If you run a manufacturing facility, your industrial dryers are almost certainly one of your largest energy consumers.
They are also one of your greatest untapped opportunities for savings.
Drying processes account for at least 10% of total industrial energy demand across the UK and European industry. Yet a considerable proportion of that energy never contributes to production output. It simply escapes.
The good news is, dryer optimisation, as part of a wider energy efficiency manufacturing strategy, can significantly reduce operating costs, lower carbon emissions, and improve process performance without replacing existing assets.
In this article, we explore why industrial dryers are often inefficient and how targeted optimisation can unlock measurable savings.
Why Are Industrial Dryers So Inefficient?
Industrial dryers are designed to remove moisture or a solvent from product consistently and reliably. However, many systems operate in ways that waste substantial amounts of energy.
Research suggests that around 29% of the energy supplied to dryers is lost. With energy prices remaining volatile, this inefficiency has a direct impact on manufacturing margins.
The four main reasons for wasted energy include:
- Wasted Exhaust Heat: Heated air is used once and then discharged directly from the building. The thermal energy you have paid to generate disappears through the stack, unused.
- Fixed Operating Settings: Many dryers operate at constant temperatures and airflow rates, regardless of production demand. Whether the line is running at full capacity or reduced throughput, the energy input often remains unchanged.
- Ageing Seals and Air Leaks: Over time, degraded seals and insulation allow heat to escape. These losses frequently go unnoticed but can accumulate into significant annual energy waste.
- Over-Drying: Running dryers longer than necessary is a common precautionary approach. However, drying beyond product requirements consumes energy without adding value.
What Does Dryer Optimisation Involve?
Dryer optimisation does not necessarily require replacing existing equipment. In many cases, it involves improving how the current system operates so that it uses less energy while maintaining performance and product quality.
At Process Energy, every project begins with a detailed industrial energy audit. This assessment measures temperatures, airflow rates, fuel input and exhaust conditions to establish how the dryer is functioning in practice. The data identifies where energy is being lost, whether airflow is correctly balanced, and whether the system is operating beyond what production requires.
A key focus is heat reduction for industrial dryers. Many systems output significant volumes of hot exhaust air, representing a valuable source of recoverable energy. Instead of allowing this heat to escape, our engineers can design a process system to capture and transfer this into hot water systems, reuse it within the drying process, or apply this energy to other site utilities such as space heating or process water preheating.
Where exhaust gases contain contaminants such as particulates or VOCs, filtration and appropriate material selection are incorporated into the design to protect equipment and maintain long-term efficiency.
When approached correctly, dryer optimisation becomes a practical and effective step towards improved energy efficiency manufacturing.
Real-World Results: A Process Energy Case Study
The numbers above aren’t just theoretical, here’s what dryer optimisation looks like in practice.
Process Energy worked with a non-woven materials manufacturer that was operating a floatation dryer – a type of industrial dryer that suspends and dries continuous webs of material using jets of hot air. Like many industrial dryers, it was doing its job, but not efficiently.
After conducting a thorough assessment and implementing an optimisation solution, the results were clear:
- £165,000 saved in energy costs every year.
- 750 kWh energy saving achieved.
- Return on investment achieved in under 2 years.
That’s a significant, ongoing saving from a single optimisation project. And with payback in under two years, this is investing in impact that generates real results.
Taking Steps to Energy Efficiency Manufacturing
Improving energy efficiency manufacturing begins with understanding where energy is being lost.
With over 90 years of combined thermal engineering expertise, Process Energy specialises in industrial heat recovery and system optimisation. Our team supports manufacturers from initial benchmarking and energy audit through to detailed design, installation and commissioning.
If your dryers are consuming more energy than necessary, the opportunity for savings is likely already within your process.
The question is not whether waste heat exists, it’s whether you are capturing it.
Get in touch with the Process Energy team to discover how much your business could save.