7 Ways to Save Energy on Your Air Compressor

an air compressor is used for the construction

Figure 1: An air compressor is at a construction site.



As one of the power sources of manufacturing and production enterprises, compressed air requires continuous operation of equipment to ensure the stability of air supply pressure, which is also the basic condition of production and operation of enterprises.

The air compressor unit, the main manufacturing equipment, is the core machine to undertake this task, and its continuous and reliable run ensures its own stable operation. Since it is a piece of running equipment, it needs a power supply to operate, large power consumption is the core of cost increase.

At the same time, during the continuous gas supply process, the leakage and invalid use inside the entire gas supply pipe network system will leak the compressed air, which is another core of the cost increase. This article will provide you with 7 methods of effectively reducing the use cost of your air compressor unit.

High-Efficiency Air Compressor Unit

In the technical transformation of equipment, you should make use of high-efficiency units. For example, screw air compressors replace piston compressors, which is the development trend of equipment.

Compared with the piston compressor, the screw air compressor has the advantages of simple structure, small volume, higher reliability, stability, and easy maintenance. The market share of screw air compressors is increasing, especially in recent years with the emergence of energy-saving screw compressors, energy saving has emerged as a new trend.

Treat the Pipeline Leakage

In the process of use, you should treat the leakage in the whole pipeline system. The average leakage of compressed air in the factory is as high as 20 ~ 30% of total, so the primary work is to control the leakage.

All pneumatic tools, hoses, connections, valves, at 7 Bar of pressure, will cause the waste of $617.20 a year due to a 1 mm square hole. Therefore, it is urgent to check the leakage of the air compressor pipeline and optimize its design. The ineffective use of the leaked compressed air leads to energy consumption.



air compressor structure

Figure 2: Internal structure of the air compressor.

Pressure Drop Management

The compressed air will produce additional compressed air loss in each device, and the air source pressure will be reduced. Therefore, you need pressure drop management, which means using pressure gauges in various sections of the pipeline is necessary.

Generally, when the air compressor is sent to the factory use point, the pressure drop shall not exceed 1 Bar, more strictly, can not exceed 0.7 Bar. The pressure drop of the cold drying filtration section is generally 0.2 Bar.

Check the pressure drop of each section in detail, and timely maintenance is required if there is any problem. (Energy consumption increases by 7%-10% for each kilogram of pressure).

When selecting compressed air equipment and evaluating the pressure demand of gas equipment, the gas supply pressure and supply require comprehensive consideration, and the gas supply pressure and total power of the equipment cannot be increased without restriction.

In the case of ensuring production, the exhaust pressure of the air compressor should be lowered as far as possible. Many cylinders of gas equipment need only 3 ~ 4 Bar of pressure, and a few manipulators need more than 6 Bar. (1 Bar of pressure saves about 7 ~ 10% of energy).

For enterprise gas equipment, production and use can be guaranteed according to the gas consumption and gas pressure of the equipment.

High-Efficiency Compressor

You should use the high-efficiency compressor when selecting. According to the gas consumption in enterprise production, the use of gas during peak and trough periods should be considered. At present, the permanent magnet motor of a high-efficient permanent magnet variable-frequency screw air compressor can save more than 10% of energy than the general motor.

It’s because the constant pressure air will not cause the waste of pressure difference, and you can pump according to the amount, and do not need to add or unload it. The type of screw air compressor can save more than 30% of energy than the ordinary air compressor.

Frequency conversion production gas is especially suitable for modern production and manufacturing, large gas consumption units can also be used as centrifugal units, whose characteristics of high efficiency and large flow can alleviate the peak gas shortage fault.

Centralized Control

Centralized control of multiple devices under the big data is a good way to improve modern enterprise management methods. Centralized control of multiple air compressors can avoid the step exhaust pressure rise caused by parameter setting, resulting in energy waste of output air.

Under the joint control of multiple air compressor units, the joint control of post-processing equipment and facilities, the monitor of the air flow supply system, the monitor of the air supply pressure and the monitor of the air supply temperature, it can be effectively avoided that various problems during the operation of the equipment and the reliability will be strengthened.

Lower the Intake Temperature

You should lower the intake temperature of the air compressor. The air compressor is generally placed indoors, and the internal temperature of the air compressor station is higher than that of the outdoor, so you can use the method of outdoor gas recovery.

Maintaining and cleaning the compressor on time, increasing the heat dissipation effect of the machine, and the effect of the water-cooling, air-cooling exchanger, maintaining oil quality, can reduce energy loss.

According to the air compressor working principle, after inhaling natural air, air compressor through multistage processing and compression finally forms clean high-pressure air, supplying other equipment.

During this process, the natural air will be constantly compressed and absorb most of the heat energy converted from electric energy, so the temperature of the compressed air rises accordingly.

Continuous high temperature is not conducive to the normal running of the equipment, so you need to keep cooling the compressor, and at the same time make it inhale natural air to reduce the intake temperature and increase the intake volume.

Waste Heat Recovery

an overview of the waste heat recovery system

Figure 3: The waste heat recovery system.



You should recover the waste heat during the compression process. The recovery of waste heat of the air compressor is generally using high-efficiency recovery equipment, depending on the absorption of waste heat to heat the cold water, and there will be no additional energy consumption.

This is mainly to solve the hot water problems of employees' living and industrial processes, and saves a lot of energy for enterprises, thus greatly saving the output cost of enterprises.

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