Fluid-bed dryers offer an inherently efficient method of moisture removal that has not changed since the systems were developed in the 1950s. The introduction of ever-improving control technologies — personal computer-based and PLC control systems, smart sensors and other technological advances — in the last 40 years, however, has changed how process engineers operate their fluid-bed drying systems.

It is no coincidence that the energy-cost-reducing technology used to recover and reuse heated process air in fluid-bed drying systems was developed during the energy crisis of the 1970s.