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PLANTBENCH

PlantBench / Dehydrator ROI calculator

Dehydrator ROI calculator

Belt and tray dryers are mostly a gas decision, plus a home for product you would otherwise dump. Read the yield note before you trust the payback.

Do not model water leaving as yield

Drying removes water. Finished weight goes down. That is not a gain. Yield improvement here means extra saleable pounds, on an input-weight basis, that you keep because you dried them instead of dumping them or selling them as a distress lot.

If you cannot say which pounds those are, the number is not ready. Concentration is not a yield improvement in this sheet.

Gas dominates

The default steps from 2 to 14 therms per 1,000 pounds. That is a rough belt-dryer band, not a mass balance. Electric boost, if you have it, sits in the kWh fields. Get therms per hour from the vendor, divide by throughput, and replace the default before the meeting.

A first pass often shows negative savings. That is the fuel bill exceeding the value of the pounds you said you would recover. Fix the product value or the recovered points. Do not zero out the gas to make the chart kind.

Product value and labor

Use the value of the dried product expressed per pound of the input you counted. Mixing a fresh price with a dry pound will lie in one direction or the other. The PDF repeats the price so the room can see it.

Dryers are not usually bought to empty a trim room. The labor default is a modest cut. If the dryer adds an operator and removes nobody, set the labor reduction to zero.

Capital and the building

The default capital is equipment-only for a modest line. Dryers are long. Air makeup, gas pipe, and floor space are extra. Put them in capital if they are part of this decision. Set weeks per year to the weeks you would actually dry, not the weeks the office is open.

Run the numbers

Your plant

These stay put when you switch equipment. Seasonal lines often run 30–40 weeks; year-round plants run closer to 50. Edit to match your calendar.

Choose a state to fill industrial averages for power, gas, and a production wage. Every figure stays editable.

lb

Annual throughput 4,800,000 lb. Operating days 240.

$/hr
%

Loaded wage $25.74 per hour.

$/lb

Price of the recovered pounds, not a premium and a yield gain for the same upgrade.

$/kWh

Typical industrial rate. Replace it with your local rate.

$/therm

Rough assumptions

Dehydrator

Hot-air vegetable dryer. Yield means recovered saleable pounds, not water driven off.

Whole crew on this step. Four people for 8 hours is 32.

%
%

Percent of input weight lost at this step today.

pts

Points of input weight you expect to sell instead of lose.

kWh

kWh per 1,000 lb of throughput.

kWh

168,000 kWh/year, about $14,280 .

therms

Therms per 1,000 lb. Use 0 if this step has no gas.

therms

67,200 therms/year, about $63,840 .

$

Optional. Leave blank to hide payback. Fold installation into this number if you want it counted.

Annual result

$82,659

Total annual savings, before capital.

Payback
3.9 years
Simple ROI
26%
5-year net
$93,294
Largest term
Yield
Annual savings breakdown
Labor saved2,112 hours$54,363
Yield gain168,000 lb$92,400
Energy deltaExtra operating cost-$64,104
  • Energy is a net new cost on these assumptions, so it reduces annual savings.

Sensitivity

Payback and five-year net at half, full, and one-and-a-half times the labor reduction and yield improvement
MeasureConservativeBaseAggressive
Payback34.5 years3.9 years2.1 years
5-year net-$273,613$93,294$460,202

Sensitivity only — edit the main inputs for a full recalculation.

These figures are rough estimates for discussion, not a quote, bid, or engineering study. Defaults are industry-style assumptions and will not match your plant until you edit them. The model ignores maintenance, installation, freight, water, wastewater, depreciation, taxes, incentives, and the time value of money. Yield math treats improvement as extra saleable pounds of input weight, which is the wrong model for some drying and grading decisions. Confirm every assumption before a capex meeting.

Annual savings

$82,659

Details

Questions

Why are savings negative?

Projected gas is worth more than the recovered pounds at the price you entered. That is a normal first result for a dryer. It is the model working.

Can I model a freeze dryer?

You can overwrite the fields, but the defaults are a hot-air vegetable dryer. A freeze dryer is an electric story with different capital. Do not leave the gas default in place.

Does this include packaging?

No. Bags, gas flush, and the labor after the dryer are outside the box. Add them to capital or accept that payback is equipment-only.

What if we only dry surplus?

Set weeks per year, or the weekly pounds, to the surplus you would actually dry. A 48-week dryer year on a 12-week glut overstates every term.

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