US Patent 7178262 Air dryer system and method employing a jet engine

An air dryer and process employs a jet engine for producing high quality dried products. A turbofan jet engine in an air-drying system uses both thermal and non-thermal air-drying. The turbofan jet engine is housed within an air distribution chamber for directing exhaust air and bypass air from the jet engine into a product drying tube, where it is dried through a combination of thermal drying from heat content in an engine exhaust, and by the kinetic energy of air flowing past the product traveling through the drying tube, that may include a physical impediment for retarding retard the speed of the product solids flowing in the air stream through the tube.