When talking about the market, the three experts agreed that the application field of drying technology in China is not limited to the chemical industry, but is very extensive in all walks of life, and with the continuous development and progress of science and technology, the application field of drying technology will be further broadened, and the potential market is very large. Professor Cao Chongwen said:' Take agricultural products as an example, there are about 1.50 ~ 1.70 million agricultural products drying equipment in Japan, while there are only 20,000 in China. On the one hand, it shows that the degree of agricultural mechanization in China is far from enough; On the other hand, it also shows that there is still a big gap between our consumption concepts. The drying of crops directly affects the quality of crops, for example, the' waist burst' and cracks of rice are not caused by threshing, but by drying methods and techniques. Different drying methods and processes will also affect the taste and nutritional components of crops. I believe that with the acceleration of China's overall well-off society, people's consumption concept will also undergo profound changes. Professor Pan Yongkang said: "The study of drying technology mainly refers to the study of drying theory, drying technology and drying equipment. At present, the focus of drying theory research is not the transfer phenomenon outside the material, but the transfer phenomenon inside the material during drying. There are many kinds of dried materials, and the texture and transfer characteristics of materials are also changing during dehydration. Therefore, although a lot of work has been done internationally, it is still not ideal and still cannot solve the problem. Up to now, the drying conditions are still mainly determined by experiments and experience. Meanwhile, scholars at home and abroad have done a lot of research on drying technology and equipment. The 10th National Drying Conference was held in Hangzhou. There are more than 70 universities, research institutes and a large number of experts engaged in drying technology research in China. In China, the research and development of grain drying, biomass drying, vegetable and fruit drying and some new drying equipment have been at the forefront of the world. Although domestic drying equipment manufacturers are generally weak in R&D and have little investment, there are also some good product development projects, such as self-cleaning rotary cylinder, closed-loop organic superheated steam inert particle fluidized bed, large-scale spray fluidized granulation and 45-ton large-scale spray drying equipment. Unfortunately, most of the technologies developed by enterprises are confidential.

According to MUJUMDAR, there were at least 200 international drying experts in the former Soviet Union, and drying technology was in the leading position in the world before the 1980s. However, due to the national conditions and language barriers, they have not been able to integrate into the international drying industry, and we should take a warning.

In order to make China's drying technology catch up with international advanced countries, there are many things to do, but the close combination of academia and industry is one of the very important factors.

Zhou, a famous expert in China spray drying equipment manufacturing industry and director of Wuxi Linzhou drying equipment factory, also talked about his own views. He said: "From the perspective of domestic drying equipment manufacturers, there are not only problems of technological innovation, but also problems of upgrading and competitive advantage. In this respect, we started early, and jointly developed and researched spray drying technology with Dalian University of Technology, China Academy of Forestry and other related universities and scientific research units, which not only won the favor of the domestic market, but also ended the situation that China's spray drying machinery was completely dependent on imports in the past, and also entered the international market. Not long ago, Shi Yongchun, deputy director and researcher of Energy Research Institute of Shandong Academy of Sciences and chairman and general manager of Shandong Tian Li Company, said in his speech that according to the exchange at the international drying conference held in Beijing, there is still a certain gap between China's drying technology research and development and the world's advanced level, especially in basic research. Therefore, Tian Li has an unshirkable responsibility and obligation to further narrow the gap between China and the international advanced level from the perspective of academic research and enterprises. In recent years, we have published more than 20 academic papers at home and abroad, and through the exchange of technical information, we have translated and published his monograph "Principles and Equipment of Drying Process and New Progress" with Professor MUJUMDAR. Extensive exchanges and cooperation have been carried out with CANMET energy research center in Canada in the drying of organic waste; Together with the Likov Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, we have developed a middle and low pressure spray dryer. We have also cooperated with the Technical University of Lodz in Poland in many aspects, including technical exchange and cooperative research. Among them, the' spray fluidized bed granulation technology' developed by us has been included in the cooperation project between the two governments. China has joined the WTO, so we should vigorously research and develop technologies and products with independent intellectual property rights. At present, two doctors we have trained from home and abroad have been enriched to Tian Li Company. In the future, we will further enrich our technical strength and increase our development efforts.

Everyone agrees that if China wants to develop from a big dry country into a strong dry country, it must further strengthen basic theoretical research, lay a solid foundation for applied research and development, and technically strengthen research on automation, testing technology, manufacturing technology and material appearance design. In application development, we should not only pay attention to international exchanges and cooperation, but also pay attention to intellectual property protection; We should not only attach importance to the development of new technologies and new application fields, but also attach importance to the innovation and innovation of traditional processes and traditional application fields. As a manufacturing enterprise, we must make great efforts in management innovation and technological innovation, upgrade products according to the requirements of high quality, low consumption and environmental protection, adjust product structure, cultivate competitive advantage, advocate honest service and promote enterprise development.

"The market of drying equipment improved, and the technical content increased obviously."

