Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SuperDryer (Super Dryer – Breakthrough clean fibrer dryer to cut emissions in paper production, urban sludge and clothes recycling)
Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-03-31
TM System Finland Oy has developed SuperDryer™, a breakthrough drying system for pulp, fibre (https://tmsystems.com/products/superdryer-for-pulp/) sludge and biomass (https://tmsystems.com/products/superdryer-for-sidestreams/) that makes industrial drying cleaner and more energy-efficient, and thus revolutionizes industrial drying processes. The piloting process for bringing SuperDryer to the market is supported by European Innovation Council.
Current drying methods poorly recover the evaporated water and its heat, and generally can have significant particle emissions. SuperDryer is designed to be able to run with renewable energy and it replaces old, dirty, expensive and energy consuming technologies. SuperDryer reduces the huge amount of emissions that occur during the drying process. It recovers 100% of heat and evaporated moisture during the drying process, while simultaneously capturing the airborne particle emissions, odour, CO2, and visible vapour fume from the exhaust air. In the drying process, the system creates controlled circumstances in a closed operation of air circulation, and captures emissions such as dust particles, CO2, VOC's, and the evaporated water from the exhaust air, before recirculating the air back to the process.
SuperDryer is compact and scalable to many industries and to many production sizes. It is applicable for instance in paper, board and pulp industries, mechanical wood, food, feed and beverage, textile and fibre, Bio2X, fertilizers, mining and metal industries, as well as in power plants and sludge and waste treatment.
To indicate the scale and significance of SuperDryer's impacts, we take an example from pulp and paper industry. By adopting SuperDryer for sludge and side stream drying, an average size pulp or paper mill would save up to €5 million on energy costs and 20 million litres of water annually. By switching from landfill to drying of industrial waste and side stream effluents, a mill can cease the emission of landfill gases, 40-60% of which is methane with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide. By switching from traditional fossil fuel powered pulp dryers to SuperDryer, an average size pulp mill could cut CO2 emissions by 42,000 tonnes yearly.
Current drying methods poorly recover the evaporated water and its heat, and generally can have significant particle emissions. SuperDryer is designed to be able to run with renewable energy and it replaces old, dirty, expensive and energy consuming technologies. SuperDryer reduces the huge amount of emissions that occur during the drying process. It recovers 100% of heat and evaporated moisture during the drying process, while simultaneously capturing the airborne particle emissions, odour, CO2, and visible vapour fume from the exhaust air. In the drying process, the system creates controlled circumstances in a closed operation of air circulation, and captures emissions such as dust particles, CO2, VOC's, and the evaporated water from the exhaust air, before recirculating the air back to the process.
SuperDryer is compact and scalable to many industries and to many production sizes. It is applicable for instance in paper, board and pulp industries, mechanical wood, food, feed and beverage, textile and fibre, Bio2X, fertilizers, mining and metal industries, as well as in power plants and sludge and waste treatment.
To indicate the scale and significance of SuperDryer's impacts, we take an example from pulp and paper industry. By adopting SuperDryer for sludge and side stream drying, an average size pulp or paper mill would save up to €5 million on energy costs and 20 million litres of water annually. By switching from landfill to drying of industrial waste and side stream effluents, a mill can cease the emission of landfill gases, 40-60% of which is methane with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide. By switching from traditional fossil fuel powered pulp dryers to SuperDryer, an average size pulp mill could cut CO2 emissions by 42,000 tonnes yearly.
A SuperDryer demonstration unit plant of all industrially functional capabilities has been installed and extensively tested in real-world conditions in TM Systems’ test facilities. In the demo-unit, all the technological advantages of SuperDryer can be demonstrated in detail, backed by exhaustive data gathered during the test runs by a tailormade PLC and IOT system. The test data has shown convincing results in particle emission avoidance, thermal efficiency of the drying process, and in closed loop air recirculation and heat recapture.
In the demonstration dryings, a sample material of approximately 500 kg is collected from the customer and dried in a runnability test, parameter optimization test, and in a data verification and demonstration test. During these demonstrations, different materials have been examined with success, such as BCTMP pulp; wastewater treatment plant sludges; and new innovative products from the food industry. Our latest customer-case resulted in recycled fibre-based fertilizers, that could be used for soil remediation.
Our customer cases overall can be divided into four themes:
1. Drying of fibrous materials
2. Waste to energy
3. Substitution of virgin materials with recycled ones
4. New product development
In the demonstration dryings, a sample material of approximately 500 kg is collected from the customer and dried in a runnability test, parameter optimization test, and in a data verification and demonstration test. During these demonstrations, different materials have been examined with success, such as BCTMP pulp; wastewater treatment plant sludges; and new innovative products from the food industry. Our latest customer-case resulted in recycled fibre-based fertilizers, that could be used for soil remediation.
Our customer cases overall can be divided into four themes:
1. Drying of fibrous materials
2. Waste to energy
3. Substitution of virgin materials with recycled ones
4. New product development
In addition to solving industrial air pollution challenges of drying by absorbing discharged airborne emissions down to zero, SuperDryer simultaneously enables remarkable energy saving and environmental benefits. It recovers heat in demanding conditions, and recaptures water in areas where its wastage was earlier overlooked. These are important quality factors in the current industrial environment, where the importance of emission control targets is equal to industrial energy-efficiency and water-efficiency targets.
Further research, expansion to different areas of industrial ecosystems, and internationalisation are key factors in the future success of SuperDryer™.
Further research, expansion to different areas of industrial ecosystems, and internationalisation are key factors in the future success of SuperDryer™.