In recent years, our engineers have been tackling drying which is another biomass “big deal” problem. In fact, drying accounts for roughly 70% of the total energy used in pellet mills that use raw wood chips as their feedstocks. Additionally, most dryers in biorefineries require heavy operator interaction and a learning curve of about 5-10 years. Besides this, dryer operations contribute greatly to carbon dioxide emissions.
Through an USDA NIFA SBIR award, Forest Concepts seized the opportunity to develop advanced drying controls tailored uniquely to biomass feedstocks. The result has been increased throughput, reduced operator demand, reduced energy consumption, and reduced carbon emissions. Our solutions include both dryers and advanced controls, which can be retrofitted to existing dryer systems.
We combined all of what we have learned about the science and control of drying into a new type of dryer we call a modular downdraft incremental moving bed dryer. This innovation further reduces drying energy consumption, minimizes drying time, and enables use of very low drying temperatures.
In July 2020, the US Department of Energy, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Office awarded the Forest Concepts development team a new contract to apply RF preheating to dryers used in cold climates to further reduce drying time and energy.
Our team of engineers continue to explore additional applications for our drying technologies including hemp, MSW, hops, and herbs.