Since 2004, driven by the continuous improvement of the national chemical industry development situation, the drying equipment market situation is stable and optimistic, and the production enterprises have generally achieved good business performance. The scientific and technological content of drying equipment began to play a leading role.

At present, the prominent feature of drying equipment serving the chemical industry is the increasingly prominent role of technical content. This is quite different from the situation in which products were sold mainly by price competition in the past. Among them, some drying equipment manufacturers with high technology content and emphasis on developing new products have increasingly improved their benefits; On the contrary, some enterprises with low technology content and weak ability to develop new products and technologies began to decline in efficiency.

A typical example is Lanzhou Reed Drying Technology Co., Ltd., which has strong production strength in large-scale equipment and is basically unmatched in China at present; Tian Li, Shandong Province, backed by Energy Research Institute of Shandong Academy of Sciences, has strong technical support and attaches great importance to the research and development of large-scale equipment. Large-scale professional complete sets of treatment equipment developed according to the needs of the industry have achieved good economic benefits since 2004. The spray drying technology jointly developed by Wuxi Linzhou Drying Equipment Factory, Dalian University of Technology, China Academy of Forestry and other universities and scientific research units not only won the favor of the domestic market, but also ended the situation that China's spray drying machinery relied entirely on imports in the past, and also entered the international market.

The market reaction shows that the chemical industry expects the drying equipment manufacturing industry to adjust its product structure according to the requirements of high quality, low energy consumption and environmental protection, further strengthen basic research and lay a solid foundation for application research and development. In terms of technology, we should strengthen the research on automation, testing, manufacturing technology and material appearance design. In application research and development, we should not only pay attention to international exchanges and cooperation, but also pay attention to intellectual property protection; We should not only attach importance to the development of new technologies and new application fields, but also attach importance to the innovation and innovation of traditional processes and traditional application fields. It should be said that this is the only way for China drying equipment to become bigger and stronger.

At present, the improvement of scientific and technological content of domestic drying equipment is producing gratifying results. For a long time, the characteristics of domestic drying equipment industry are "today's observation" and "jungle today's observation": small production scale, low entry threshold and low overall technical content. More than 60% of enterprises in the whole industry have an annual sales income of less than 5 million yuan, while only 5% ~ 8% have an annual sales income of more than10 million yuan, and the product grades are generally low and similar.

But now, high-tech products are giving birth to the emergence of backbone enterprises in drying equipment manufacturing. This is likely to be a signal that this field will get rid of vicious price competition, change the status quo of small and scattered enterprises, and carry out natural integration of the industry. Through technical competition, it may be just around the corner to cultivate a powerful leading enterprise in the industry by taking the road of strong alliance and survival of the fittest.

In addition, technological progress will also reverse the current export situation of domestic drying equipment. At present, China's drying equipment has not yet formed an export scale, and the export volume is less than 5% of the total, and it is mainly sold to Southeast Asia. However, according to authoritative prediction, with the development of technology, the proportion of drying equipment exported by China will increase from 5% to 10% in the next few years, and the export market will also expand from Southeast Asia to Europe and America. There is a big gap between domestic large-scale drying equipment manufacturing and international level, which is expected to be improved.

Why can't the drying equipment industry see the "Big Mac"?

In chemical industry, petrochemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, food industry, etc. Some products have to be dehydrated in the production process, so chemical drying equipment came into being. Before the reform and opening up, drying equipment was mainly imported from Japan, Europe and America. 1980, the first collectively-owned drying equipment manufacturing enterprise in China opened in the Yangtze River Delta region where the first township chemical enterprise in China was born. Supposedly, in the economically developed Yangtze River Delta, after more than 20 years of development, there should be several large-scale enterprises in the field of drying equipment manufacturing. However, according to the reporter's understanding, although there are more than 300 enterprises in Changzhou, where the drying equipment manufacturing enterprises are most concentrated, none of them have an annual sales income of more than 654.38 billion yuan, and only one enterprise with older qualifications has reached the sales income of 654.38 billion yuan for the first time in 2002, only once before and after. Other better enterprises sell 50 million to 60 million a year, and ordinary enterprises sell about 20 million. And there are dozens of local private chemical enterprises developed in the same period, with annual sales income reaching several billion yuan.

Why is the gap so obvious? The general manager of a drying enterprise with a bachelor's degree in engineering in Changzhou told the reporter that the drying industry in the Yangtze River Delta is characterized by being too small. The key is that the industry entry threshold is too low, and a drying equipment factory can be built with 500,000 plus 10 mu of land. Some registered enterprises actually don't even have an official address. After getting the business through relationships and means, they immediately set up a grass-roots team, recruited metalworkers and welders, rented a factory and began to produce dryers. This practice is not uncommon in Changzhou. This phenomenon is called dispersion. The so-called chaos means that some low-tech enterprises can do it without saying anything, and the equipment manufactured according to the drawings can be sold at a lower price although the quality is poor. Needless to say, it is small. In his view, it is entirely possible for Changzhou's drying equipment industry to form seven or eight large enterprises through competition.

