Thermally Driven Industrial Semi-Open Absorption Heat Pump Dryer

To address the limitations of current state of the art drying technology and offer additional levels of energy efficiency, process functionality, and user adoption, the development of a 375 cfm proof-of-concept thermally driven industrial semi-open absorption heat pump drying system is proposed. This system benefits from advancements made at Micro Nano Technologies (MNT) and the University of Florida (UF), and the drying industry experience of our partners at the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), to enable a highly efficient, compact, and cost-effective drying system. The proposed technology directly facilitates Arpa-e’s mission in that it provides up to 40% source energy savings when compared to the current state of the art drying technology. Being fuel flexible, the proposed technology will permit the use of the lowest cost fuel for their location, reducing operating costs, while still saving energy and lower GHG emissions at the grid/system level.