes the gas saturation, and is the total porosity.
boundary requires a propagation constant , which is given by the The intrinsic permeability of gas is calculated from water perme-
expression: ability via the Klinkenberg correction factor [53]:

Table 1
Input parameters for microwave heating simulations of coal.
Parameter Value or expression

Microwave frequency, f 2.45 GHz

Microwave power, P 1 kW
Dielectric constant of water, ' 0.2833T + 80.67 [43]
w
Dielectric constant of air, ' 1
a
Dielectric constant of coal matrix, ' 1.88 [51]
c
Loss factor of water, w" 0.05T + 20 [43]
Loss factor of air, a" 0
Loss factor of coal matrix, c" 0.1
Density of water, w 998 kg/m3 [36]
Density of vapour, v Ideal gas
Density of air, a Ideal gas
Density of coal, c 1250 kg/m3 [30]
Specific heat capacity of water, Cp, w 4176.2 0.0909(T 273) + 5.4731 × 10 3 (T 273) 2 J/kg·K [36]
Specific heat capacity of vapour, Cp, v 2062 J/kg·K [55]
Specific heat capacity of air, Cp, a 1006 J/kg·K [55]
Specific heat capacity of coal matrix, Cp, c 1250 J/kg·K [30]
Heat conductivity of water, kw 0.57109 + 0.0017625T 6.7306 × 10 6T2 W/m·K [36]
Heat conductivity of vapour, kv 0.026 W/m·K [55]
Heat conductivity of air, k a 0.026 W/m·K [55]
Heat conductivity of coal matrix, k c 0.478 W/m·K [30]
Viscosity of water, µ w 0.89 × 10−3 Pa·s
Viscosity of air, µa 3.2605 × 10−5 Pa·s
Intrinsic permeability of water, ki, w 10-15 m2 [56]
Capillary diffusivity of water, D w, cap 10 8exp ( 2.8 + 2M ) m2/s [57]
Equilibrium vapour pressure, pv,eq psat exp ( 0.0267M 1.656 + 0.0107e 1.287M M 1.513lnp ) Pa
sat [36]
Latent heat of evaporation, h 2.26 × 10−6 J/kg [43]
Evaporation rate constant, K evap 1000 1/s [58]
Convection heat transfer coefficient, h 10 W/m2·K [58]
Porosity, 0.15
Poisson's ratio of coal, 0.339 [24]
Elastic modulus of coal, E 2713 MPa [24]
Initial water saturation, Sw 0.67
Initial mass fraction of vapour, v 0.026
Initial temperature, T0 20 °C

