Energy Savings Through Compressed Air

Peter Gray, Air Solutions Canada

Thursday June 22

• Today, my objective is to point you in the right direction of some “low cost/no cost” areas to focus on:

• Reducing the hydro consumption of a compressed air system is typically simplistic.

• From our experience there are some easy, low hanging fruit to pick in most compressed air systems.

Low Hanging Fruits

1. Leak Detection

2. Zero Loss Condensate Drain Traps

3. Selecting The Correct Type of Air Compressor

4. The Importance of Storage

5. Where To Start

6. Heat Recovery

Agenda

What do leaks cost you?

Costs were calculated using 100psig, with an average energy rate of $0.13/kWh, and assuming 6,240 annual running hours and 4.4cfm/bhp

Pick #1 – Leak Detection

Step One: Ultrasonic leak detection

Step Two: Calculate energy and compressed air loss

Step Three: Repair the leaks

Step Four: Enjoy ROI

How Do You Detect Leaks?

• Our client was operating 3 x 150hp compressors • We identified 141 leaks in their system

• Following a leak detection study and repair of these leaks, we enabled the “shutdown” of one 150hp compressor and annual energy savings of $67,000

Our Biggest Success to Date

What Does A Leak Detection Look Like

What Does A Leak Detection Look Like After We Fix Them:

• How many pieces of equipment are in a compressed air station

• A solenoid drain discharging every two minutes for 10 seconds requires approximately 2.2 kW electrical power

• 2.2 kW x $0.13 x 12 Hours/day x 260 = $892.32 in annual energy savings

• Zero loss drains qualify for $100 prescriptive incentives per drain

Pick #2 – Zero Loss Condensate Drain Traps

What Does A Zero Loss Drain Cost ?

- $892.32

- $100.00

- $892.32

- $100.00

- $892.32

- $100.00

- $892.32

- $100.00

• Modulation• Load/Idle• Variable Speed

What’s best for you:

Pick #3 – A Perfect Match

Modulation Control

Load Idle

• Motor power consumption is exactly matched to CFM consumption

• Start-up kW “in rush current” is almost completely eliminated

* One size does not fit all

Variable Speed

• Compressed air best practice required a minimum of 3 gallons of primary (wet) storage for every 1cfm

• 1000 cfm of compressed air requires a minimum of 3000 gallons of storage

• Therefore, an air compressor producing 500cfm, requires a minimum storage tank of 1,500 gallons

Pick #4 – The Importance of Storage

The benefits of correctly sized storage are:

a) The ability to off load the air compressor

b) Avoid pressure drops and swings

c) Reduce the velocity of the compressed air speed.

d) Cooling the compressed air temperature

e) Condense moisture from the system using cyclonic motion, gravity and cooling. All of these are free

f) Reducing down stream filtration + dryer moisture loading

Pick #4 – The Importance of Storage

Example of Lack of Storage

Corrected by Adequate Storage

15%

15%

70%

Maintenance

Equipment

Electricity

Cost of Owning an Air Compressor

Step 1 We recommend you perform an Energy Audit

* You cant improve what you dont measure

Where Do We Begin ?

Step Two: We monitor pressure in PSIG over a 9 day period

Air Demand Analysis

Step Three: We measure the flow and volume in CFM over a 9 day period via flow controller

Air Demand Analysis

Step Four We monitor the hydro power consumed by the main drive motor to establish the peak kW and kW/hr’s

Air Demand Analysis

Friday - At Full Production Step 5: The Report Air Demand Analysis

With No Production 90kW of Energy

Desiccant Air Dryer Purging

Sunday – No Production

The ‘End Game’

Executive Summary

29

Executive Summary

Executive Summary

RETROFIT PROGRAM SUCCESS …..

205 196

1

100

Applications Completed

Our Success Has Included …..

To Date We Have Managed To Reduce Over…

5,400 Peak kW

Peak kW Reduction

To Date ……. Almost Twelve Million kW/hr’s have been eliminated all one click

This has resulted in over $3 Million dollars in hydro savings all one click

Hydro Savings

Heat Recovery -Air

Heat Recovery -Water

Join Us Anytime At Our Facility …..

Telephone: 905-628-2662

“Everything Compressed Air”

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Questions ?

Thank you & Cheers !