Compressed Air Best Practices - October 2008 - (Page 48) | 10/08 Compressed Air Industry AUTOMOTIVE TRANSIT | GROWTH IN ALBERTA: NORTHWEST EQUIPMENT When they build a gas plant or an oil-field facility, they want a self-contained building for the compressed air system. Northwest Equipment fabricates turn-key buildings for this industry. The building has full electrical capabilities with a main power supply, lighting, heating and full insulation of the skid. All the customer has to do is connect the skids to the steel pilings underneath and connect power to the building. We provide the buildings with thermostatic climate control. We need enough ventilation in the summer and heat control during the winter using heaters. Most of the skids underneath the building have holding tanks where all the oily condensate goes. A vacuum truck comes to the building site and collects the oils to then dispose of them properly. Alberta has strong “Green Initiatives” and oily condensate cannot be dumped into the ground. These compressed air packages will have two air compressors, a wet air receiver and a regenerative desiccant air dryer. We use reciprocating rotary vane and rotary screw air compressors and always have built-in redundancy. If one air compressor goes down, they can start the second one. Depending upon the air compressor application, we will sometimes use a VFD package. The system is operated by a PLC controller, which is tied into the customers’ remote DCS system. In this manner, the customer maintains full operational control of the air compressors from a remote location. This building contains redundant rotary vane air compressors, a wet air receiver and a regenerative desiccant dryer — all under a PLC controller for remote control. Over the years, we have also seen natural gas used instead of compressed air to run the instruments. Many installations use “instrument gas,” dry it and then run valves off of the natural gas. The problem with “instrument gas” is that now you are not allowed to vent the excess gas or flare it. There is therefore a big push to go back to compressed air for instruments. Please describe your service department. Ninety-five percent (95%) of the air compressors we sell get a Preventative Maintenance contract. In Alberta, we have a tremendous shortage of people. The labor shortage is caused by the everygrowing oil sands exploration in Northern Alberta. All businesses here have a shortage of people and therefore focus on having a good relationship with a vendor who will take good care of their air system. 48 www.airbestpractices.com http://www.airbestpractices.com
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