Geelen Counterflow has started the engineering and manufacturing of the second electric dryer for extruded pet food, to be installed in 2021 in China. The first electric dryer is being assembled in South Korea for another customer and will be commissioned in 2021.

“High-temperature industrial heat pumps will supply 2,400 kW of heat to a seven deck counterflow dryer and 65% of that heat will be recovered and re-used in the dryer,” the company said.

Both electric dryers will initially be commissioned with gas burners. This allows installation and commissioning according to standard operating procedures. A few months later, once the dryers are up and running, the Counterflow Recovery Units (CRU) will be commissioned to start recovering energy through condensation of the warm moist air coming out of the dryer. The warm water coming from the CRU will be boosted in temperature by high-temperature industrial heat pumps which will supply 100% of the heat for the dryer, allowing the gas burners to be switched off or go in stand-by mode.

The net energy consumption of the dryer will be up to 65% lower and consist of electricity only. If the electricity is from renewable sources, the direct and indirect CO₂ emissions of the dryer can be eliminated. Since dryers are by far the biggest consumers of gas in the plant, this typically reduces the CO₂ footprint of the entire production line by more than 50%.

Geelen Counterflow started developing this technology in 2014. It was tested and approved on a pilot scale in a commercial pet food plant during 2016. Since then, full-scale components have been developed and tested and the technology has been on the market since 2018.

“The majority of new dryers installed by Geelen for extruded pet food and aquafeed are now of the latest MkIV generation, which means they are prepared for either gas-burners and/or electric heat pumps. Plants that now install dryers with only gas burners can upgrade them to heat pumps and heat exchangers with a minimum of downtime,” the company said.

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