Desiccant Wheel/Rotor Dryers

This is not your father’s type of desiccant dryer. Desiccant wheel dryers are far more efficient, more compact and require less maintenance than any previous dual bed desiccant dryer.

If you are familiar with old technology dual bed/twin tower or ‘carousel’ dryers, you think of desiccant as a large volume of B-B sized round beads that are composed of about 30% clay.

Desiccant Beads are 30% clay

Desiccant wheel dryers are entirely different in that the desiccant is pure molecular sieve desiccant that is literally grown onto a synthetic substrate, which is rolled into a round shape and encased in stainless steel.

Desiccant wheel dryers offer these advantages over dual bed and carousel dryers;

• Lower energy usage
  • Less surface are of metal to heat
  • Compact pure desiccant
• Up to 75% less footprint
• Less maintenance

Energy Saving Improvements to desiccant Wheel Dryers
The wheel dryer design lends itself to energy saving modifications that are not practical with dual bed designs. (Read more)

How a Desiccant Wheel Dryer Works

Close up of desiccant wheel

 

As the desiccant wheel rotates, stationary seals divide it into 3 distinct sections: Drying, Regeneration and Cooling.

This continuous process ensures that dry desiccant is always available, therefore:

• Efficiency increases
• Power consumption decreases
• -40° dew point is guaranteed

Drying Section - A process blower pulls saturated air from the hopper and through a process filter and cooling coil. Process air is forced through the drying section of the desiccant wheel where the moisture is adsorbed.The desiccated air is then heated to the required temperature for drying and circulated back through the resin hopper.

Cooling Section - The desiccant is prepared to adsorb moisture when it rotates to the drying section.

Regeneration Section - Ambient, filtered air is heated to 400° F and forced through the regeneration section removing the moisture that was adsorbed by the desiccant.