Industrial Utility Efficiency

Food

Maple Leaf Foods Saves with Compressed Air and Heat Recovery Upgrade

By Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

One existing air compressor was a rental and not fully integrated into our compressed air system. We upgraded the desiccant compressed air dryer to improve operational efficiency, reduce energy consumption and save on the combined cfm. We save close to 900,000 kWh of electricity, and about 704 cfm every weekday.

Read Full Story

Keep Contaminants Out of Food and Beverage Processing Air Supplies

By Brandon Brownlee, Motion Industries

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than 30,000 food and beverage processing plants across the United States employ more than 1.5 million workers.1 Each of those plants applies a wide range of processes to raw agricultural goods to produce consumable food and beverage products.
[ Read Full Story ]

Milk Products Plant Finds 52 Percent Potential Savings

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

A food processor was having compressed air problems, so they invited a compressed air auditor into their plant for an assessment and to help them size future permanent air compressors. The plant was experiencing low air pressure and detecting water in the compressed air lines despite having a desiccant air dryer. The auditor thoroughly analyzed the compressed air system production equipment and did end-use assessment and leakage detection. This article discusses the findings leading to a potential cost savings of 52% of the current level.
[ Read Full Story ]

How to Keep Reverse Pulse Dust Collectors Operating Efficiently and Reliably

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Reverse pulse type dust collectors often represent a challenge to compressed air energy efficiency, and sometimes throw a wrench into the works by causing huge air pressure fluctuations, high transient flows and just plain large leaks. This article discusses this type of dust collector, often installed in food processing plants, and gives some real-life examples of problematic installations. Some suggested measures are mentioned to ensure your dust collectors keep running in a trouble-free manner.
[ Read Full Story ]

Reducing Brewing Costs with Onsite Nitrogen Generation

By Nathaniel Holliday, Randy Peccia, Jennifer Fiorello, Parker Hannifin

Brewing is normally broken down into four stages-malting, mashing, boiling and fermenting. The complex chemical processes begin with a few simple ingredients - hops, grain, yeast and water. Recently there have been technological advancements to safeguard that these steps are attained accurately, efficiently and with cost-savings. One particular improvement is the use of nitrogen during the brewing process. The addition of an onsite nitrogen generator allows brewers to reduce their nitrogen costs, eliminate downtime, and reduce safety risks related to bulk gas cylinder delivery and changeouts.
[ Read Full Story ]

Clean and Dry Compressed Air Drives Success at Five Churches Brewing

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Compressed air is a critical aspect of brewing craft beer and no one understands that better than Five Churches Brewing, which recently looked to MidState Air Compressor, Inc. to recommend and install an appropriate compressed air system for virtually every aspect of beer production including brewing, canning and keg washing.  
[ Read Full Story ]

Pneumatics Boost Productivity of Doroti Pack Thermoforming Machine

By Daniel Math, Aventics

For more than 20 years, Hungarian-based Doroti Pack Ltd. has specialized in the production and servicing of state-of-the-art packaging machines. Their focus is on developing, manufacturing, producing and selling premium-quality packaging equipment, including their line of DorPack thermoforming machines which are often used for food products such as fresh meat, fish, dairy products, bakery ware, confectionery and ready-cooked foods. Dorati Pack chose to incorporate Aventics pneumatic components in latest thermoforming machine for optimal productivity and machine longevity.
[ Read Full Story ]

Reviewing Dust Collectors and Nitrogen in a Food Manufacturing Plant

By Hank van Ormer, Van Ormer Consulting

This major food manufacturing plant in the Midwest uses compressed air and onsite nitrogen generation to operate multiple snack production and packaging lines. The plant spends an estimated \$430,344 annually on energy to operate its compressed air system based on an average rate of 4.5 cents per kWh.
[ Read Full Story ]

Lessons Learned: Saving Energy Costs with Heated Blower Desiccant Dryers

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Experienced auditors become wary when they see desiccant dryers installed in customers’ plants. These dryers are required when a plant needs instrument-quality compressed air, or when compressed air piping is exposed to freezing temperatures. However, while desiccant dryers can gain this level of quality, the energy cost of stepping up from a dewpoint of 35°F to a level of -40°F increases quite considerably. To attempt to reduce the energy costs of drying to these low levels, heated blower desiccant styles may be used. This article describes three common desiccant dryer types, as well as some experiences, good and bad, with heated blower types.
[ Read Full Story ]