A centrifugal pellet dryer including a stationary cylindrical screen, a driven elevating rotor in said screen elevating wet pellets inside the screen and imparting radial forces to the wet pellets to impact them against the interior of the screen to enable moisture on the pellets to be separated and discharged through the screen, a housing enclosing the screen and rotor and including an inlet for a slurry of pellets, an outlet for dried pellets and an outlet for water removed from the pellets. The side walls of the housing are constructed of a plurality of relatively large, flat panels made of plastic sheet material are supported in a metal framework to attenuate noise of the dryer produced by rotation of the drier rotor and impact of the wet pellets against the screen. A dewaterer in advance of the dryer also has walls made of plastic sheet material.