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Researchers from DIMAS-ITACA (Universitat Politècnica de València) and the Surrey Space Centre have demonstrated that lunar regolith could be used to build roads, landing pads, and buildings on the Moon’s surface. The researchers have proved that lunar rocks, or regolith, can be heated more efficiently and rapidly using microwaves than with conventional methods such as furnace heating.

Lunar regolith is a dielectric material which can be efficiently heated to melting temperature using microwave energy. Sintered or melted regolith can then be used as feedstock to construct infrastructure on the Moon, including landing pads, roadways and habitats, making this material the focus of numerous studies aimed at enabling in-situ lunar construction.

One of the main challenges is identifying the most efficient, rapid, and sustainable way to process this material. The new research conducted by the DIMAS-ITACA Laboratory and the Surrey Space Centre shows that microwave heating could provide the optimal solution.

The researchers analysed two lunar regolith simulants representing material from the lunar plains and highlands. Their objective was to determine the materials’ dielectric properties. The simulants were heated from room temperature to their melting point under a nitrogen atmosphere. The researchers found that microwave heating enables lunar regolith to absorb energy more efficiently and much faster than conventional heating methods. As a result, microwave-assisted melting not only improves energy efficiency but also significantly accelerates the process, making it possible to produce high-quality construction materials more effectively.

José Manuel Catalá, Director of the DIMAS-ITACA Laboratory and co-author of the study, added: “In addition to optimising energy consumption, microwave heating accelerates the melting and densification of lunar regolith because it heats the material from within.”

The study was funded by the ViceRectorate for Research at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) through a PAID-06-24 First Research Projects Grant.

Day 1. 25th-November

• 10:00 – 10:30 Welcome & Opening Remarks
• 10:30 – 11:30 Microwave–Matter Interaction: A New Paradigm for Redox Chemistry at Low Temperature.
• 11:30 – 12:00 Coffee Break
• 12:00 – 13:00 Understanding Microwave-Induced Reduction: Engineering Solid-State Ionic Materials for Efficient Microwave-Driven Water Splitting.
• 13:00 – 14:00 Advanced Microwave Reactors for Fundamental Microwave–Matter Interaction Studies
• 14:00 – 15:00 Lunch Break
• 15:00 – 16:00 Microwave Reactors for Redox Processes: Design, Diagnostics and Scale-Up.
• 16:00 – 17:00 Beyond Hydrogen: Future Perspectives and Applications of Microwave-Driven Redox Processes

Day 2. 26th-November

• 09:30 – 10:00 Introduction to the Course
• 10:00 – 11:30 Training Course: Scientific Writing and Publishing. Part 1.
• 11:30 – 12:00 Coffee Break
• 12:00 – 14:00 Training Course: Scientific Writing and Publishing. Part 2.
• 14:00 – 15:00 Lunch Break
• 15:00 – 16:00 Round Table: Challenges and Opportunities for Microwave-Driven Technologies in Energy Systems
• 16:00 – 17:00 Closing Session

This study, developed together with the i-Food Group at the Universitat Politècnica de València, applies our work experience with microwave energy to third generation snacks, evaluating its impact on them and the dielectric properties and their expansion on food samples used in the work. The study has been published in Food Research International.

Third-generation (3G) snacks, a food type of widespread interest in the industry, have a longer shelf life than second-generation (2G) snacks. The primary regeneration process for these snacks involves frying and microwaving. However, only a few studies have detailed the effects of microwave irradiation on these products. This study aims to analyse the influence of the type of material, compression, and microwave power on the expansion capabilities of the pellets. Four raw materials (rice flour, rice semolina, corn semolina, and wheat starch) were combined with water to achieve uniform moisture content and extruded into pellets with different compression ratios (1:1, 2:1, and 3:1). The elaborated samples were processed at different microwave powers (heating rates of 2 and 10 °C/s) using an instrument capable of accurately delivering microwave energy to food samples while monitoring key process parameters, including dielectric properties.

A team from the Microwave Division (DIMAS) of the Institute of Information and Communications Technologies (ITACA), and the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ), a joint research centre of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has developed the design of materials that improve the process of obtaining hydrogen from water using microwave radiation. The process allows hydrogen to be obtained from renewable electrical energy, thus avoiding CO2 emissions from hydrogen production.

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Materials developed to improve hydrogen production from water using microwave radiationRead More »

Discover the innovative approach to creating metallic nanoparticles with our latest study, ” Microwave-Driven Exsolution of Ni Nanoparticles in A-Site Deficient Perovskites,” published in November 2023 in ACS Nano, American Chemical Society.

Exsolution has emerged as a promising method for generating metallic nanoparticles, surpassing traditional deposition methods such as impregnation in terms of robustness and stability.

Here, we demonstrate the exsolution of catalytically active Ni nanoparticles driven by microwaves in the absence of hydrogen or low pressures. With the aid of microwaves, we were able to generate these exsolved nanoparticles at milder temperatures and shorter exposure times than conventional thermal exsolution.

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Microwave-driven exsolution (ACS nano, 2023)Read More »