May 2008
Counterflow Dryer and Cooler Training

Geelen Counterflow have held their first Counterflow Dryer and Cooler training in April 2008. Plant managers and production managers of petfood and aquafeed plants travelled to Roermond, Netherlands from Italy, Germany, Vietnam, Indonesia, Peru, Honduras, Argentina, Japan and USA. Representing companies like Skretting, Veronesi and Cargill, they had recently taken delivery of their new counterflow dryers and coolers. They came to the course to learn how to fine tune their drying and cooling process.

Sander Geelen, managing director of Geelen Counterflow explains why the course was set up: “Even the most fuel efficient car can be driven with high fuel consumption, for example if you drive it in first gear all the time. It’s the same with dryers. Even though today in our dryers we can offer the equivalent of “cruise control” and the “fuel consumption indicator”, we still need our customers to learn how to operate our dryers efficiently”.

During the 3 day course, participants were trained in subjects such as mass- and energy balance, moisture uniformity, energy efficiency, automatic moisture control and preventative maintenance. The course also included interactive sessions on how to calculate energy consumption, take accurate moisture samples and calculate financial savings.

At the end of the course, participants gave an average score of 9.3 on a scale of 10. The next Counterflow Dryer and Cooler training will again be in Roermond, Netherlands in the spring of 2009.