Early in 2018 Geelen Counterflow will introduce its new generation of Electrical Dryers to the market. Following 4 years of development, the first Electrical Dryer for 10-12 tph extruded petfood will be built and delivered in 2018. Pilot line testing on extruded petfood during 2016 has shown that energy efficiency can be improved by up to 65%, to well below 1000 kJ per kg of evaporated water, compared to the typical 2700 kJ/kg for a counterflow dryer on natural gas or steam. When the energy for the new Electrical Dryer is from renewable sources, the CO2 footprint of the drying process can be virtually eliminated. The dryer is typically the single biggest energy consumer in an extrusion line, so any attempt to reduce energy consumption or improve the CO2 footprint of extrusion plants should start with the dryer.
The air system of the Electrical Dryer uses high temperature heat pumps to generate hot air of 125 degrees C. As an option the same air system can be fitted with full capacity gas burners for boosting of hot air temperatures.
Geelen Counterflow’s mission is to build the best dryers and coolers for the feed and food industry and to be 100% sustainable in doing so. Enabling operators of extrusion lines to dry their products without the use of fossil fuels is a big part of that mission.
Official market launch of the Electrical Dryer will be during Victam Asia 2018 (March 27-29, 2018).
