2004/ A WATT PUBLICATION

Website:www.petfoodindustry.com

OCTOBER
BY DAN POIRIER
As a petfood processor, you are already aware that your dry-
ing operation has a significant impact on your bottom line. Dry-
ing is a very energy-intensive operation and, for this reason,
most petfood producers diligently track the cost of fuel used
in their drying operation. Are you aware, however, that your dry-
er could be costing you 10 times as much in terms of lost pro-
duction? You may be sending over 3% of your production out
the exhaust stack without even knowing it.
Downtime for dryer cleaning and maintenance may also
be costing you more than you know. This article will describe
the economics of drying in more detail and outline three op-
erational areas which could significantly improve your bottom
line.
Energy consumption
The cost of energy used in operating the dryer is the most
obvious cost of drying. One need only look at the large burn-
ers in the dryer, or at the boiler providing steam to the dryer,
to realize that money is being spent to remove moisture in the
drying operation. This energy is essentially needed to cover
four heat loads in the drying operation. They are:
-Warming up the product;
-f:.vaporating water from the product;
-Heating the make-up air; and
-Steady-state heat losses.
Since extruded petfood leaves the extruder at a high tem-
Mr. Poirier is manager of Applications Engineering for the Aeroglide
Raleigh, NC 27626-0505 USA, Tel: +1.919..851.2000, Fax: +1.919.851.6029,
www.aeroglide.com.
Single-pass petfood dryer at Breeder's Choice Petfoods,
Inc. in Irwindale, California, USA.
perature, very little energy is used in warming up the prod-
uct. The pellets cool as they are conveyed to the dryer. Typ-
ically the pellets enter the dryer above 65°C. Therefore, most
of the energy in the drying operation is used to evaporate wa-
ter. The energy required to change liquid water into vapor (la-
tent heat of vaporization) is about 2,350 kJ/kg of water evap-
orated (the value varies very slightly with temperature). You can-
not change this value in typical petfood dryers. Only vacuum
dryers operating under an extreme vacuum can reduce this
value, but these dryers are not practical for extruded petfood.
However, you may be able to reduce the ener~y consumed
in evaporating water by reducing the amount of water that the
dryer must remove.
Table 1 shows the tremendous impact that inlet and out-
let pelle1 moisture can have on the drying load in your dryer.
Even a small .increase in product inlet moisture from 24% to
27% on a wet weight basis increases the load on the dryer
by 27%. Naturally, your inlet moisture must be driven by prod-
uct quality considerations, but do all of your extruder opera-
tors operate the extr!.Jder the same way? If one shift runs the
extruder "wetter" than the next shift, you are wasting energy
by adding excessive water to your product only to spend mon-
Corporation. He can be reached at PO Box 29505,
E-mail: dpoirier@aeroglide.com, Website:
Drying details
ey in the dryer to remove the water.
The third heat load category, heating the make-up air, is
typically the second highest heat load. However, in a poorly-
operated or poorly-designed dryer, this heat load can be the
largest. This is the area where you as a dryer operator and
your dryer supplier can have by far !he most impact. Your dry-
er needs a steady supply of dry make-up air. Without this in-
flux of air, the process air in the dryer would become saturat-
ed with moisture and unable to dry,your product. The trick is
in knowing how much air to bring iriJtothe dryer.
Excessive make-up air will lead to excessive energy con-
sumption. This is because the make-up air enters the dryer
at a relatively low temper- . savings for the petfood pro-
ature, and after picking up
water in the dryer, eventu- .
ally leaves the dryer at a
higher exhaust tempera-
ture. Clearly, energy is con-
sumed in heating the
make-up air to the exhaust
temperature. It is impor-
tant to understand that the
exhaust air in your dryer is
basically the make-up air
leaving the dryer along
with the evaporated wa-
ter. If you want to reduce
the amount of make-up air
in most dryers, you will typ- Figure 1. Calculated energy consul
ically reduce your exhaust,
either by closing the exhaust damper or turning down the ex-
haust fan.
The temperature of the exhaust and make-up air also af-
fects the energy used to heat the make-up air. If the make-up
air is preheated before being introduced into the dryer, less
energy will be used by the dryer to heat this air. In an extrud-
ed petfood line, preheated make-up air can be drawn from
your cooling operation. Spent cooling air used to cool the pel-
lets is still relatively dry and can be used as make-up air to
the dryer.