Is it because the domestic and international markets are not so big that Changzhou can't produce a large-scale drying equipment enterprise for more than 20 years? Insiders denied this view. Drying equipment is widely used, not to mention chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food and other industries. There is a great demand for electronics, military industry, light industry, agricultural products processing, laboratories in universities and research institutes. However, the technical content of domestic equipment is not high, and it can't sell at a good price. The vicious competition among enterprises has largely offset the profits of this industry. A boss said helplessly that the price of steel increased last year, and the drying equipment should have been increased appropriately, but some small factories stirred it up. You can build this dryer for 65,438+10,000 yuan, and he said that 60,000 yuan is enough. After getting the job, he should have used a 3 cm thick steel plate, but he used 2 cm. The service life of the equipment will certainly not last long, but the user does not understand the technical requirements in this respect.

The insiders believe that in order to become a big drying equipment enterprise, it is necessary to improve the entry threshold of the industry, and the formulation of national standards is an important part. It is reported that there is no national standard in the domestic drying equipment manufacturing industry at present, that is, the industry standard only involves a small number of products, and the quality of many products is only determined by customers, which is called "customer standard" in the industry. An independent equipment manufacturing industry has neither national standards nor industry standards, so it is impossible to objectively test the quality of drying equipment. Moreover, it is not enough to have only one national trade association at present. Regional and targeted associations should be established as soon as possible, such as Changzhou Drying Equipment Association, which is conducive to standardizing the development of the industry. In Taiwan Province Province, China, once there are more than seven enterprises in an industry, regional trade associations must be established. Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province has also set up a lighter association, which has made the industry develop rapidly and formed several large enterprises with international competitiveness. The concentration of drying equipment enterprises in Changzhou is conducive to the establishment of trade associations and the standardization of enterprise development.

Factors to be considered in selecting drying equipment

1. Physical and chemical properties of materials-morphology, water content, water-containing properties, crystal water, particle size, bulk density, viscosity, heat sensitivity, softening point, phase transition point, thixotropy, toxicity, corrosiveness, odor, flammability, explosiveness, static electricity, air permeability, caking, and the fragility of crystals or particles. ...

2. Drying characteristics of materials-drying curve, critical water content and equilibrium water content under the recommended drying conditions.

3. Dry output requirements and long-term planning.

4. The commodity value of materials and the influence of drying effect on them. Such as product moisture, pollution, temperature, wear, crushing, crushing, rehydration, and so on.

5. Requirements for material recovery rate.

6. Up and down process of material drying. (Relates to the state method of feeding and discharging)

7. Past drying methods of materials or similar products.

8. Available heat sources (coal, fuel oil, electricity, gas, liquefied gas and natural gas)

9. The size of the installation site and whether there are any special requirements.

10. Environmental protection requirements-limit dust emission, noise, vibration, odor, volatiles, etc.

1 1. Possible purchasing funds, local labor, land and energy prices.

12. User's operation level and maintenance ability.

13. Local annual average temperature and humidity.

Basic principles of selecting drying equipment

Each drying device has its specific scope of application, and each material can find several drying devices that can meet the basic requirements, but only one is the most suitable. If the model selection is improper, users will not only bear the unnecessary one-time high purchase cost, but also pay a heavy price during the whole use period, such as low efficiency, high energy consumption, high operating cost, poor product quality, and even the equipment can not operate normally at all.

The following are the general principles for selecting drying devices. It's hard to say which item or items are the most important. The ideal choice must be based on your own conditions, and sometimes compromise is necessary.

1. Applicability-First of all, the drying device must be suitable for specific materials and meet the basic requirements for drying materials, including good treatment of materials (feeding, conveying, fluidization, dispersion, heat transfer, discharging, etc.). ), and meet the basic requirements of throughput, dehydration and product quality.

2. High drying rate —— As far as drying rate is concerned, materials are highly dispersed in hot air during convective drying, with low critical moisture content and high drying rate. Moreover, it is also convection drying, and the critical moisture content of different drying methods is different, so the drying speed is also different.

3. Low energy consumption-different drying methods have different energy consumption indicators. Generally, the thermal efficiency of conduction drying can reach 100% in theory, while that of convection drying can only reach about 70%.

4. Save investment-sometimes the cost of drying equipment with the same function varies greatly, so you should choose the lowest one.

5. Low operating costs-equipment depreciation, energy consumption, labor costs, maintenance costs, spare parts costs ... and other operating costs should be as low as possible.

6. Give priority to the drying device with simple structure, sufficient spare parts supply, high reliability and long service life.

7. Meet the requirements of environmental protection, with good working conditions and high safety.

8. It is best to carry out the drying experiment of materials before choosing the type, and it is often helpful to know the drying devices (advantages and disadvantages) that have been used for similar materials.

9. Don't rely entirely on past experience, focus on absorbing new technologies and listening to expert opinions.

Not in the industry, just copy and paste.