The dehydration of borax pentahydrate to produce anhydrous borax by a new process technique, microwave heating, has been investigated. This technique solved the difficulties of adhesion, or melting, during borax dehydration. This process is a fast dehydration process in which continuous production of anhydrous borax is possible. In conventional anhydrous borax production technologies, the dehydration of borax is carried out at a temperature range of 450-750℃. The resultant borax in glassy form, is cooled, crushed and sieved. There are many technological problems associated with this technology. High purity borax up to 97.5% Na_2B_4O_7, was produced by microwave heating. The sample size was 20 grams. The dehydration was done in four stages at respective temperatures of 20℃, 180℃, 200℃ and 250℃. For the purposes of future continuous applications, a teflon belt was used, as supporting plate.
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