Industrial and agricultural dryers remove a material's moisture. The timber industry, for instance, removes water from wood, and the food industry removes water to produce dried grains. Many chemical processes also involve dehydration. Dryer machines usually evaporate moisture, removing it as humidity. When dryers work in this manner, they require heat to create conditions that turn the water into vapor. The dryer's heating requirements depend on how much its air's temperature must rise and how much air flows through the machine.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
1
Subtract the air's input temperature from the proposed final temperature. If air enters the dryer at 60 degrees and must become 150 degrees: 150 - 60 = 90 degrees.
2
Multiply the temperature rise by the volumetric flow of air, measured in cubic feet per minute. If, for instance, 5,000 cubic feet enter the dryer per minute: 90 x 5,000 = 450,000.
3
Multiply the answer by 1.1 to account for energy losses: 450,000 x 1.1 = 495,000. This is the dryer's heating requirement, measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs) per hour.