About the company 

Orien Energy is developing an innovative sorption heat pump to recover waste heat in dryer exhaust. Drying, one of the most energy-intensive industrial processes, leads to up to 25% of energy consumption across all industrial processes in the United States. The problem with drying is that it generates enormous amounts of low-temperature waste heat, typically in the form of warm moisture. Orien Energy is aiming to solve this problem by a thermally-driven heat pump that takes in humid exhaust and generates valuable heat such as process steam.

About the solution

During adsorption, Orien Energy captures the dryer exhaust to generate hot air and steam, both of which are valuable to the customers. During desorption, they combine temperature and pressure regulations to enable regeneration of the sorption materials at minimal energy consumption. The key innovations are three folds. First, they are developing the first thermally-driven heat pump that enables steam generation from dryer exhaust. Second, the system requires minimal energy consumption, which is a huge benefit over conventional heat pumps. Third, the system is extremely simplified and optimized for heat transfer, which allows lower Capex and Opex than existing heat pumps. Ultimately, Orien Energy aims to reduce over 50% of energy consumption in drying with a truly affordable solution.