Dehumidifiers are now commonly used across the world to reduce and maintain the level of humidity in the air, usually for health and comfort or to eliminate mustiness and odours. But they came to India much after they gained popularity in the West. 

Dehumidifier maker Bry-Air caters to a wide range of industries, providing solutions for humidity control, moisture removal and product drying, gas phase filtration, plastic drying and conveying, high temperature heat recovery, dry room solutions critical for lithium battery production, and adsorption cooling.

Deepak Pahwa, Chairman and Managing Director, Bry-Air

Art Harms, who worked at Carrier Engineering Corporation, one of the world’s best air-conditioning engineering companies, founded Bry-Air in the US, in 1964. 

Deepak Pahwa set-up a sales company in India in 1979 and entered into a joint venture (JV) with Bry-Air Inc. USA in 1981.

Since, then Bry-Air (Asia) has come a long way. The company is financially independent today having bought over the JV partner’s equity. In 2006, the company acquired the global rights of the name Bry-Air and licensed the use of the name to the erstwhile JV partners in USA for limited use in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Deepak studied electrical engineering from Banaras Hindu University, after which he worked for three years at an instrument measuring company. He then worked for seven years at his brother’s air-conditioning business. Deepak joined the Bry-Air business in 1979 and took over thereafter.

Moisture is an enemy in many production processes and this was something that people did not recognise as much as they should have, says Deepak Pahwa, Chairman and Managing Director of Bry-Air, adding, “People did not know much about the importance of moisture or even if they knew, they did not know how to tackle the problem of moisture control.”

To spread awareness about the importance of Bry-Air products, Deepak focussed on food, pharmaceuticals, and missile assembly industries. 

Commenting on the production process, from sourcing raw materials to finished products, Deepak says, “Our manufacturing is fully integrated. We have the strength to customise various psychrometric processes into a functional product basically for low humidity, ensuring high level of engineering and manufacturing with 3D design work and coupled with CNC manufacturing operations.” 

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The company also developed a technology to produce a desiccant-adsorbing wheel that would remove moisture from the air on a constant basis. It runs several research and development (R&D) centres and test labs. 

Bry-Air has filed 123 applications worldwide for patents on 13 new technologies since 2007, of which 48 patents have been granted. The company has over 1,500 employees across the world.

Deepak says that people in India have now become more aware. He says, “They have realised why moisture control is so important in their production processes.”

The Pahwa Group led by Deepak has expanded to several geographies across the world along the way. It has four companies under it- Bry-Air, DRI, Delair and Technical Drying Services (TDS). 

Explaining the diversifications, Deepak said, “We started developing new structures across different geographies, with adsorption technology at the heart of everything.” The company has built subsidiary plants in Malaysia, China, and Switzerland for a specialised product. 

While the coronavirus pandemic has crippled many industries across the world, Deepak is looking at the larger picture.

But he is looking at the coming year with hope, adding that Bry-Air is in the process of developing a new product.