Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008 - (Page 37)

Compressed Air Industry AUTOMOTIVE ASSEMBLY | 05/08 | carbon monoxide, if present, into carbon dioxide. Sometimes, simply a carbon filter is used. Either way, a downstream carbon monoxide monitor with an alarm is required. CO2 O Use flow meters (vs. just compressor amp meters) to understand air usage Please comment on one major opportunity you see with compressed air systems? kW What are the trends with energy costs? Awareness of energy costs is going up. We’ve been doing energy awareness seminars for many years together with Kaeser Compressors. Customers are made more aware of the benefits and consequences resulting from decisions made regarding their air systems when we discuss sizing, installation, maintenance and how they operate the equipment they purchase. Energy costs in the Midwest are not as high as they are on the east and west coasts. This makes energy saving investments more difficult to justify here, but we certainly have many applications where significant energy-savings can be achieved. One example is at a railroad yard installation where the hump yard uses a desiccant air dryer during the winter months when it is cold outside. The compressed air passing through the external piping requires a lower dew point to stay dry during the winter months. So then during warmer weather, for about six months a year, they do not need this lower dew point, which comes at a higher energy costs. We installed a system with bypass piping which allows them to use a refrigerated air dryer six months of the year and the desiccant air dryers during the colder months. This also provides them with a back-up for their warm weather air drying. Improving a compressors control systems is a major opportunity. Most facilities have multiple air compressors all running with their own localized controls. The opportunity lies in using one master controller, which understands the needs of the compressed air system and then decides intelligently which of the air compressors should be operating. This information also becomes available to the company’s building management control system so that compressed air can be monitored and managed. Advances in compressor control technology have made this possible. We are implementing the Kaeser Sigma Air Manager (SAM) system with our customers who have multiple air compressors running with cascading pressure set points. The SAM system is a PC as opposed to a PLC. We can program the SAM to record and graph out all system parameters and performance trends. The SAM will do a continuing self-audit to see if your system is performing as it should and not wasting energy. You can also take external measurements, like those from a flow meter or a pressure transducer, and input that information into the SAM where the data is recorded and available for viewing. How can the SAM save on energy costs? The SAM selects the correct number and size of machines to operate based on the demand in the system. The SAM also provides a very tight pressure band control, within +/- 1.5 psi, with multiple machines. We used to have to cascade machines at different pressure set points in order to maintain system pressure. This technique causes facilities to operate air compressors at higher pressures than required. This is where the significant savings in energy costs lie. SAM allows the customer to pick a target pressure, effectively controlling up to 16 compressors. Compressors can be installed in various places in the plant and connected to a centralized control system via communication cables. Do the utility companies provide compressed air rebates in Illinois and Iowa? We don’t see rebate programs in Illinois for compressed air. This is most likely related to the relatively low electric rates here. We have been involved in some meetings discussing this and I believe that there are programs under consideration. The power company in Northern Illinois is ComEd. The utility near Peoria is Ameren CILCO. We believe this is an area of opportunity. There have been rebate programs from power companies in Iowa, like with Alliant Energy and Mid-American Energy. They have worked with us on energy surveys and fund projects or provide rebates based upon the savings. Energy audits are performed before and sometimes after projects to verify that the savings have happened. Thank you, Delta, for your insights. For more information, please contact John Reinert, Delta Industries, tel: 630-960-3900, email: jreinert@deltaind.net, or visit www.deltaind.com www.airbestpractices.com 37 http://www.deltaind.net http://www.airbestpractices.com

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Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008 Contents From the Editor Utility-Air News The Compressed Air Audit of the Month Pneumatics Real World Best Practices Delta Industries: Doing What is Right for Customers Delta Industries: Six Truths You Need to Know about Really Putting the Customer First Power Supply Industries Resources for Energy Engineers Wall Street Watch Advertiser Index Job Market

Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008

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