Geelen Counterflow offers a 100 percent electrical dryer to reduce energy consumption of the drying process by up to 65 percent.
Where other Counterflow dryers on gas or steam will typically consume no more than 2700 kJ per liter of evaporated water, the Counterflow Electric Dryer requires less than 1000 kJ. CO2 emissions per ton of product can be reduced by 99 percent, provided electricity is from certified renewable sources. Up to 65 percent of water is recovered.
The Geelen Counterflow Electrical Dryer’s compact air system has been designed so it can be retrofitted to existing multi-deck counterflow dryers with MkII or MkIII air systems. This means that the dryer itself and most of the components of the air exhaust system can be retained, while the air recirculation system will be completely replaced within the same footprint. New items such as the Counterflow Recovery Unit and the heat-pump must be added.
The Geelen Counterflow Electrical Dryer recovers most of the energy contained in the exhaust air by passing that warm, wet air through a Counterflow Energy Recovery Unit. In that heat exchanger, relatively cold water from the heat pump triggers condensation of the warm wet air. During condensation, energy is recovered from the air and transferred to the water flowing back towards the heat pump. The heat pump then uses that energy plus electricity to boost the temperature of another water circuit to 125°C which is used by heat exchangers next to the dryer to generate hot air for drying the wet product. The ‘spent air’ is exhausted to avoid food safety risks, but it now contains much less fines and odor molecules as these have been transferred to the condensate which can be re-used in the process or passed to the water treatment system.
