The company was originally founded in the 1980's as Simpson Environmental Services of Richmond, California. Dan Simpson began manufacturing standard filter presses for use in plating shops, pigment production and oil tank cleaning. In the early 1990’s, Dan sold the company to devote full time to the development of a filter press system, which could dewater and dry slurries in a single unit. After the development of the specialized plate, he repurchased the original company and DryVac Environmental was born. Using previous experience, the original DryVac units consisted of small systems for dewatering and drying metal hydroxides, pigments, and slurries from oil tank cleanings. In anticipation of the growth of the company, DryVac Environmental moved from Richmond to Rio Vista, California in 1996.

As the years progressed, significant research and development concentrated in creating plates with a more robust plastic. This resulted in the production of bigger plates and, hence, larger units. The advanced plastics also allowed the change from hot water to steam for the heat source. The use of steam provides a higher differential temperature, which results in faster drying times. There is significant savings in electrical energy since steam requires much less energy than water to move it through the closed loop.