Patent ID: 8161661

Claim:
A continuous drying apparatus, comprising: a drying chamber, a filter, a combustion chamber, a heat exchange chamber, a mixing chamber, and a chimney, wherein: the drying chamber comprises an opening through which biomass is loadable and an extractor which extracts biomass therefrom; the drying chamber receives gas at a drying temperature from the mixing chamber and outputs recycled gas, which is directed to the filter, and exhaust gas; the filter filters the recycled gas from the drying chamber, the heat exchange chamber and the combustion chamber and outputs filtered gas to the drying chamber; the combustion chamber heats gas and outputs heated gas to the heat exchange chamber; the heat exchange chamber enables an exchange of heat between filtered gas from the filter and heated gas from the combustion chamber and outputs gas to the mixing chamber; the mixing chamber comprises at least one fan which directs the gas at a drying temperature into the drying chamber.