Optimum air drying strategy for dehumidifier timber dryers

This paper presents an economic model for analyzing the cost behavior of de humidifier timber drying process. Various costs, including those of air dry ing, are identified and quantified. Reasonable assumptions are made to simp lify the calculation process. For species of both softwoods and hardwoods, the optimum air drying strategies are investigated based on two scenarios o f existing commercial dehumidifier dryers and well-run high performance deh umidifier dryers. This paper finds that when the timber maximum air drying degrade rate is less than 5%, air drying adds significant value to the oper ation of dehumidifier dryers. This benefit accelerates with the extent of a ir drying. With the use of high performance dehumidifier dryers, the import ance of air drying tends to decrease. The cost of air drying is very sensit ive to both the assumed interest rate and timber maximum air drying degrade rate.