Innovative pasteurization method, use thereof and apparatus

1. A method for heating and pasteurizing a material, comprising:

placing the material inside of a semi-sealed chamber at atmospheric pressure that contains an atmosphere produced by replacing air in the chamber with a gas component produced by spraying or injecting hot water droplets and steam at a temperature of at least 100° C. into the chamber which is heated to a temperature of at least 100° C. which is equal to or higher than the temperature of the sprayed hot water droplets and steam, which gas component has a humidity of at least 95% and contains no more than 1% oxygen;

contacting said material to the gas component for exposing it to continual temperature variation during heating ranging from 10-50° C. inside the chamber at temperature(s) ranging from 90-180° C. for a time sufficient to heat or pasteurize it.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said material is frozen.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said material is an agricultural product or food ingredient.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said material is wood, metal or ceramic.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said gas component has a humidity of at least 99%.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said contacting occurs at a temperature ranging from 95-150° C.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said mixture of water droplets and steam is continuously injected into the semi-sealed chamber.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gas component is a mixture of moist hot steam and water droplets, which are produced by evaporation of hot water droplets sprayed into the semi-sealed chamber that is held at a temperature of at least 100° C.

9. The method of claim 1 that is performed using an apparatus comprising:

a heating chamber with a semi-sealed configuration that heats said material while isolating it from the outside atmosphere;

heating means that heats the heating chamber to a prescribed temperature exceeding 100° C.; and

a steam-generating means that continuously injects hot water heated to at least 100° C. and/or steam into the heating chamber, thereby generating water droplets and steam and transporting same in a prescribed direction, wherein heating or pasteurization are carried out by continuously injecting hot water heated to at least 100° C. and/or steam into the heating chamber, thereby generating hot water droplets and/or steam, and filling the interior of the heating chamber with steam and water droplets such in an atmospheric pressure state, replacing air in the interior of the heating chamber with a gas component that has a composition of at least 95% humidity and an oxygen concentration of not more than 1.0% and that is maintained in a temperature range of 90 to 180° C.

10. The method of claim 1 that is performed using an apparatus comprising as the steam-generating means, a feed water tank, a feed water pump that feeds water from the feed water tank to the heating chamber, a feed water capillary that is provided with an external heater in order to heat the supplied water to at least 100° C., a spray nozzle disposed at the tip of the feed water capillary, and a rotatable circulation fan.

11. The method of claim 1 that is performed using an apparatus comprising:

a heating means that heats the heating chamber to a prescribed temperature above 100° C. and contains a plurality of sheath heaters disposed in a hairpin configuration in a position in contact with the hot water droplets and steam generated within the heating chamber.