Compressed Air Best Practices - October 2008 - (Page 10) | 10/08 Focus Industry AUTOMOTIVE TRANSIT | Intro Introduction New Flyer Industries is a Winnipegbased heavy-duty bus manufacturer, base supp supplying vehicles to the United States and Canadian markets. Stat The company specializes in vehicles with alternative-fuel drives such as electric trolleys, gasoline-electric e and diesel-electric hybrid vehicles; as well as standard diesel buses. A f years ago, New Flyer’s facility manager requested a compressed air system audit to few solve a number of issues challenging the plant maintenance and production personnel. The plant was experiencing regular low pressure events that affected painting activities and disrupted the plant production schedule. Maintenance costs were high and system r reliability was in need of improvement. New Flyer was also interested in reducing facility energy consumption and was aware that compressed air systems represented a good potential energy reduction opportunity. Their plant equipment was aging and the company was interested in upgrading their air system using the local power utility’s financial incentives for energy efficiency upgrades. The utility required a feasibility study be done to qualify. Manitoba Hydro was retained to do a study of the compressed air system and to recommend improvements. This article discusses the study and some of the results of the completed project. CO2 O C onth of the M Air Audit d ompresse s ransit Bu T acturing Manuf arshall, By Ron M dro nitoba Hy T, CIM, Ma CE October Audit of the Month Where: Winnipeg, Canada Industry: Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Issues: Plant Pressure and Efficiency Audit Type: Supply and Demand Side Financial Summary Investment: $302,000 Energy Cost Before Investment: $145,600 Energy Cost After Investment: $70,600 Energy Savings/Year: $75,000 electrical $12,000 natural gas Additional benefit: maintenance cost reduction and reliability Simple Payback (with incentive): 1.5 years Power Cost/kWh: $0.0356 Operating Hours/Year: 8,760 System Before Audit Average Air Flow: 700 cfm Average power: 253 kW Specific Power: 36.2 kW/100 cfm Average Working Pressure: 117 psi Summary of System Before the Audit: Four plant compressors operating as three independent systems. All four required during normal production time in order to maintain adequate pressure. Air dryers were a mix of desiccant and refrigerated. System After Project Implementation: Average Air Flow: 490 cfm Average Power: 124 kW Specific Power: 25.3 kW/100 cfm Peak Flow (at electrical peak): 870 cfm Average Working Pressure: 105 psi Summary of System after the Audit: One large compressor retired to standby duty. A new VSD compressor added. Compressors run as a combined system. Trim compressors used to supply higher pressure to pressure critical loads on the upstream side of an intermediate controller. Main plant pressure reduced. Dryers converted to cycling style. Heat of compression recovered to heat plant in winter. kW New Flyer manufactures electric trolleys, alternative-fuel vehicles and standard diesel buses. 10 www.airbestpractices.com http://www.airbestpractices.com
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