Future-focused technology for more sustainable spray drying plants

GEA ADDCOOL®

GEA’s innovative high temperature heat pump solution allows you to cut the carbon footprint of your spray drying plant by reducing fossil fuel and primary energy consumption, and increasing process sustainability.

GEA AddCool® heat pump solution
Spray drying is an industry standard approach for manufacturing high quality, stable powders. Producing the hot air that is used by the spray dryer typically draws on energy generated from fossil fuels. But did you know that GEA AddCool® technology could let you just about halve overall the energy requirements for your existing spray drying process, dramatically reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and so reduce emissions?

Operational cost savings plus added extras

How do we achieve this? The GEA AddCool® heat pump system effectively draws waste energy from the dryer itself, other processes in your plant, or even from the external air, as an efficient way of generating the hot air for your spray dryer.

Using GEA AddCool® you could realize significant operational cost savings (dependent upon energy prices) and increase process sustainability, as well as generate additional cooling capacity that you can use elsewhere in your plant.

Have a look at the video, which explains this in a bit more detail.

Resource efficient solution

Add Better

GEA has always been dedicated to developing innovative solutions that help our customers focus on process sustainability. We also try to stay as transparent as possible about how we evaluate our technologies. We put a system used by the dairy industry, which comprises a spray dryer equipped with AddCool® heat pump technology, through a rigorous calculation and documentation process that meets ISO 14021 standards and has been validated by TÜV. So, when we say that our solution can reduce the spray dryer’s energy consumption by up to 49%*, we can also provide to our customers supporting data from the test suite, that have been accepted by TÜV. And having been validated as a resource-efficient solution, the AddCool®-equipped spray drying system has now been awarded the GEA Add Better label. The Add Better label relates to the serial product 1947899, released in November 2022. The comparison refers to its predecessor model.

Efficiency driven by electricity

The GEA AddCool® heat pump technology is driven by electricity – rather than by directly burning fossil fuels – giving you both high temperature heating required for the spray drying process, and low temperature cooling for other parts of your process, so you can also save electricity on your chiller systems. And while electricity might be more expensive than fossil fuels, the high efficiency of the GEA AddCool® system means that the overall energy costs could be significantly reduced (dependent upon energy prices). As well as operating a far greener process with a lower CO2 footprint, you could see a significant return on your investment in just a few years.

The GEA AddCool® concept has been developed and optimized by experts here at GEA, drawing on decades of combined expertise in processing and spray drying technology, and in developing heat pump solutions for diverse sectors of industry. We believe that this combined knowhow and industry insight makes us uniquely positioned to commercialize the GEA AddCool® solution as an innovative, energy- and emission-saving option for global powder producers big and small.

Matching our technology to your needs

We’ll work with you to configure the components and setup of the GEA AddCool® technology to match the requirements of your existing spray drying process, throughput and scale, and wider plant processes. Importantly, using GEA AddCool® doesn’t change the way your spray dryer works, but rather, is designed to work with your existing spray dryer air heating system. This means you can keep your spray dryer running when the GEA AddCool® system is temporarily taken offline for routine maintenance, so you don’t have to experience any unnecessary or unexpected down time in production. And while we hope that your existing spray dryer was sourced from GEA, we can also tailor GEA AddCool® solutions for use with spray drying technology from other manufacturers. Just talk to us to explore the possibilities.

Of course, just as we do for all of our spray dryer and heat pump systems, we can offer a range of service options for the GEA AddCool® technology. We’re here to support your processes and maintain your components and equipment, so you can be confident that all of your GEA systems will give you top performance for their whole lifespan. 

GEA AddCool® benefits

  • Carbon footprint reduced by 50-80% as a result of lower fossil fuel consumption 
  • Primary energy consumption reduced by up to 49%* 
  • Cost savings, dependent upon energy prices
  • Reduced electrical power consumption by existing chillers
  • Easy retrofit into existing plants
  • No change to powder production process or powder characteristics
  • May be integrated with dehumidifier systems to further increase capacity and improve quality

*The energy reduction can be lower or higher depending on the specific process conditions.

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