Improper dryer operation, such as excessively shallow
bed depths (short retention time in the dryer) or internal air
bypasses can lead to high exhaust temperatures, thereby in-
creasing the energy used to heat the make-up air to the ex-
haust temperature. Figure 1 illustrates the significant impact
that heating the make-up air and various operating parame-
ters can have on your dryer's overall energy consumption.
Unless your dryer is very poorly insulated, losses from the
dryer should be low. If, however, you have a dryer design with US$1.35 million. The numbers are staggering.
large areas of un-insulated or poorly-insulated surfaces, ther-
.
mal losses from your dryer could also be costing you. your product. A welj-designed, well-adjusted petfood dryer
So, how much does it cost to run an extruded petfood dry-er?Typically,
should be able to dry your product to within :to.75% or bet-
petfood dryers will use between 3,000 kJ/kg and
4,500 kJ/kg of water evaporated. A very poorly-operated or
poorly-designed dryer might even use much more. Based on
a typical value of 3,250kJ/kg of water evaporated, an extrud-
ed petfood line producing 75,000 tons per year will typically
use about 5 x 1010 kJ/year. If natural gas is used as the heat
source in the dryer, and if the cost of natural gas is 5 x 10-6
US$/kJ, the yearly cost of natural gas to produce this tonnage
is US$250,000. Naturally, this cost will change depending on
the type and cost of fuel used in the drying operation.
Figure 1 and our experience in evaluating extruded pet-
food dryers show that many dryers in the industry are using
over 50% more energy than they should due to improper de-
sign or operation. This represents a tremendous potential
ducer. Imagine, saving
US$100,000 per year, sim-
ply by adjusting ~ few
dampers and making mi-
.
nor changes In the way you
operate your dryer. Believe
it or not, many petfood P!O-
ducers have done just that,
after learning how to prop-
erly run their dryers.
Moisture uniformity
Most extruded feeds
are sold by weight. For this
reason, if the product ismption
for an extruded feed dryer. overdried, it is as if you are
sending water-which
should have gone to packaging-straight out your exhaust
stack. Suppose that your extruded petfood cannot contain over
10% moisture, and that the product coming out of your dry-
er has a moisture variation of :t3% moisture on a wet-weight
basis.
This means you must dry your product to 7% moisture on
average in order to ensure that no product is over the spec-
ified 10% moisture limit. The result is a 3% loss in production
compared to drying the product only to 10% moisture. If your
dryer could be made to dry more uniformly, you could raise
your discharge moisture and get more out of the production
line with no additional cost or additional dry ingredients.
The value of this lost production due to non-uniform dry-
ing can be surprising. Consider the same petfood line as in
the previous example, producing 75,000 tons per year. A 3%
loss in production from this line represents 2,250 tons per year
of lost production. What is the value of this lost production?
At US$400 per ton, it'is US$900,000. At US$600 per ton, it is
The bottom line is that you cannot afford to be overdrying
ter. When was the last time you checked the moisture unifor-
mity on your dryer?
Drying details
Maintenance and sanitation
Many extruded feed producers struggle to keep old,
high-maintenance equipment running. The cost of purchas-
ing replacement parts for the dryer may be well document-
ed, but what about the cost of downtime for cleaning and
maintaining the equipment? A dryer producing 10 tons per
hour of extruded petfood can be producing well over
US$100,OOO worth of product-each day.
Ifyou are spending even three hours a week of unplanned
maintenance or cleaning downtime, you have lost 30 tons
of final product per week, which equates to US$650,000 per
year of lost production using the above parameters. The cost
of this downtime must be considered when looking at the
economics of your drying operation.
Drying is a critical operation in the production of dried
petfood. Your drying operation does not only determine the
quality of your finished product, but it also significantly af-
fects your cost of operation. Most petfood producers are well
aware of the energy cost for their drying operation; howev-
er, not all producers track the cost of overdrying due to non-
uniform drying, or the cost of downtime for maintenance and
sanitation. Many producers will significantly reduce their
drying costs and increase their production rates by taking
a closer look at their drying operation. 18