Optimization of both sides of the system is important. It results in the best compressed-air system efficiency. Compressed air is one of the most costly utilities in an industrial plant. Compressed air will never disappear from industrial plants.
There are more important issues in running a system. Like keeping the pressure at a constant reliable level. As well as maintaining adequate air quality to ensure a smooth production. This is why the efficiency of systems is often ignored. There are times when systems run at excellent efficiency. Sometimes, several factors cause things to go wrong. These factors include those related to equipment characteristics and flow characteristics. System design and maintenance levels also affect performance.
Optimizing your compressed air system will result in increased energy efficiency. Here are several ways you can do that.
Awareness training
What you and your employees do not know about compressed air will hurt you. Compressed air system awareness training is usually the best first step. Understanding your equipment and how it runs is important. The training helped attendees start positive actions. These include replacing inefficient equipment and changing maintenance procedures. Doing low cost or no-cost measures such as leak detection are also included.
Monitoring
Measure your system to know your compressed air system costs. You cannot manage a system if you do not measure it. Improving the efficiency and reliability of your system is not that easy. As well as its air quality and air stability. You must create a baseline to understand how difficult it is. Measure key parameters such as pressure and flow. You should also get the measurement for power and dew point over a period of time. You can find out issues after analysis of these data. A lot of factories use permanent monitoring of their compressed air systems. This is so they can check and adjust the system parameters.
Leakage detection and repair
About 25-30% of all the compressed air produced by the air compressors do not reach the end-user. Lack of leakage detection and repair programs in the plant will increase this number to about 80%. One of the easiest ways to gain energy savings in a compressed air system is the repair of compressed air leaks. You only need a keen sense of hearing and some time. A few wrenches will also be handy. Make sure to control the air compressors at the other end of the system in a proper way. Ensure that they have good turndown characteristics to get the most from leak repair. When leakage flow reduces then the power demanded by the air compressors reduces, too. This reduced flow will also reduce pressure differentials across all the system restrictions.
Improving the performance of the whole system is not easy. It is not only knowing how to get water out of air compressor systems. There are a lot of factors you should put into consideration. Proper air compressor preventive maintenance will reduce downtime. It will also identify potential problems before a need for repair arises.
