- Product size may range from microns to tens of centimeters (in thickness of depth?)
- Product porosity may range from zero to 99.9 percent?
- Drying times range from 0.25 sec (drying of tissue paper) to five months (for certain hard wood species?)
- Production capacities may range from 0.10 kg/h to 100 t/h?
- Product speeds range from zero (stationary) to 2000m/min (drying of tissue paper?)
- Drying temperatures range from below the triple point to above the critical point of the liquid?
- Operating pressures may range from fraction of a millibar to 25 atmospheres?
- Heat may be transferred continuously or intermittently by convection, conduction, thermal and microwave radiations?
- Some 250 and 80 patents are granted each year by the US and European Patent Offices, respectively, that contain dryer or drying in their titles?
- Papermaking - a massive dehydration operation - is more energy-intensive than steel making?
- For industrially developed nations, from 12-25% of the national industrial energy consumption has been attributed to thermal dehydration operations?
- Drying is found in practically all industrial sectors at some stage of manufacture? Also, it often controls the quality and thus market value or even marketability of certain products?
- Drying competes with distillation as the most energy-intensive unit operation; excluding petrochemical refining, drying is by far the most energy-intensive operation worldwide?
- If not dried properly some of the most expensive drugs may form polymorphs of no therapeutic value causing millions of dollars of losses?
- If not designed and operated properly industrial drying can be a hazardous operation causing fire/explosion damage when drying some organic products?
- Since most of the themal energy used for drying comes from combustion of fossil fuels, drying has a major environmental impact due to the release of greenhouse gas emissions?
