www.engineeringnews.co.nz 53 M A C H I N E R Y COMPRESSED AIR DRYING New technology cuts costs and saves space Exciting new thermal mass technologies are now enabling significant savings to be made when it comes to providing effective refrigeration drying of compressed air for compressor systems delivering up to 34 m³/ min - and all housed in a more compact unit design. There are a number of drying methods available to treat compressed air, the suitability of each depending on the requirements of the specific production process in question. Refrigeration drying is the most common as it delivers sufficient performance and compressed air quality for most uses. However, in the past it has been relatively energy intensive. Peak values are decisive In order to reliably provide the required compressed air quality, refrigeration dryers should be designed for continuous performance under the most extreme conditions - even if peak temperature conditions were to prevail 365 days a year. As this is never the case, more energy must be invested in compressed air drying than is required to meet actual demand – unless the dryers are equipped with a technology capable of adjusting their output to actual demand. When a compressed air system runs at 100% of capacity, the process of drying the compressed air accounts for around 3% of the systems total energy requirements. However, if the system is only running at partial load, the compressed air dryer will also
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