Waste Heat Recovery for Commercial Dryers

Waste Heat Recovery for Commercial Dryers

Drying is a common process in a wide range of applications and industries, including home and commercial dryers, agriculture, chemical processing, and the pharmaceutical industry.

Thermal drying of clothes is an energy-consuming process accompanied by the complexity of multiple simultaneous transport phenomena (mass, momentum and energy) and their effects on material properties. The dryer discharges about 60% of the total input energy as waste heat or losses.

The basic principle of a waste heat recovery system is to capture the hot air discharged from the clothes dryer, process it and reuse it through specific techniques and equipment. Here are some common commercial dryer waste heat recovery technologies:

Heat Exchanger: A heat exchanger is one of the most common waste heat recovery devices. It exchanges heat from the hot air being discharged with the incoming fresh air, transferring the heat energy from the discharged air to the new incoming air. This significantly reduces the temperature of the fresh air and reuses some of the energy for the drying process, thus reducing electricity consumption.

Heat pump technology: Heat pump waste heat recovery systems use a heat pump cycle to extract heat from the hot exhaust air and transfer it to other media such as water or air. This technology recovers heat more efficiently, making energy use more efficient.

Thermal storage systems: Thermal storage systems temporarily store the heat energy generated by the dryer and then release it when needed to heat the dryer's intake air or for other purposes.

Commercial clothes dryers that use waste heat recovery technology not only reduce environmental impact and energy consumption, but also help lower operating costs. As environmental awareness grows and energy costs rise, the prospects for waste heat recovery in clothes dryers and other types of equipment will become even more promising.