This paper is devoted to obtain a stabilizing optimal nonlinear controller based on the well known Control Lyapunov-Krasovskii Functional (CLKF) approach, aimed to solve the inverse optimality problem for a class of nonlinear time delay systems. To determine sufficient conditions for the Bellman's equation solution of the system under consideration, the CLKF and the inverse optimality approach are considered in this paper. In comparison with previous results, this scheme allows us to obtain less conservative controllers, implying energy saving (in terms of average power consumption for a specific thermoelectrical process). Sufficient delay -independent criteria in terms of CUT is obtained such that the closed-loop nonlinear time-delay system is guaranteed to be local Asymptotically Stable. To illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results, a comparative study with an industrial PID controller tuned by the Ziegler-Nichols methodology (Z-N) and a Robust-PID tuned by using the D-partition method is presented by online experimental tests for an atmospheric drying process with time delay in its dynamics. (C) 2016 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.