Industrial Utility Efficiency

Pressure

High-Altitude Mining and Steel Production in Peru

By Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Before CAGI data sheets were created, air compressor distributors and their customers could only go by the manufacturers’ claims. He found there wasn’t any uniformity to the numbers manufacturers put out, so making comparisons was challenging. Some compressed air manufacturers measured capacity from the bare airend, while others measured from the air compressor’s outlet.

Read Full Story

CAPS Inc. Audit Turns Off 100 hp in Air Compressors

By Don Dyck, President, Compressed Air Performance Specialists

Compressed Air Performance Specialists (CAPS Inc.) is a compressed air consultancy located in Calgary, Alberta. In its most recent compressed air project, the company reduced a 200-hp, multi-compressor system down to a single, 100-hp variable speed drive (VSD) air compressor utilizing 75 hp of compressor energy (kWh), resulting in \$70,000 in annual energy savings.
[ Read Full Story ]

Improvements at Canada Bread Save 58% in Energy Costs

By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge®

Replacing air compressors, dryers and filters with more efficient models has saved electrical costs and improved compressed air reliability at the Canada Bread plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In addition to this, plant personnel found some additional savings by reducing air leakage and eliminating inappropriate uses. As a result, the plant reduced its compressed air electrical costs by 58 percent and qualified for a utility incentive.
[ Read Full Story ]

The Challenges of Auditing Compressed Air in Chemical and Petrochemical Plants

By Paul Edwards, President, Compressed Air Consultants, Inc.

Compressed air audits for chemical and petrochemical plants have many characteristics in common with audits in other industries, but there are some differences in the way these businesses run that impact the goals of the typical audit and how that audit is conducted. In chemical and petrochemical facilities, the reason for auditing the demand side is different than that of other industries. Additionally, there are frequently applications with opportunities for improvement that are not always seen in other industries.  
[ Read Full Story ]

Compressed Air Optimization at CertainTeed Gypsum

By Ron Marshall for Compressed Air Challenge®

The CertainTeed Gypsum Board plant located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, has renewed their compressed air system and improved their air quality, as a result of information learned at Compressed Air Challenge’s Fundamentals of Compressed Air seminar, some wise choices for new equipment, and thorough investigation of their system. A close look at their distribution system uncovered some surprising results that, once changed, resulted in better system operation. The improvements saved significant operating costs and resulted in a financial incentive from their power utility.
[ Read Full Story ]

Air System Pressure Influences Compressor Power - Part 3: The Influence of System Pressure on Compressed Air Demand

This is the third article in a three-part compressed air series by Mark Krisa, Director – Global Services Solutions, Ingersoll Rand

Energy conservation measures (ECM) associated with compressed air have received a significant amount of attention over the years, mostly due to a reasonably short financial return compared with other energy consuming equipment. Over time many of the corrective actions put forward to reduce compressed air energy consumption have been simplified with the goal of encouraging action. Although this is done with the best of intentions, sometimes simplifications and generalizations do not necessarily lead to positive results. One of the most common energy conservation measures for compressed air that leverages best practice calculations involves reducing system pressure. It is the objective of this series of articles to highlight some of the more common issues associated with estimating energy conservation resulting from changing system pressure.
[ Read Full Story ]

Packaging Printer Ink Dryer Audit Optimizes Low-Pressure System

By Ron Marshall for Compressed Air Challenge®

Compressed air audits are valuable exercises on significant energy users in a plant.  Often done on main compressed air systems, these studies are also valuable on secondary systems, like dedicated low pressure circuits that feed production machinery.  An audit of such a system turned up some surprising results on a process that was initially thought to be very efficient.
[ Read Full Story ]

Air System Pressure Influences Compressor Power - Part 2: The Influence of System Pressure on Centrifugal Compressors

This is the second article in a three-part compressed air series by Mark Krisa, Director – Global Services Solutions, Ingersoll Rand

It is common to see energy assessment specialists treat centrifugal compressors like positive displacement compressors when attempting to reduce compressed air system energy consumption. Unfortunately, centrifugal compressors are normally much larger, and miscalculations can easily represent hundreds of thousands of dollars in overestimated energy savings. These errors are not malicious; they result from oversimplified best practices perpetuated by individuals with limited centrifugal compressor knowledge. This type of knowledge is not readily available and most energy assessment specialists do not have access to engineering teams responsible for the technical development and design of centrifugal compressors.
[ Read Full Story ]

Air System Pressure Influences Compressor Power - Part 1: System Pressure’s Influence On Rotary Screw Air Compressors

By Mark Krisa, Director – Global Services Solutions, Ingersoll Rand

Energy conservation measures (ECMs) associated with compressed air have received a significant amount of attention over the years, mostly due to a reasonably short financial return compared with other energy-consuming equipment. Over time, many of the recommended corrective actions to reduce compressed air energy consumption were simplified so much that they did not lead to positive results. One of the most common compressed air ECMs is reducing system pressure, and it leverages the best practice calculation —.5 percent power per psi — outlined in the Department of Energy’s Compressed Air Challenge. This article highlights more common issues associated with estimating energy conservation resulting from changing system pressure.
[ Read Full Story ]

Eliminating Pressure Problems in Compressed Air Systems

By Dean E. Smith, iZ Systems Inc.

A couple of key principles must be considered if we want to understand and control the operating costs of your compressed air system. First, compressors pump air, they do not make pressure. The system creates the back pressure which the compressors must pump against. When the compressor delivers more air than the demand requires, the pressure rises and of course, the reverse is also true. Secondly, any component or application which forces the pressure to be higher than necessary creates wasted energy in the system. This waste is not linear to the increase in pressure but can be exponential for many reasons. However, the main contributors are artificial demand and the size of the compressors in the system.
[ Read Full Story ]

International Wire Trims Compressed Air Costs Using the “Systems Approach”

By Tom Taranto and Ram Kondapi for the Compressed Air Challenge®

International Wire Group, Inc. (IWG) headquartered in Camden, NY is the largest bare copper wire and copper wire products manufacturer in the United States with expanding operations in Europe. Products include a broad line of copper wire configurations and gauges with a variety of electrical and conductive characteristics , which are utilized by a wide variety of customers primarily in the industrial and energy, electronics, data communications, aerospace and defense, medical electronics and devices, automotive, and consumer and appliance industries.
[ Read Full Story ]