Industries

Bottler Best Practices in California

By Creg Fenwick and Kyle Harris, Accurate Air Engineering

Bottling companies and breweries, in California, are benefiting from a three-step system assessment process aimed at reducing the electrical consumption of their compressed air systems. The three-step process reduces compressed air demand in bottling lines by focusing on open blowing and idle equipment, and then improves the specic power (reducing the energy consumption) of the air compressors.

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Festo Optimizes Compressed Air Consumption at Volkswagen

By Sachin Kambli, Product Manager, Festo Corporation

Many passenger cars on roads in Germany contain efficiency concepts that make a considerable contribution to lowering emissions. Automotive manufacturers such as VW have gone even further than this, by applying efficiency strategies in their own value added chain. Because the benefits of pneumatics in automotive industry production processes have seen pneumatic actuation win over other drive technologies, efficient use of compressed air plays a key role in increasing energy efficiency.

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Nitrogen Solutions for the Food Industry Generated on Location

By Krista Ramsey

Nitrogen, an inert gas comprising 79% of the atmosphere, can be distilled from ordinary air. However, companies that use this product in their everyday operations know that it’s not quite that simple and much more expensive than the stuff we breathe. The primary means of obtaining nitrogen for industrial use is to transport it onsite in liquid form, which must be shipped and stored at cryogenic temperatures. But, really, what’s the point of turning nitrogen into liquid for shipping, transporting it to where it’s used, and then turning it back into gas?

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Food Processor Reduces Compressed Air Demand

By Hank Van Ormer, Air Power USA

This Midwestern prepared food company now spends \$131,011 annually on energy to operate their compressed air system. This figure will increase as electric rates are raised from their current average of 6.0 cents per kWh. The set of projects recommended below will reduce these energy costs by \$38,736 or 29%.

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Aerzen Delta Hybrid Blower - Designed for Wastewater Treatment Plant Load Profiles.

By Krista Ramsey

The concept offers new possibilities for generating positive pressure or vacuum in a variety of applications. “By applying screw compressor technology to low-pressure air compression, we’ve greatly improved efficiency,” said Pierre Noack, President and CEO of Aerzen USA. The Delta Hybrid has seven patents or patent applications, making it one of the most innovative products in compression technology.

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Compressed Air in Wastewater Treatment

By Scott Van Ormer and Hank Van Ormer for the Compressed Air Challenge®

The object of this article is to look at some very typical industrial water treatment processes and various compressed air and energy savings projects that have worked well for our clients over the years. The basic fundamentals with regard to compressed air usage are similar to municipal water treatment – a good starting point.

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Hoffman Revolution Blower Continues Tradition of Innovative Design

By Patrick James, Marketing Manager, Hoffman and Lamson Products

The Hoffman U.S. Machinery Division was established in 1905 outside of East Syracuse, New York. The initial product was an exhauster for the dry cleaning industry — pulling a steam vacuum across the garments. The Company grew and soon after began discovering industrial applications for their technologies. After the war period, during which Hoffman manufactured ball bearings and operated it’s own foundry, the company began discovering new industrial markets for it’s products. A signiﬁcant part of their business was in the wastewater treatment industry.

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Energy-Savings at Milk, Cheese, and Ice Cream Plants

By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge®

Compressed air system refinements have cut operating costs at a Milk Plant located in Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada by 62%, for annual savings of nearly \$30 000. The improvements were made following a compressed air audit that recommended consolidating two compressed air systems into one, installing a variable speed drive compressor, and making a handful of additional basic improvements.

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Improved Modified Atmosphere Packaging Technology

By Krista Ramsey

CVP System, Inc.’s MasterPACKer Eco+™ Breaks Down Barriers to Cost and Energy Savings Through Improved Modified Atmosphere Packaging Technology Worldwide, Tesco, a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, U.K., initiated the demand for modified atmosphere packaging technology in the early 70s. It became one of the first grocers to move away from employing an onsite butcher to using a central processing/distribution system.

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Compressed Air Efficiency Opportunities in the Plastics Industry

By Dean E. Smith, iZ Systems for the Compressed Air Challenge®

As in most industrial categories, compressed air is critical to the operations of a plastics plant whether it is blow molding, injection molding, or other processes. The opportunities to improve supply side (compressor room) efficiency are similar to all industrial compressed air systems, but are even more prevalent in some plastics facilities, especially blow molding.

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