5
H. Li, et al.
0.15ki, w0.37
ki, g = ki, w 1 +
p (27)
The relative permeabilities of the gas and liquid phase are related to
their relative saturations [54]:
kr,w = ( Sw 0.09 3
0.91 ) Sw > 0.09
0 Sw < 0.09
1 1.1Sw Sw < 0.91
kr,g =
0 Sw > 0.91
The dielectric property of coal is related to the temperature and
moisture content. The Landau and Lifshitz, Looyenga equation (LLLE)
has been widely used to estimate the dielectric property of mixtures
[36]:
1 1
= ai 3
3 i
i = s, w, g
where ai is the volume fraction of phase i, and i is the dielectric
property of phase i.
2.8. Grid independent validation
It is acknowledged that the mesh size has important influences on
the convergence and accuracy of the finite element analysis. Grid in-
dependent validation has been conducted in previous research [51]. In
this reference, nine meshing scenarios were considered for grid in-
dependent validation. The mesh element quality (MEQ) measures the
morphological regularity of the mesh elements. A low MEQ can lead to
inverted mesh elements and high condition numbers for the Jacobians,
which in turn cause convergence issues. Considering that the tem-
perature error of Scenario VII is small enough (0.01%), we selected
Scenario VIII (the element number is 909,779) instead of Scenario IX to
reduce the computational time.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Thermal evolution of coal
Fig. 6 illustrates the thermal evolution of the coal sample during
microwave heating. Initially, the coal surface temperature is uniformly
distributed. After being irradiated by the microwave, the coal sample
gradually heats up due to dielectric loss. Two minutes later, the tem-
perature in the high-energy region rapidly rises, forming a hot spot. At
the same time, a cold spot grows up in the low-energy region. As mi-
crowave heating proceeds, the hot spot extends upward as a result of
heat conduction and convection. In the 120–180 s period, the tem-
perature in both the hot spot and cold spot sharply increases. As the
temperature in the hot spot exceeds 100 °C, water starts to evaporate,
taking out a tremendous amount of heat. In addition, the increase in the
coal surface temperature enhances its heat convection with the air. For
these reasons, the hot spot ceases to expand. After four minutes, the
Fig. 6. Thermal evolutions of the coal during microwave irradiation.
Fuel 256 (2019) 115966
temperature in the cold spot exceeds 100 °C. As a result, coal warming
slows down.
Fig. 7 provides evolutions of the temperature and the evaporative
heat dissipation power along two monitoring lines on the coal surface.
Obviously, after being microwave treated for five minutes, the eva-
porative heat dissipation power in the hot spot drops to zero along Line
1. This could be attributed to the complete evaporation of water. It can
be seen that the temperature in the hot spot rises much faster than that
(28)
in the cold spot. After two minutes, high evaporation occurs in the hot
spot and, at the same time, heat dissipation occurs on the coal surface,
inducing a decline in the heating rate. The high-temperature steam
(29)
generated in the hot spot gradually spreads to the cold spot, causing a
temperature rise of the cold spot. Four minutes later, water evaporation
in the hot spot greatly reduces the water saturation and, as a result, the
evaporation tends to cease. The temperature in the hot spot rapidly
increases under the heat production by dielectric loss. At the same time,
water evaporation occurs in the cold spot. In conclusion, the tempera-
ture rise during microwave heating is characterized by “fast-slow-fast”.
(30)
Water evaporation is the key factor in thermal redistribution.
3.2. Drying kinetics of coal
Fluids in coal mainly include water, vapour and air. Microwave
heating of coal will induce water evaporation, leading to a decrease in
the water saturation and an increase in the gas saturation. The non-
uniform heating induced by microwave irradiation will increase the gas
pressure gradient within the coal sample. Under the gas pressure gra-
dient, the vapour will diffuse from the hot spot to the coal spot. When
the vapour pressure exceeds the atmospheric pressure, it will migrate
from the inside of the coal out. During this process, heat conduction,
heat convection, heat dissipation induced by water evaporation and
surface heat convection can exert profound impacts on the thermal
evolution of coal. In addition, the gas pressure gradient and thermal
gradient may lead to irreversible damage and deformation of coal.
Fig. 8 depicts evolutions of the water molality and the vapour
molality in coal during microwave heating. Initially, water and vapour
are uniformly distributed throughout the coal. The molality of water
and vapour are 5580 mol/m3 and 2.28 mol/m3, respectively. After
being microwave treated for 60 s, the coal sample heats up non-
uniformly, forming hot and cold spots. Once the temperature of the hot
spot reaches 100 °C, the water starts to evaporate. As a result, the water
molality in the hot spot decreases to 5400 mol/m3, and the vapour
molality increases to 3.42 mol/m3. Driven by the gas pressure gradient,
the created vapour starts to migrate in the coal sample. When the va-
pour has been transferred to the coal surface, it will spill out into the
atmosphere accompanied by heat dissipation. As the spill speed of the
vapour is larger than its replenishment rate, the vapour molality in the
cold spot decreases. It is an interesting fact that the vapour is uniformly
distributed across the coal surface, whereas the water exhibits a non-
uniform distribution. This is due to that the relative permeability of the
water is much lower than that of the vapour, resulting in an accumu-
lation of water. In the 60–120 s period, the vapour molality in the hot
6
H. Li, et al. Fuel 256 (2019) 115966

Fig. 7. Evolutions of the temperature and the evaporative heat dissipation power on the coal surface.

Fig. 8. Evolutions of the water molality and the vapour molality in coal during microwave heating.

7
H. Li, et al.
Fig. 9. Evolution of the water molality and the vapour molality on the coal surface.
spot increases significantly (form 3.42 mol/m3 to 7.59 mol/m3), while
the water molality decreases slightly (form 5400 mol/m3 to 4600 mol/
m3). This can be attributed to the replenishment of water from inside.
After microwave heating for 3 min, the water molality decreases rapidly
to 2920 mol/m3. The vapour generated in the hot spot gradually
spreads to the cold spot. As a result, the replenishment rate of the va-
pour exceeds its dispersion rate. Four minutes later, the water molality
in the hot spot reaches 745 mol/m3. In addition, the vapour becomes
saturated and extends to the cold spot. After 5 min, water evaporation
in the hot spot tends to cease, and the vapour molality reaches the limit.
Fig. 9 shows evolutions of the water molality and the vapour mol-
ality along two monitoring lines on the coal surface. It should be noted
that the distribution of the vapour molality is much smoother than that
of the water molality, implying that gas migrates much faster than
water. As a large quantity of water has spilled out into the atmosphere,
the decrement of water in coal far outweighs the increment of vapour.
The fluid evolutions differ considerably at different locations of coal.
The steep temperature gradient at Line 1 gives rise to significant dif-
ference in the fluid distribution. In contrast, the temperature and fluid
along Line 3 both distribute evenly. During microwave heating, the
water molality decreases, while the vapour molality increases. After
four minutes, the vapour molality in the hot spot of Line 1 reaches the
saturation value (18 mol/m3), while the water molality decreases
steadily until five minutes later. This phenomenon indicates that the
8
Fuel 256 (2019) 115966
evaporated water during the 240–300 s period has totally spilled into
the atmosphere or diffused to the cold spot. For Line 3, water eva-
poration occurs after microwave irradiation for three minutes. Neither
the water nor the vapour reaches the ultimate molality.
3.3. Coal damage induced by microwave drying
Fig. 10 provides the evolution of the difference between the gas
pressure in coal and the atmospheric pressure. Microwave heating
during the first minute induces no significant gas pressure difference. In
the 60–120 s period, water evaporation initiates at the hot spot. The low
permeability of coal impedes the diffusion and spill of gas, leading to a
rapid elevation of the gas pressure. Under the gas pressure gradient, the
air and vapour gradually migrate outwards, forming parabolic pressure
curves. Three minutes later, a large amount of gas spills out from the
hot spot and, as a result, the gas pressure declines. Four minutes later,
water evaporation originated from the cold spot enhances the gas
pressure within the coal. The maximum gas pressure difference reaches
1.54 kPa. Five minutes later, water evaporation in the coal sample tends
to cease. Therefore, the gas pressure decreases.
Fig. 11 shows the evolution of the displacement and mesh de-
formation of coal during microwave heating. In this figure, the positive
displacement represents swelling, whereas the negative value re-
presents shrinkage. Initially, the coal has no displacement or mesh
H. Li, et al. Fuel 256 (2019) 115966

