Adphos celebrates its 30th anniversary: Sustainable drying technologies
The entrepreneur-led Advanced Photonics Technologies Group (Adphos) is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. It all began with the visionary idea of "drying with light" and the first experiments in the garage of the current Managing Director, Dr. Kai K. O. Bär.
Since its foundation in 1994, Adphos has established itself as a medium-sized company and has become one of the leading suppliers of high-performance thermal process systems. Adphos stands for pioneering technologies, revolutionary processes and customized solutions that set standards worldwide. Its success is based on the patented and versatile aNir (Advanced Near Infrared) and aLite (Advanced Light Initiated Thermal Emission) technologies, which use electrothermal high-energy photon sources in combination with temperature-controlled air flows. Drying and heating processes take place within sub-seconds and reach temperatures of up to 2000 °C. At the same time, virtually heat-free applications (≤ 50 °C) can be carried out particularly gently on sensitive materials. As a result, Adphos offers solutions that are faster, more efficient and more sustainable than conventional convection drying systems. The systems are also extremely compact: they reduce the space required by a factor of 7 to 10. Precise control of the process parameters leads to improved production quality with minimal waste.
A key advantage of Adphos technologies is their sustainability: the aNir and aLite technologies are completely CO2-free and save over 60% energy compared to traditional hot air dryers. With over 5,000 systems installed worldwide, CO2 savings of over 1,000,000 tons per year have been achieved to date. Adphos proves that technological excellence and sustainability can go hand in hand. In addition to new installations, aNir- and aLite-based systems can also be used to retrofit or convert fossil fuel-powered dryers and thermal process plants, with the investment paying for itself within 18 months.
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