The manufacturer is headquartered in Germany – where continental Europe’s gas supply crisis is seen as most acute – and said that up until now alternative drying systems had not been successful because of low gas prices. 

However, the energy price crisis has left firms scrambling to cut costs and find alternatives to gas-guzzling systems.

“Production is currently completely endangered in view of the threatened, reduced and limited gas supply,” Adphos stated. 

Gas dryers are used in many industry applications including printing and coating, spanning paper, plastics and textiles. 

Major gas users include heatset web offset printers. 

Adphos said that its aLite electrothermal drying technology could completely replace gas and involved zero CO2 emissions. 

Alternatively, it also offers a system that can provide a boost to drying, resulting in reduced gas consumption. 

Adphos director Dr Kai Bär told Printweek: “Resulting from already performed upgrades or recent performed evaluations, we can conclude that even partial gas reduction of 30% with an adjacent aNIR booster can be paid back within less than two years minimum, partially even less than one year,” he stated. 

He said the high system efficiency and the now significantly higher electrical costs being experienced by industry, also resulted in improved ROI compared to the period before the energy crisis.

“We offer our gas saver check with serious analysis and evaluation for them [potential customers], providing competitive options with cost/payback outline,” he explained. 

The evaluation and estimate is based on each customers’ specific process and requirement. 

Bär said that prices started from €100,000 (£84,345) depending on the application. 

He also said that Adphos is currently involved with upgrading a number of HP T-series inkjet web digital presses with aNIR dryer replacements for their original dryers. 

“Here only the new electrical cost conditions, prove the replacement within 6 to 12 months,” he added.