The Super Heated Steam Dryer is now
located  inside a building and is fully   
heat insulated and operational.             

This photo shows the heat exchanger unit and the exiting ducting.
Temperature probes are set up around the entire system to keep track of the temperatures.

A small feed hopper sits on top of the unit and feeds the unit via a water cooled screw conveyor.

The motor control centre and touch screen are located in this compact unit.
The entire process is fully automated and controlled from this point.

This photo shows the material cascading over the variable pitch flights that evenly expose the material to the super heated steam as it is transported to the end of the dryer

The airless Dryer at Lowe's Hawera plant has been operating for some 9,000 hours since the official handover in October 2002. The unit has proved very reliable and outages have been at a minimum during this time. Plant operators have quickly come to terms with the operation, and the control system allows varying steps of operator access depending on skill level.
The continuing development of the SHS program is ongoing  and a pilot plant is now being manufactured  for testing of a wide variety of alternative products and mediums.