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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Open-Minded System Assessments Part 1. Petrochemical Plant Optimizes Centrifugal Compressors

By Paul Edwards, Compressed Air Consultants

Keeping an open mind is critical in all system assessments. Each client has different priorities and circumstances. In this case, the elimination of the “close-scrapes” with insufficient pressure was the priority. The energy and rental/maintenance savings realized were just an added bonus. In this article, we have focused on the supply-side of the system and how the centrifugal compressors could be made to supply the system reliably – without the need for rental air compressors.
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Food Industry Factory Saves $154,000 in Annual Energy Costs

By Hank Van Ormer, Air Power USA

This food industry factory, located in California, was spending \$386,533 annually on energy to operate their compressed air system. This system assessment detailed eleven (11) project areas where yearly energy savings totaling \$154,372 could be found with a investment of \$289,540. A local utility energy incentive, paying 9 cents/kWh, provided the factory with an incentive award of \$159,778. This reduced the investment to \$129,762 and provided a simple ROI of ten months on the project.
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ASME EA-4-2010 - Energy Assessment for Compressed Air Systems. What’s it all about?

By Joe Ghislain for the Compressed Air Challenge®

Over the years, analyzing compressed air system operation and efficiency has gone under various names and taken many different shapes and forms. You may know these as; Assessments, Audits, Studies, and Surveys, but in all cases the compressed systems are analyzed using techniques, such as metering and measuring, to assess the system’s performance and identify opportunities for improvement. The problem is that the results of these activities have varied widely; leaving the end-user to try and determine what is usable, credible and implementable. This has led to a lot of “no actions“, resulting in assessments, audits, studies, and surveys being put on the shelf to collect dust.
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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.
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Plastic Molder Reduces $3.2 Million Energy Spend with Pneumatic Cylinder Retrofits

By Gary Wamsely, JoGar Energy Services

A plastics molding plant had engaged us to conduct an ‘on-site’ Energy Assessment of their facility. The annual ‘spend’ for electricity, natural gas, and water was about \$3.2 million for this modern 275,000 square foot, fully air-conditioned facility. During the Review, several opportunities were identified and delineated in lighting, HVAC, process ventilation, the water systems and energy supply contracts. However, the most significant savings were in their compressed air system.
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The Energy Costs Associated with Nitrogen Specifications

By Mike Flowe, Flowe Nitrogen Systems

So you need nitrogen in your plant! In a high percentage of cases, generating your own nitrogen using commercially available equipment is a very cost effective alternative to purchasing liquid nitrogen or cylinder nitrogen from traditional supply sources like the industrial gas companies. In some cases, the return on investment (ROI) ranges from six months to 2 years, but ROI can range, depending on several factors, to several years while still being a good investment. With rising fuel and energy costs, the cost of liquid nitrogen is going up and is making it much easier to justify the purchase of a nitrogen generator in a wide range of purities and pressures.
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Plastics Processor Outsources Compressed Air as the 4th Utility

By Tim Tensing, DirectAIR®

Treating compressed air as a true utility and outsourcing the entire process is a growing trend in the industry. If a plant does not generate their own power, provide their own water or deliver their own natural gas, then why not treat compressed air requirements in the same manner? This article will use a recent project as a case study to show the benefits one factory received by making the decision to outsource compressed air like a utility.
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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.
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Pneumatic and Vacuum Energy Optimization in OEM Machines

Thomas Dwyer, Product Manager- International Projects and John Bridges, Marketing Manager AVENTICS Corporation

Machine builders aiming to improve the energy efficiency of their machines tend to focus on using energy media other than pneumatics (typically electro-mechanical or hydraulic) since pneumatics, as traditionally applied, is viewed by some as inefficient due to factors like leakage and over-pressurization (i.e.: supplying a higher pressure in an actuator to accomplish a task which is endemic in practice). But they shouldn't, with its low cost of ownership, pneumatics when properly used remains a viable and many times preferable energy source for a given application. When generating and using compressed air, it's true that there are many places in the system where energy can be lost, however targeted measures within a comprehensive energy saving concept can prevent these losses and significantly reduce energy consumption at the machine level.
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Plastic Injection Molder Saves $53,000

By Hank Van Ormer, Air Power USA

This facility is part of a corporation producing molded plastic products. There are many injection and extrusion molding processes. The factory was spending \$94,934 annually on energy to operate their compressed air system. This system assessment detailed seven (7) project areas where yearly energy savings totaling \$53,191 could be found with a minimal investment of \$4,170.
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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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