Air Treatment/N2

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. 

When compressed air comes into direct contact with a product, many applications believe their “standard” particulate and coalescing oil-removing filters, installed either side of a compressed air dryer, are sufficient to protect the downstream processes. Strangely enough, the removal of bacteria is often overlooked, despite this level of filtration being readily available, easy to procure, install and maintain.

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. 

This article is for you if your company is purchasing nitrogen gas at 99.999% purity and you’re not sure why.  While there are many applications which do require nitrogen gas concentrated to 99.999%, they are significantly outweighed by the applications that don’t. Rather than relying on a delivery of bulk liquid or pressurized cylinders, many nitrogen users are choosing to produce a custom supply of nitrogen within their facility, and they are doing it at a fraction of the cost. Over the past decade we’ve seen a mass industry shift from delivered nitrogen supply, to nitrogen generation.

Moisture in compressed air is almost never a good thing. It can damage a compressed air system by causing corrosion, rust and scale buildup. It can damage downstream equipment with these moisture byproducts or with the moisture itself. It can negatively affect processes and products that require dry compressed air.

One of the most satisfying parts of being a compressed air system auditor is resolving compressed air system reliability issues. This article exposes a seldom, if ever, mentioned problem that can occur when air dryers are dedicated to air compressors. It examines a real-world application and discusses the action taken to remedy the situation.

As founding members of a startup company in the compressed air and gas purification and separation industry, nano-purification solutions felt a kinship with the owners, employees and mission of Death Wish Coffee Co. The kinship and nano-purification solutions’ expertise in onsite nitrogen generation led to the installation of a nitrogen generation system that contributes to the overall efficiencies and operational costs savings at the coffee roaster’s production operation in Round Lake, New York.

For many installations of industrial air dryers, a dilemma can occur when trying to achieve the correct balance between desired specifications and efficiency in the applications. Sometimes there is no way around a requirement to achieve ultra-dry dew points, but are we always considering the point-of-use needs when implementing a dry air solution? Often the dry air system is configured with one end goal in mind which is dry air but doing so without accounting for the point-of-use factors that can lead to added expenses and wasted energy.  

The foundation of any purification system is its filtration and of the ten main contaminants found in a compressed air system, filtration is responsible for the treatment of nine of them. Coalescing filters are the most important piece of purification equipment as they reduce six of the ten contaminants and a look in any air compressor room will find a pair of coalescing filters (backed up with dry particulate and oil vapor removal filters).

In the field of externally heated adsorption dryers there is a large variety of different systems on the market offering substantial flexibility in terms of process flows, dew points and energy demand. Often, economic parameters and project-specific requirements ultimately define the individual user-specific solution. This article discusses the basic types of desiccants used in compressed air dryers.