The fluidized-bed design has some distinct advantages over other drying methods.

1. Air can be used as the dryer gas.  Fire risk is much reduced because the fluidized beds disperse heat like a natural flame-arrestor.
2. Drying temperatures can be varied controllably along the length of the dryer.
3. “Blue haze” can be prevented by controlling the conditions along the length of the dryer.
4. The design is compact.
5. The design is easily modeled for scale-up and optimization

Fire danger in the fluidized bed design is much less than in the rotary dryer design where recycling the low oxygen off-gas is used to reduce fire risk.  This recycle-gas has the undesirable effect of carrying moisture and fines back to the inlet, creating operational and maintenance problems.  The excellent mixing in a fluidized-bed disperses any heat source that would create a fire in most other dryers. There is still a danger of dust explosions, so standard design methods for dealing with this must be incorporated.  This includes eliminating upward facing horizontal surfaces and having adequate blast doors.

With an induced draft fan on the exhaust gas the dryer operates under a slight vacuum allowing cold-air inlet vents along the length of the plenum. This allows control of the temperature of the gas entering the beds. This allows the decreasing temperature profile which matches the optimum drying conditions at lower wood moisture contents.