Indian invents dryer requiring no heat

NEW YORK, NY – Viral Patel, an Indian American research and development associate staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is part of a group of researchers who are developing an ultrasonic dryer which dries clothes faster and requires no heat.

“It is a completely new approach. Instead of evaporation, it’s technically performing mechanical extraction of the moisture within the fabric,” Patel told

Patel said that traditional dryers generally use straight-forward technology: as air gets sucked in from the surrounding area, it travels through a heater or gas burner and into the drum where the clothes tumble around allowing the heat to absorb the moisture with the air leaving the dryer.

However, the ultrasonic dryer uses piezoelectric transducers to remove moisture: when high frequency voltage is applied to the transducers, they vibrate at a high frequency causing trapped water to leave the fabric without heat.

Basically, the dryer shakes the water out of the clothes, speeding up the process.

Patel mentioned that GE Appliances is in the process of developing an agreement with the researchers to proceed toward commercialization.