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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The Gentex Journey to Reliable Energy Conservation - 3 Levels of Compressed Air Systems

By John Bilsky, Facilities Maintenance, Gentex Corporation

The information contained in this article, will help the operator to assess his/her systems, and identify where these systems fall within a three-level category. There are many ways, and opportunities to make a compressed air system produce reliable and good quality air. The three levels discussed here could also be characterized as a “continuous improvement plan” which can be achieved over the course of time, and with the occasional investment of money.
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Remote Monitoring Takes Off for Aerospace Manufacturer

By Nicolas De Deken, President, ENERGAIR

In the absence of the control system, the air compressors were loading and unloading according to pre-set pressure bands, which forced the system to operate at higher pressures and run inefficient combinations of compressors in order to effectively match air demand. When switched on, irrespective of air demand, the control system was able to control all compressors on a single, tight pressure band and efficiently match output with demand.
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Compressed Air Dryer Key Performance Indicators

By Chris Beals, President, Air System Management

The purpose of this article is to point out the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that can assist in maintaining the performance and troubleshooting of compressed air dryers. The most important KPI to monitor is the pressure dew point (PDP) of the compressed air exiting the dryer(s). The PDP of the compressed air should be monitored at the discharge of each dryer and downstream of where the compressed air from multiple dryers converges. 
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When Mixing is the Goal, Why Would You Aerate? Compressed Gas Mixing Provides an Alternative Approach

By David Lauer, P.E., EnviroMix

At the beginning of the 20th century, biological wastewater treatment — more specifically, the activated sludge process — was developed and became widely accepted as the treatment method for municipal wastewater, helping to protect our lakes and rivers from pollutants and support public health. In 1947, the Committee on Development of Uniform Standards for Sewage Works was created by the group known as the Great Lakes – Upper Mississippi River Board of State and Provincial Public Health and Environment Managers. 
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Nitrogen Characteristics and Benefits of On-Site Generation

By the Compressed Air & Gas Institute

Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) accounts for a significant amount of nitrogen usage in the food and beverage industry. MAP involves injecting nitrogen into beverage or food packaging to purge and displace any oxygen-containing air with nitrogen. Oxidation of lipids in food products causes rancidity. Since oxygen is replaced with dry, inert nitrogen in MAP packaging, no product oxidation will occur. The result is maximized product shelf life. 
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Achieving “Technically Oil-Free” Compressed Air

By David Swartz, Gulf Coast Regional Sales Manager, Sauer Compressors USA

In this article we will discuss how to achieve actual oil-free air from your air compressor, no matter what type of air compressor it is. Air compressors of all designs turn mechanical power into pneumatic power by successively concentrating air across compression stages. A rotary screw air compressor, for example, utilizes rotating helical screws to drive air forward, increasing its pressure by reducing the volume of space the air mass takes up. Mechanical compression of this nature takes quite the force and energy to accomplish, which equates to heat generation and physical wear inside of the compressor. 
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Safe and Efficient Compressed Air Nozzle Food Applications

By Jordan Shouse, Application Engineer, EXAIR Corporation

There are a tremendous variety of unique and creative ways people in the food industry have overcome their need for compressed air blowoffs used for cleaning, drying, cooling, conveying and overall processing. You may have seen some of them yourself. It is not uncommon to view open copper tubes, pipes with a crushed end, plugs or caps with holes drilled into them, modular flex coolant lines or nozzles designed for liquid application but blowing air.
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Efficiently Controlling Huge Flow Variations in Sandblasting Compressed Air System

Tim Dugan, P.E. President, Compression Engineering Corporation

Most industrial systems like compressed air have essentially random demand if you look at the long-term life cycle of the system. Hundreds, even thousands of independent small and large subsystems require constant or varying flow. These demands are typically not timed or synchronized with each other, so they aggregate to a fairly random flow profile, within a range. That range changes significantly when production processes change. Certainly a 2-week audit might show some patterns that appear predictable for demand A (“production”) and demand B (“non-production”) or day type, but they change over time as the plant adapts to new production systems and removes old ones. If demand was that profile forever, a lesser experienced auditor might be tempted to size one set of compressors that work perfectly for that profile but not for alternates.
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Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds™ Optimizes Piping and Air Compressor Automation

By Tyler Costa, ALD, Inc.

The Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds campus in Lost Hills, California is a manufacturing facility that processes and packages pistachios and almonds for the consumer market. Food processing requires extensive use of compressed air to control multiple applications ranging from actuators, valves, optical sorters, packaging equipment and plant maintenance operations. The campus has its peak season during harvest in late August/early September, but processing and packaging operations take place year-round.
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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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