Automating the drying process offers appealing protection against the challenges of hiring and retaining operators with the skill to produce an identical recipe every day — and the willingness to simply show up and do the job.

Regular readers of Process Heating understand that each of the myriad dryer designs can effectively remove moisture from a range of materials. But, each type of dryer also comes with capabilities and characteristics that offer either advantages or disadvantages based on the materials to be processed and requirements of each application.

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.