Industrial Utility Efficiency

Bulk

Eagle Mine Redesigns Compressed Air System for Uptime Gains

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

When the design capabilities of an installed compressed air system didn’t align with real-world production needs at its ore processing mill in northern Michigan, Eagle Mine decided to move beyond theoretical compressed air concepts and deal in reality. After thorough analyses of its compressed air challenges and implementing a variety of solutions, the team at the mill bolstered the operation’s ability to efficiently mill approximately 2,200 metric tons of ore per day. 
 

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Air Cannon Innovations in Preheater Towers

By Brad Pronschinske, Director of Air Cannons Business Group, Martin Engineering

An essential part of the cement production process is the consistent flow of bulk materials, as poor material flow can put a stranglehold on a plant’s profitability. Accumulations in storage systems and process vessels can choke material movement, causing bottlenecks that create expensive obstacles to equipment performance and process efficiency. Poor material flow also raises maintenance expenses, diverting manpower from core activities. If they become severe enough, flow problems can bring production to a complete stop. 
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Compressed Air System Design for Dust Collectors

By Hank van Ormer, Technical Director, AP Energy

The dust is collected on the bag or fingers, and when the cake of dust is of appropriate thickness and structure, a pulse or pulses of compressed air hits or shocks the bag and knocks the cake off. This pulse may sometimes be accompanied by physical shaking and even reverse air flows, depending on design.
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HAUG Oxygen Compressors for Efficient Gold Extraction

By Paul Frank, Technical Proposal Manager, Sauer Compressors USA

Logistics and supply problems are widespread on the African continent. Lack of infrastructure as well as capacity and efficiency deficiencies can affect supply chains and make them more expensive. Gold mines, which are often located in secluded areas, therefore seek to provide their entire infrastructure themselves. Even the oxygen required for efficient gold extraction by cyanide leaching is therefore not delivered but generated on site.
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CalPortland® Continues to Walk the Walk in Sustainability

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

A major producer of cement and building materials, CalPortland’s energy management efforts have reduced the company’s overall energy intensity by 17.5% since 2003, avoiding \$149 million in unnecessary energy costs – and over 3.3 million metric tons of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In 2020, the company achieved what no other U.S. Industrial company has: It earned the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for the 16th consecutive year.
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Dust Collector Pilot Program Points to 16 GWh of Energy Savings at Imerys Minerals Processing Facilities

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

For Imerys S.A. there’s little question about the importance of managing dust collection systems it uses to control and reduce harmful particulates in its worldwide minerals processing facilities. And now there’s zero doubt about the tremendous energy savings it stands to save by reducing the amount of compressed air needed for these same dust collectors.
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Sustainability is “Part of Who We Are” at Eastman

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

By making sustainability a requirement and a core element of its growth strategy, Eastman has improved the energy efficiency of manufacturing operations by 13% since its baseline year of 2008 (the year Eastman became an ENERGY STAR® Partner). By 2018, Eastman had decreased its greenhouse gas intensity by 20%, two years ahead of its goal. Additionally, Eastman received the 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for Sustained Excellence, marking the company’s eighth consecutive ENERGY STAR award: two years as Partner of the Year and six years of Sustained Excellence recognition.
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How to Keep Reverse Pulse Dust Collectors Operating Efficiently and Reliably

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

Reverse pulse type dust collectors often represent a challenge to compressed air energy efficiency, and sometimes throw a wrench into the works by causing huge air pressure fluctuations, high transient flows and just plain large leaks. This article discusses this type of dust collector, often installed in food processing plants, and gives some real-life examples of problematic installations. Some suggested measures are mentioned to ensure your dust collectors keep running in a trouble-free manner.
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A Pulse Jet Dust Collector Optimization Study

By Russell Morine, Compressed Air Systems Evaluation Specialist, The Baker Group

A flour based frozen foods manufacturer orders a compressed air efficiency audit. The audit establishes the cost of compressed air at \$0.27/1000 cubic feet. The study finds the 116 pulse jet dust collectors represent the greatest opportunity for compressed air demand reduction and energy cost savings. A dust collector optimization study/service is suggested and the customer agrees to proceed. In this facility, pulse jet dust collectors are used to filter dust from raw materials entering the plant, for conveying and mixing of ingredients, and for the final packaged finished products leaving the plant.  
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Correctly Solving Low Air Pressure Problems

By Paul Edwards, President, Compressed Air Consultants, Inc.

One of the most common problems in plants is low air pressure. One of the most common solutions is to purchase new air compressors. Often this advice leads to a poor return on investment with the company’s hard-earned money. Often the issues are related to demand, distribution, or both. Solving the wrong problem can be expensive from a capital and operating cost perspective. Determining root cause analysis may cost more up front, but will save tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars long term.
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Air Compressor Control at Remote Mining Complex

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

A large mining complex in a remote northern region of the world invited a compressed air auditor in to assess the efficiency of a problematic system. Site personnel and their air compressor supplier were concerned a system in one of the buildings was not running optimally, and wanted to know what size of compressor to install in the facility. The auditor found significant savings in this target system, but even larger potential savings were found in other ancillary systems in the complex, as part of an extra investigation conducted while at the site. Overall, the potential energy savings total more than half of a million dollars, if all recommendations are implemented.
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