Industrial Utility Efficiency

System Assessments

Thought Leaders on System Optimization Past & Future

Edited by Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

We asked a hand-selected list of original equipment manufacturers, independent compressed air system sales and service companies, manufacturing plants and independent system auditors to share their thoughts, highlighting the changes they’ve seen over the past 20 years, then predicting what the next 20 years will bring.

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Chicago Heights Steel Saves $215,000 Annually in Energy Costs

By Mike Grennier, Contributing Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Chicago Heights Steel, Chicago Heights, Ill., leveraged an advanced data monitoring system and adopted a demand-based compressor air management approach to save 2.5 million kWh and \$215,037 per year in energy costs. With an incentive of \$188, 714 from local utility ComEd, the project delivered a payback of 2.4 months.
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Missed Demand-Side Opportunities Part 5 - Think Inside the Box to Achieve Savings with Cooling of Control Enclosures

By Hank van Ormer, Contributing Editor

In this ongoing column, we share insights into technologies that offer the opportunity to affordably and easily lower compressed air use and generate energy savings – all while achieving relatively quick payback. But finding these technologies on the production floor isn’t always easy or straightforward. In fact, there are many times when a technological solution is far less than obvious. Such is the case with cooling of control enclosures, which represent a significant area for high-energy savings with little upfront investment. Here is some out-of-the-box thinking…  check that… inside-the-box thinking… for optimizing control of enclosure cooling and coming out ahead.
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California Energy Commission and Lightapp Cloud-Based Software Begin Monitoring Study

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

As energy costs continue to rise it becomes increasingly important for industrial operations to reduce waste and inefficiencies wherever possible. It’s why an innovative company known as Lightapp has developed an intelligent resource management software platform to help manufacturers and other industrial users reduce energy consumption and save costs in the process.
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Is Aluminum Pipe Oxidation a Bad Thing?

By Todd Zarins, Technical & Product Manager, Applied System Technologies™

As consumer awareness of the attributes of aluminum tubing have driven its popularity, so have a swell of additional well thought-out questions.  One question is asked with regularity, “What is done to protect the inside of the tubing”? Even though most all aluminum compressed air piping systems feature a painted or powder coated exterior, the interior of the tubing has no coating.
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Missed Demand-Side Opportunities Part 4 - Utilizing Air- Driven Venturi Vacuum Generators Efficiently

By Hank van Ormer, Contributing Editor

When the 18th Century Italian physicist Giovanni Venturi discovered when air is forced through a conical nozzle its velocity increases as the pressure decreases, neither he nor anyone could conceive it would ultimately spawn one of the most used and most highly controversial products in the industry today- the Venturi vacuum generator (aka, ejector).
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Big Improvements at a Small Sawmill

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Spruce Products Limited operates with five separate compressed air systems in their various buildings. A few years ago a sharp-eyed air compressor service representative noticed the screw compressors on site had less than optimal loading to operating hours ratios. Recognizing this was a problem, he suggested the company get in touch with their local power utility for a free compressed air scoping assessment. As a result, SPL has optimized two of their compressed air systems to-date, saving significant operating costs. One system is operating at 86% less energy consumption than previous levels.
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A Pulse Jet Dust Collector Optimization Study

By Russell Morine, Compressed Air Systems Evaluation Specialist, The Baker Group

A flour based frozen foods manufacturer orders a compressed air efficiency audit. The audit establishes the cost of compressed air at \$0.27/1000 cubic feet. The study finds the 116 pulse jet dust collectors represent the greatest opportunity for compressed air demand reduction and energy cost savings. A dust collector optimization study/service is suggested and the customer agrees to proceed. In this facility, pulse jet dust collectors are used to filter dust from raw materials entering the plant, for conveying and mixing of ingredients, and for the final packaged finished products leaving the plant.  
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Optimizing Today’s Pneumatic Systems

By Bill Nevills, Certified Fluid Power Specialist, Valin Corporation

In the last ten years, the design of pneumatic systems has changed dramatically, mainly due to developments in the technologies that create them. Pneumatic manufacturers’ online tools for sizing components have evolved, the fieldbus systems are ever-changing, component designs are constantly improving, and network devices such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have reshaped the industry. All these advances play a large role in optimizing the efficiency of pneumatic systems, but the age-old practice of routine maintenance must not be overlooked. This article will focus on proper air compressor sizing, proper pneumatic component sizing and predictable preventative maintenance. 
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Missed Demand-Side Opportunities Part 3 - Controlling Open Blowing with Compressed Air

By Hank van Ormer, Contributing Editor

In this series we covered some very common issues in the Compressed Air Generation or “Supply Side” with regard to misapplying some capacity controls and installing different types of air compressors with piping and/ or orientation. These can preclude any reduction in compressed air demand on the production side from effectively translating lower air usage into a commensurate level input energy.
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Instrument Air and Breathing Air at a Pharmaceutical Plant

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

A pharmaceutical plant, has had a compressed air assessment performed on two plant systems.  The studies uncovered poor compressed air production efficiency, high air dryer loss, and problems with high flow compressed air uses negatively affecting plant pressure. The plant implemented energy efficiency measures, on the two compressed air systems, saving 46 and 64 percent in energy costs respectively.
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Compressor Controls

Egger Modernizes Its Compressed Air System for the ESG Era
Wood-based materials manufacturing plant transformed its compressed air system from an invisible
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Piping Storage

Sizing Compressed Air Piping to Manage Pressure, Flow and Velocity
Efficient compressed air distribution depends on proper piping design to balance flow, pressure and
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End Uses

Improve Process Efficiency and Reduce Energy Use with Compressed Air Monitoring
Without compressed air monitoring, up to 30% of the compressed air generated goes to waste. This
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Pressure

High-Altitude Mining and Steel Production in Peru
Before CAGI data sheets were created, air compressor distributors and their customers could only go
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Air Treatment/N2

Selecting the Appropriate Nitrogen Gas Purity Level for Your Application
Producing nitrogen locally is an excellent way to reduce nitrogen costs and ensure a continuous
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Leaks

Hyster-Yale Sustainability Recognized by North Carolina DEQ
Hyster-Yale’s Greenville, North Carolina, plant reduced compressed air waste through employee-driven
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Pneumatics

Food Safety Design Tips for Pneumatic Systems
Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs) under FSMA CFR Title 21 117.40 is the cornerstone of
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Vacuum/Blowers

The Business Case for Air Compressor Rentals and Air-Over-the-Fence
There is no single right approach to putting the necessary volume and pressure of air in the pipe to
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