Systems and methods in accordance with the present invention provide for the efficient distillation of ethanol in an ethanol plant including a beer column. Heat is captured in the distillation process and utilized to drive operations in the ethanol plant.

A drier for drying boards comprises at least one conduit for directing airflow towards one of the faces of the board. The drier is configured such that at least a portion of the airflow travels across the face of the board along the longitudinal axis of the drier, the longitudinal axis of the drier being the axis along which the board travels as it is dried.

A method for drying biomass fuel using waste heat of flue gas from a power plant. The method includes: 1) stepwise recovering, by multi-stage condensation, sensible heat of flue gas; stepwise heating air using the sensible heat, to yield first-stage dry air and second-stage dry air; 2) convectively drying and dehydrating biomass fuel using the first-stage dry air having a temperature of between 150 and 180 C.; 3) further convectively drying and dehydrating the biomass fuel using the second-stage dry air having a temperature of between 80 and 100 C.; and 4) drying and dehydrating the biomass fuel using the third-stage dry air having a temperature of less than or equal to 25 C.

A dryer for installation on a self-propelled machine, such as a combine harvester, with recovery of the exhausted thermal energy coming from the endothermic engine of the latter. The dryer is of the on-line type and comprises at least two feed screws, internally to which grain is moved towards a tank and dried by the hot air coming from a first and second heat exchangers respectively, the first heat exchanger being crossed by the high temperature exhaust fumes of said endothermic engine and the second heat exchanger by the cooling liquid.

The present invention provides a method and system for generating electricity using a drive for the electrical generator that is powered by an engine (e.g., turbine). The method and system uses high pressure hot gases produced by combustion of a fuel and an oxygen-bearing gas, using at least a portion of the electricity generated to power manufacturing plant equipment. Additionally, hot waste gases from the heat engine are transported to a process dryer (e.g., rotary kiln dryers) to dry minerals, salt, pigments, sands, and clay.

A drier for drying boards (32) comprises at least one conduit (34, 40) for directing airflow towards one of the faces of the board (32). The drier is configured such that at least a portion of the airflow travels across the face of the board (32) along the longitudinal axis of the drier, the longitudinal axis of the drier being the axis along which the board (32) travels as it is dried.

A controlling method for a dryer is applied to a dryer, in which at least one of a heat pump system and a heater is selected as a heat source for heating air supplied in to a drum and a heat supply capacity of the heat pump system is more than that of the heater. The controlling method includes, when both the heat pump system and the heater are selected as the heat sources, turning the heat pump system on, turning the heater on after the heat pump system is normally turned on, turning the heater off to cool the drum and terminate drying after the drying is performed, and turning the heat pump system off after the heater is turned off.

Apparatus and method for drying thermoplastic resin prior to molding into plastic parts comprises a continuous loop liquid circuit for furnishing liquid at a prescribed temperature to a mold in which the plastic parts are fabricated; a continuous loop air circuit for passing heated dry air through a hopper containing the thermoplastic resin thereby drying the thermoplastic resin to a prescribed level of dryness; and a coupling thermally connecting the two circuits for heat transfer from the liquid to the drying air; the liquid is selected from the group comprising water and ethylene glycol; microprocessor control facilitates generation and retention of custom water temperature and resin dryness/temperature optionally based on machine learning principles.

A controlling method for a dryer is applied to a dryer, in which at least one of a heat pump system and a heater is selected as a heat source for heating air supplied in to a drum and a heat supply capacity of the heat pump system is more than that of the heater. The controlling method includes, when both the heat pump system and the heater are selected as the heat sources, turning the heat pump system on, turning the heater on after the heat pump system is normally turned on, turning the heater off to cool the drum and terminate drying after the drying is performed, and turning the heat pump system off after the heater is turned off.

Disclosed herein are embodiments of an energy recovery system for a freeze-drying system. In some embodiments, the freeze-drying system includes a freeze dryer chamber having one or more shelves disposed therein; a refrigeration system comprising a refrigerant condenser; a heat exchanger; a first fluid line to thermally couple the refrigerant condenser to the heat exchanger; and a second fluid line to thermally couple the one or more shelves to the heat exchanger.