DRALOD is an EU-funded Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) project (Horizon 2020, GA No 820554) aimed at developing a novel, low-temperature drying process powered entirely by renewable energy. The pilot plant combines solar air heating and biomass with a co-current rotary dryer to process high-moisture food by-products (e.g., brewer’s spent grain, olive pomace, orange pulp), reducing their weight by ~65% and cutting both CO₂ emissions and transport costs compared to natural‑gas drying. Located in Chiloeches, Spain, the 75 °C pilot unit integrates a solar array (~2,500 m²) and a 1 MW biomass boiler, with a heat-recovery unit (HRU) that recovers ~20 kW from exhaust air and upgrades it via heat-pump technology. The system was tested over nine weeks, demonstrating strong energy efficiency and process performance. It also yielded technical specifications for scaling to a 1 MW HRU and generated several peer-reviewed publications.
