Making pasta involves a process of mixing flour or semolina with water, working it into a dough and then pressing it through a mold – creating the moist pasta which, once upon a time, might have been hung outside to dry in the wind. Today, however, we have a revolutionary machine to do this work. 
Launched in 2012, the Ecothermatik™ long-goods pasta dryer was the result of Bühler’s work to develop a pioneering new drying solution that would not only use significantly less energy, but increase product quality at the same time. Now, the company is providing this innovative system in a version that can accommodate capacities between 3,500 and 5,500 kilograms per hour.
Excellent energy efficiency – lower operating costs The machine’s key feature is its reduced energy con- sumption, made possible due to functions such as in-process heat recovery. “The hot, humid exhaust air from inside the dryer is fed into a heat exchanger, which condenses the water and conveys the energy from the exhaust air back into the heater. This reduces thermal energy requirements by 40 per- cent,” explains Marco Loschi, Product Manager Pasta at Bühler. Not only that, but the system also needs 20 percent less cooling energy thanks to opti- mized air flow and intelligent heat management. To top it all off, fans featuring a special blade shape more efficiently generate the necessary air circula- tion, yielding an additional 10 percent in electrical energy savings. As a result, drying a metric ton of pasta consumes just 150 kWh instead of 250 kWh – a saving that translates directly into a higher margin for manufacturers, as well as improving environ- mental performance.
