The TORBED processor is our core technology.
Originally conceived to improve on conventional technologies for exfoliation of mica to produce vermiculite, the TORBED processors were designed to ensure thorough processing of raw materials with minimum waste and maximum efficiency, reducing both capex and opex.
We have deployed our revolutionary TORBED technology across many industries, delivering long lasting benefits in cost saving, resource efficiency, energy efficiency, and many other industry specific areas.
TORBED processors present a highly efficient alternative to machines, for example such as for use as an industrial belt dryer, an industrial rotary drum dryer, a rotary kiln for calcining or a fluidized bed gasifier.
The Basics
The cornerstone of the TORBED technology is the design of the processor geometry and the stationary blades which dictates the flow patterns within the processor.
The developed flow patterns interact with the solids in the TORBED processor, and the solids fluidise, creating a TORoidal fluidised BED, hence the name! The motion developed in the bed retains particles within the processor even at very high gas speeds.
High gas velocities are important as they create the conditions for fast reaction rates. A high speed gas strips away the boundary layer around a particle, exposing it to heat or to reactants and intensifying the process. The TORBED does this without entraining the particles in the gas stream, which would reduce the intensification that is otherwise achieved.
The benefits of this technology are myriad, and surface in different ways depending on the application (for example for use as an alternative to a conventional industrial fluidized bed gasifier, an industrial rotary drum dryer, a rotary kiln or an industrial waste combustor) that the TORBED processor is being used for.
If you are considering a process that requires gasses and solids to interact (gas, solid contacting) go to our processes page and explore how we might help you.
Processes
The TORBED Technology offers an efficient and often more effective alternative to conventional technologies, including rotary kilns, fluidised beds and circulating fluidised beds, Combusters, gasifiers, drum dryers, belt dryers and rotary hearths.
We can change the way you process
News
Find press releases, articles about the company, products, customers and people on our News page.
Experience Next-Generation Thermal Biomass Processing at Ligna 2025: beyond Rotary Kilns and Circulating Fluidized Beds.
We’re excited to showcase our advanced thermal biomass processing technology at the 50th Ligna Trade Fair—the world’s premier event for woodworking and wood processing—taking place in Hanover from 26–30 May. Visit us in Hall 26, Stand E82, where we will be presenting our industry-leading solutions ...
TORBED Dryer in a repeat application: outperforming industrial belt and rotary drum dryers.
We are delighted to have taken a repeat order for three TORBED Dryers to be used for drying potato granules. Although at 4.5m in diameter they are of significant size, they are far smaller than belt dryers or rotary drum dryers of equivalent capacity. Designed ...
The TORBED As Industrial Waste Combustor.
In parallel with our technology’s development from its initial mineral applications to processing food, we also began what was to become another important theme in the life of our technology, the treatment of industrial waste. Our initial step on this road was the use of ...
Trialling As a Substitute for an Industrial Belt Dryer: An Unexpected and Unhelpful Process Step.
Testing is in Torftech’s DNA. One particular set of tests had an unexpected outcome. We have been involved in some interesting concepts brought to us to use our TORBED reactors for new applications. These included, among others, the drying of krill as an alternative to ...
Beyond Industrial Belt Dryers and Rotary Kiln Dryers.
We sold our first dryer in 1989. Since then, the number has climbed to 43, divided more or less evenly between food and biomass applications with a few mineral applications completing the list. TORBED dryers are more compact and less complex than standard industrial industrial ...
Beyond Flames, Heat and Rotary Kilns
As we continue our series on historic developments of the TORBED Technology, we reach 1987 and the development of a process that is beyond the capabilities of Rotar kilns and Circulating Fluidized Beds. A well-known British oil company tested a TORBED processor for removal of ...
