Working Party on Drying - WPD

Mission

Aims & Objectives of the EFCE-WPD

  
The Working Party aims are:

• to promote science, technology and education in solids drying in EFCE member countries and worldwide;
• promotion of interaction between academia and industry, to allow improvement of drying science and technology and encourage applications in industry of the latest scientific models and discoveries;
• international exchange of knowledge and experience, between scientists as well as between scientists and practising engineers;
• information exchange about the main trends in research on drying performed by the EFCE member countries, i.e. countries having delegates in the WPD;
• information about conferences and meetings held or planned to be held in those countries, and other major interna-tional conferences (e.g. International Drying Symposia);
• information about activities of national working parties on drying of the EFCE member countries;
• to contribute to the definition of standards, nomenclature, recommended techniques and other good practice in drying;
• provision of links to other important sources of information on drying and related subjects;
• any other activities leading to the development and promotion of drying technologies.

History

 
The EFCE Working Party was set up in 1980 to provide a forum for drying experts from academia and industry to meet and exchange knowledge and experience. The first chairman was Prof. Ernst Schlunder of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.

Since then, the Working Party has met regularly and has organised or supported many technical meetings, including a num-ber of the International Drying Symposia (IDS) which have been held in Europe. Plans for future EFCE Drying Working Party meetings and supported events can be found on the Events page.

Full details of the EFCE, its history, the national member societies and the other working parties can be found on the main EFCE information page at http://www.efce.info/.

Events

EFCE WPD Business Meetings

The Working Party on Drying holds a business meeting once a year. This meeting is often linked with a separate technical meeting of one of the member societies involved in the Working Party. In addition, the WP is happy to support and publicise meetings organised by national groups on drying. Where additional WP meetings are required during the year, they will preferentially be held in conjunction with an existing technical meeting of a national working party, or an international conference. For past meetings see "Previous activities".

EFCE Spotlight Talks

Spotlight Talks, 20 March 2024 - Electrically-driven dewatering and drying

Recording of the Spotlight Talk (YouTube)

Spotlight Talks, 19 April 2022 - Focus on current drying research within EFCE

Recording of the Spotlight Talk (YouTube)
 

International conferences related to drying

International Drying Symposia (IDS)

• Recent events in the series:
  23rd International Drying Symposium - IDS2024, Wuxi, PR China 22-25 November 2024
  IDS 2021, Worchester, MA, USA, 27-30 June 2021, Worchester, MA, USA (postponed by 1 year)
  
  
• Upcoming event in the series:

24th International drying Symposium IDS'2026

Paris, France, 25-28 August 2026

IDS 2026 will focus on current and future challenges of the drying/dewatering domain. We aim to provide the most advanced and comprehensive global forum for academia and industry. The conference will be structured by four key pillars (simulation and IA, use of intermittent energy, biosourced products and new technologies), to meet the challenges of sustainable development: energy saving, product saving, cost reduction, flexibility, adaptability…

The call for papers is open!

We kindly remind you that the deadline for abstract submission for the 24th International Drying Symposium is approaching:

30 November 2025

We are pleased to inform you that some plenary conferences will be selected from the submitted abstracts.
Abstract submission, including the abstract template: https://ids2026.org/
Note that the submission of full papers at the conference is not mandatory (deadline: March, 31, 2026). For your motivation, we would like to mention that a special issue of  Drying Technology Journal will be organised based on a selection of full papers. Special issues in specific fields (wood drying, food drying...) will also be organised in other journals depending on the number of selected papers. 

Exhibition and sponsorship

We are pleased to also let you know that different partnerships are available through exhibition and sponsorship opportunities. If you would like more information or know who can be interested in, please contact Pedro Augusto: pedro.augusto(at)centralesupelec.fr

For any question, here is the conference email address: contact(at)ids2026.org

> more

European Drying Conference

• Recent events in the series:
  EuroDrying'2025 - 9th European Drying Conference 2025, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 6-9 July 2025
  EuroDrying'2023, Lodz, Poland, 4-7 July 2023
  EuroDrying'2019 - 7th European Drying Conference, Torino, Italy, 10-12 July 2019  
   

Other International Conferences related to Drying

tba

Meetings of National Groups and Working Parties in the field of Drying:

• AFSIA meetings
• German Drying Working Party meetings
  
• IChemE SDSG meetings
  
• Other events organised by national groups

Awards of the Working Party

2019 Excellence Award in Drying and Freeze-drying

The Award was presented to Dr. Eng Maciej Jaskulski at the EuroDrying2019 Conference which was in Torino, Italy, on 10-12 July 2019.
 
Sponsor: Criofarma s.a.s

> more

2019 EFCE Student contest Drying: ideas and challenges for a sustainable world

Publications in the Field of Drying

Previous activities

Spotlight Talks 2022 - Focus on current drying research within EFCE

online, 19 April 2022, 9:30 CEST

Recording of the Spotlight Talk (YouTube)

Working Party Meetings

Agendas and Minutes of EFCE-WPD Meetings:

• Minutes of Business Meeting, Hyderabad (India), 11 November 2008
• Minutes of Business Meeting, Copenhagen (DK), 12 June 2008
• Newsletter, 5 November 2007
• Minutes of Business Meeting, Biarritz (F), 24 May 2007
• Minutes of Business Meeting, Budapest (H), 21 August 2006
• Minutes of Business and Technical Meeting, Paris (F), 12 May 2005
• Minutes of Informal Meeting, Sao Paulo, Brazil; 23 August 2004
• Minutes of Business and Technical Meeting, Nuremberg (D), 17 March 2004
• Minutes of Business and Technical Meeting, Crete (GR), 4 September 2003
• Minutes of Business Meeting, Magdeburg (D), 11 April 2002
• Agenda for Business Meeting, Magdeburg (D), 11 April 2002
• Minutes of Special Discussion Meeting, Karlsruhe (D), 11 January 2001
• Minutes of Business Meeting, Noordwijkerhout (NL), 28 August 2000
• Agenda for Business Meeting, Noordwijkerhout (NL), 28 August 2000

Presentations from Technical Meetings

Below are presentations from the Technical Meeting held at Magdeburg on 11-12 April 2002.

• Kemp, I C (Hyprotech, AEA Technology, Harwell, UK): Recent developments in the industrial application of dryer modelling
• van Deventer, H C (TNO Environment, Energy and Process Innovation, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands): Advanced drying concepts: adsorption and superheated steam
• Stakic, M B (Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, Yugoslavia): Numerical study on hygroscopic capillary-porous material drying in a packed bed
• Dimitriadis, A & Akritidis, C (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece): A model to simulate alfalfa drying in fixed deep-bed
• Slangen, H (DSM Research, Geleen, the Netherlands): Activities of the Solids Processing Industrial Network (SPIN) in the field of drying
• Tsotsas, E (Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany) & Groeneweld, H (AMMAG GmbH, Gunshkirchen, Austria): Modular methods for the design and simulation of fluidized bed dryers with indirect heating
• Heinrich S, Ihlow, M, Peglow, M & Morl, L (Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany): Theoretical and experimental study of fluidized bed steam drying Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3
• Peglow, M, Henneberg, M, Ihlow, M, Heinrich, S & Morl, L (Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany): Coupled population, mass and heat balances for liquid sprayed gas/solid fluidized beds

Past International conferences related to drying