Fig. 10. Evolution of the difference between the gas pressure in coal and the atmospheric pressure.

deformation. After being microwave heated, coal swelling occurs. The
anisotropic swelling causes curvature of the coal. At last, the maximum
deformation of coal reaches 0.45 mm. The deformation of coal induced
by microwave selective heating would promote the development and
opening of pores and fractures, which can accelerate coal drying.
3.4. Effect of microwave power on drying
Figs. 12 and 13 illustrate the evolution of the water molality and the
vapour molality along Line 1 under different microwave powers. Ob-
viously, the water molality decreases constantly while the vapour
molality increases with the microwave irradiation time. However, the
fluid evolution under different microwave powers exhibits different
characteristics. When the microwave power is lower than 1 kW, neither
the water nor the vapour reaches the ultimate molality. When the mi-
crowave power reaches 1.5 kW, the water molality decreases con-
tinuously, whereas the vapour molality in the hot spot reaches the sa-
turation value (18 mol/m3) after 300 s, as shown in Fig. 13c. When the

Fig. 11. Evolution of the displacement and mesh deformation of coal during microwave heating.

9
H. Li, et al. Fuel 256 (2019) 115966

Fig. 12. Evolution of the water molality along Line 1 under different microwave powers.

microwave power exceeds 2 kW, the water molality in the hot spot water. In the 240–300 s period, the region of vapour saturation gra-
drops to the ultimate value (1000 mol/m3) after 300 s, as shown in dually extends to the cold spot. When the microwave power reaches
Fig. 13d. However, the vapour molality under this microwave power 2.5 kW, the water molality in the hot spot reaches the ultimate value at
reaches the saturation value at 240 s, which is much earlier than the 240 s. In the 240 ~ 300 s period, this region gradually extends to the

Fig. 13. Evolution of the vapour molality along Line 1 under different microwave powers.

10
H. Li, et al.
cold spot. In conclusion, the saturation time of the water always lags
behind that of the vapour. In addition, the higher the microwave power,
the quicker the fluid reaches the ultimate value.
4. Conclusions
A fully coupled electromagnetic, heat transfer and multiphase porous
media model was developed to investigate microwave heating of coal.
Detailed results are as follows:
After the coal sample is radiated by microwave, it gradually heats up
due to the dielectric loss, forming hot spots and cold spots. Due to
the influence of water evaporation and thermal convection, the
temperature rise during microwave drying presents the character-
istics of “fast-slow-fast”.
The uneven heating caused by microwave radiation will cause the
evaporation of water and the change of pressure gradient inside the
coal sample. Heat conduction, heat convection, heat dissipation
induced by water evaporation and surface heat convection can exert
profound impacts on the thermal evolution of coal. Water eva-
poration is the key factor in thermal redistribution. When water
evaporation is included, the temperature increases nonlinearly.
The maximum gas pressure difference in coal during microwave
irradiation reaches 1.54 kPa. The deformation of coal induced by
microwave selective heating would promote the development and
opening of pores and fractures, which can accelerate coal drying.
The fluid evolution under different microwave powers exhibits dif-
ferent characteristics. When the microwave power reaches 2.5 kW,
the water molality in the hot spot reaches the ultimate value at
240 s. The higher the microwave power, the quicker the fluid
reaches the ultimate value.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51774135, 51704111, and 51604110), China
Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M652765), the National Key R&
D Program of China (2018YFC0808000), Hunan Provincial Natural
Science Foundation of China (2019JJ50180, 2018JJ2123), Scientific
Research Foundation of Hunan Provincial Education Department
(18C0328, 18A187), the Scientific Research Foundation for Doctor of
Hunan University of Science and Technology (E51882), Anhui
University Natural Science Research Project (KJ2019A0124) and Anhui
Oversea Returnees Innovation Project Funding (2019LCX001).
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