Filtration Technology in Compressed Air System
Did you know that compressed air is the third most common energy source in the industry?
In Europe 10% of industrial electricity consumption is to produce compressed air (80 terawatt hours).Compressed air is one of the most expensive energy sources and it has only 15 % overall compressed air system efficiency.
Based on specific application requirements it is necesary to reduce content of solid particles, water and oil to acceptable level.
Here is an exapmle. The findings of review of the secondary side of the compressor station (dryers, microfiltration):
- Existing dryer '93 is equipped with a cooling media R 22, thus the maintenance of the cooling circuit can not be carried out in accordance with the Regulation on the use of ozone-depleting substances and fluorinated greenhouse gases.
- Existing dryer is faulty - high dew point.
- Existing filters for compressed air do not meet the capacity of the current capacity of the compressed air. Consequently, the pressure drop of up to 2 bar is occurring.
- Leakage of air through each condensate drain, which are mounted on filters for compressed air
- Implementation of system upgrades (additional dryer) has been carried out with a huge number of bends and T-pieces on the pipeline, which generates resistances in the system and the pressure drop.
Proposal for a reconstruction:
To ensure the optimum quality of the compressed air system a new dryer with nominal capacity of 45 m3 / min, and a 3-stage filtration of compressed air with a level-controlled condensate drains without air loss has been envisaged.
The condensate, which is eliminated in the drying and microfiltration phase is connected to a condensate line, which is connected to the oil-water separator in which discharges condensate into the sewer, oil is filtered with PP filter.
Equipment used for the reconstruction:
1. For the compressor station:
- Refrigerator dryer OMD 2600
- The prefilter with differential pressure gauge and condensate drain type BF0300P / ECD90-B / MDA60
- Microfilter with differential pressure gauge and condensate drain type BF0300M / ECD90-B / MDA60
- Microfilter with differential pressure gauge and condensate drain type BF0300S / ECD90-B / MDA60
- Water / oil separator from condensate: type WOS 35 (2 pcs)
- For monitoring: Dew point sensor OS 220 and multifunction measuring instrument OS 331
TOTAL COST WITH SUPPLY AND INSTALLATION: 38.632,00 EUR
ENERGY SAVINGS:
Due to the smaller pressure resistors (new dryers, more efficient filters, no unnecessary knees on the installation of the pipeline) a preselection target pressure is reduced from 8.5 bar to 7 bar, which is approximately 9% lower energy consumption of screw compressors:
- First: installed engine power of 110 kW
- Second: installed engine power of 132 kW
- Third: installed engine power of 132 kW
If the price of electricity is 0,1 EUR/kWh, ANNUAL SAVING AMOUNT IS 29.620,80 EUR.
It is also crucial to have better air quality, which ensures longer life of pneumatic components on the production lines. It is difficult to evaluate how much the customer will save on the maintenance of pneumatic elements (cylniders, seals, valves, ...) on the production lines.
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