Technology

Safe Compressed Air Drying Systems for Class I, Division 1 Environments

By Jess Elley, Product Marketing Manager, Suburban Manufacturing Group – Tsunami Compressed Air Solutions

Learn how engineers can safely remove moisture from compressed air systems in hazardous environments by eliminating ignition risks through pneumatic controls. This article explores design considerations, performance characteristics and reliability factors for regenerative desiccant dryers operating in Class I, Division 1 locations.

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Specifying an Air Compressor Cooling System

By Bruce Williams, Hydrothrift Corporation

There are several pieces of information that your cooling system specialist will need in order to properly engineer and build a cooling system for your new air compressor. There are many types of air compressors and each has different requirements of the cooling system in order to operate correctly. This article will take the mystery out of some of the terms and specifications for your cooling system.

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Desiccant Dryers – Ten Lessons Learned

By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge®

One type of dryer seen frequently across the world is the regenerative desiccant dryer. These dryers have a number of characteristics that can affect their cost of operation and the operating of the associated compressors and can therefore affect the efficiency of the complete compressed air system.

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Powdered Egg Company Implements Energy-Saving Pneumatic Conveying System

By Doan Pendleton, VAC-U-MAX

Nutriom sets the bar high when it comes to producing its premium quality natural powdered egg products Ova Easy® and Egg Crystals®, that are sold at outdoor retailers such as REI, and online merchants such as Amazon.com; so, when the screw conveyor in their FSIS USDA facility required regular unexpected attention, Leonardo Etcheto, Plant Manager at the Lacey, WA facility knew it was time to look for a better solution.

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Cornstarch Processor Saves $123,000 in Energy Costs

By Hank van Ormer, Air Power USA

This is a corn mill processing cornstarch, sugar, and other byproducts. Ambient air is contaminated with extremely high levels of dust due to the manufacturing processes and material handling. Average electric rates at the plant are \$0.04 / kWh. The actual plant electric cost for compressed air production is \$553,630 per year.

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Digital Valve Positioner enhances the performance of Pressure/Flow Control

By Bob Wilson, PEMCO Services, for the Compressed Air Challenge®

Specifying a control valve for Pressure/Flow Control service should be a relatively straightforward process. The range of compressed air flow and pressures must be known along with the target delivered air pressure. With this information, the performance specifications published by the various suppliers can be referenced for selecting a valve package. Often, however, the valve selected is too large in size to ensure it will have sufficient capacity to satisfy current and future flow requirements. Valve manufacturers use different design criteria in rating their units and in how their product is presented. There are no standards.

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Types of Compressed Air Dryers Part 3 –Heat of Compression, Single-Tower Deliquescent and Membrane Type Dryers

By the Compressed Air & Gas Institute

A careful examination of a facility's compressed air system will likely reveal several opportunities to improve the performance of the compressed air system by effectively and efficiently removing moisture from the compressed air system. The Compressed Air and Gas Institute (CAGI) committed to issuing a series of articles discussing moisture in the compressed air system.

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Optimizing Centrifugal Compressors at a Glass Bottling Plant

By Don van Ormer, Air Power USA

This glass bottle production plant had a complete compressed air audit in 2001 and 2002 at which time many successful projects reduced and stabilized the demand at 3,148 scfm at 95 psig for the high pressure system air and 9,300-9,500 scfm at 58 psig for the low pressure system. Successful application of an oversized 7,200-scfm rated cycling refrigerated dryer completely dried up the high-pressure air, allowing the removal of several non-performing desiccant dryers and savings in direct kW and purge air.

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Types of Compressed Air Dryers Part 2: Refrigerant and Regenerative Desiccant

By the Compressed Air & Gas Institute

Because of such a wide breadth of product offering, we will cover each of these dryer types in some detail. It is always recommended that the compressed air treatment products be discussed in concert with the entire compressed air system and the application of the products. You should consult a compressed air expert to assure that the compressed air dryer selected is correct for your application.

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Energy Savings Result from Compressed Air Dryer Selection

Christopher Ursillo, Marketing Manager — Air Treatment, Ingersoll Rand

Every facility has differing application needs and usage demands, but selecting the right compressed air dryer for the situation will have a significant impact on energy savings and efficiencies. Two categories of air dryers — refrigerated dryers and desiccant dryers — are widely used in industrial applications, and both have a place in the market. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all dryer solution for every facility. However, looking at the energy costs associated with the various options can help determine which solution will be most beneficial.

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Your Air Compressor May Be Smarter Than You Think

By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge®

Not long ago most air compressors were controlled with mechanical pressures switches, relays and gauges. The setup of these units, especially when attempting to coordinate multiple compressors could be a frustrating and fruitless experience because often, no sooner than the controls were correctly adjusted, some sort of mechanical gremlin would throw something out of adjustment again.

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