Compact biomass batch drying units
Not every operation needs 1,500 kg per chamber.
Cooperatives, specialty producers, processors running several products across a season, and operations still establishing market volume are frequently better served by smaller units running more cycles. The control precision is identical; the scale and flexibility are not.
Indicative price, Ex-Works (EXW): USD 2,000–30,000
Shipping, customs clearance and local duties are extra. The final price depends on the configuration and is fixed in the written quotation.
Design features
- Compact footprint — suited to constrained sites and existing buildings.
- Modular construction — capacity added by adding units rather than replacing them.
- Rapid cycle turnaround — configured for multiple batches per day.
- Quick changeover — accessible internal surfaces for cleaning between products.
- Standalone capability — complete processing in a single unit where a full plant is not warranted.
Environmental control
- Zoned temperature management — differentiated conditions where the process requires staged drying.
- Variable airflow — adjusted to product density and geometry.
- Optional humidity control — for products vulnerable to case hardening.
- Stored recipes — product-specific parameter sets recalled at the interface, which matters enormously when one operator runs five products in a week.
- Energy-recovery option — exhaust heat recirculation on longer cycles.
Typical applications
- Product development & trials — establishing parameters before committing to full-scale plant.
- High-value, low-volume production — specialty botanicals, premium spices, artisanal products.
- Seasonal & multi-product operations — where the product changes several times across a year.
- Cooperative & community processing — scale matched to member production.
What this is — and what it is not
A batch drying unit is a physical piece of food-drying equipment. "Batch processing" also names an execution model in computing and a production model in pharmaceutical manufacturing — neither of which is what this page is about.
| Batch drying unit (this page) | Other uses of "batch processing" | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A drying machine: chamber, hot air, trays | A software execution model, or a pharmaceutical production model |
| What is processed | A food product, in weighed loads | Files and jobs, or formulations in a vessel |
| What is controlled | Temperature, air velocity, cycle time, final moisture | Queues and scheduling, or synthesis parameters |
| What you buy | Equipment, delivered, installed and commissioned | Software, or a regulated production line |
| Typical buyer | Food or agro-processor, cooperative, SME | IT function, or pharmaceutical manufacturer |
If you are looking for job scheduling software or pharmaceutical production equipment, this is not the page you want.
Specification
These are the platform figures every configuration on this page is built from. The values specific to your product and volume are fixed at the sizing stage.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Biomass burner | 200,000–900,000 kcal/h, PLC-controlled staged combustion |
| Accepted fuels | Pellets, 90 × 90 mm briquettes, cashew shell, crop residue |
| Hot air generator | Double chamber, three-pass, 2,500–3,000 m³/h |
| Delivered air temperature | 50–150 °C, controlled |
| Heat transfer | Indirect — combustion gases never touch the product |
| Drying chamber | 40–100 °C, 2.0–3.0 m/s, 1,500 kg per batch |
| Construction | 100 mm rockwool-core sandwich panel, 120-minute fire rating |
| Trays and wagons | SS304 stainless steel |
| Control | Delta PLC with recipe management, HMI, VFDs |
| Warranty | 12 months from date of shipment |
| Manufacturing lead time | 10–18 weeks from confirmed order and receipt of advance payment |
In prose: the burner runs from 200,000 to 900,000 kcal/h under PLC-controlled staged combustion, firing pellets, 90 × 90 mm briquettes, cashew shell or crop residue. The three-pass double-chamber generator moves 2,500 to 3,000 m³/h and delivers air between 50 and 150 °C, transferred indirectly so combustion gases never touch the product. Drying chambers hold 40 to 100 °C at 2.0 to 3.0 m/s with 1,500 kg per batch, built from 100 mm rockwool-core sandwich panel to a 120-minute fire rating, with SS304 trays and wagons. Manufacturing takes 10 to 18 weeks from confirmed order and receipt of advance payment, and the warranty runs 12 months from date of shipment.
Where this equipment is used
The same equipment is specified across several product classes. These are the ones it is configured for most often:
spice and botanical drying, tree nut and oilseed drying and fruit and vegetable drying.
Each of those pages carries the drying parameters, cycle times and quality targets for that product class.
Frequently asked questions
When is a batch unit the right choice over a tunnel?
When you change product often, when your daily volume does not fill a 1,500 kg chamber, or when you need grades kept separate. A tunnel rewards steady, single-product running; a batch unit rewards flexibility. Operations that dry three or four different crops across a year usually find changeover time costs them more than raw capacity does.
Can batch units be added one at a time as volume grows?
Yes — that is the main argument for them in a market where financing is the binding constraint. Each unit is self-contained, so a second and third can follow the first without redesigning what you already have. The burner range of 200,000 to 900,000 kcal/h covers the growth path, and we specify the first unit with that in mind.
What does changeover between products actually involve?
Emptying and cleaning trays and wagons, selecting the next recipe on the Delta PLC, and allowing the chamber to reach the new setpoint within the 40 to 100 °C range. The equipment side is quick; the cleaning side is what sets the real interval, and it depends on how strongly the previous product carries odour.
Discuss batch-unit sizing
Start at the scale your market supports today, and add units as it grows.
Discuss sizing