Industrial Utility Efficiency

System Assessments

Given that compressed air leak management programs are meant to save energy, reduce CO2 emissions, and generate ROI, DENSO’s Maryville, Tennessee, manufacturing facility can definitively say it has scored a trifecta when it comes to results – and reaped benefits beyond hard numbers alone.

Controls Upgrade in 10 Plants Saves $977,093 Annually in Energy Costs

To address a mandate for cutting operations energy usage at facilities by 25 percent without major capital expenditures, a major manufacturing company set its sites on better control of its compressed air systems.  The project, implemented at 10 manufacturing plants over the course of three years, saves the company \$977,093 annually in energy costs – and was completed with zero out-of-pocket costs.

Assessment Reveals Air Compressor Control Gap Issues

A food processor in Western Canada hired an auditor to assess the energy efficiency of its compressed air system. The results revealed surprises about the operation of some important elements of the system, and detected that the air compressors were having control gap problems. Additionally, the audit led to initial energy savings of \$20,000 – and identified the potential to achieve overall operational savings of 45%. The following details some of the audit findings and results.

Safety: Food-Compliant Pneumatics for Fully Aseptic Juice Filling Machine

Machines for filling milk or juice must often work around the clock. Given the critical importance of uptime, Elopak opted for Aventics food-compliant pneumatics when developing its E-PS120A - the first fully aseptic filling machine for gable top packaging. With an output of up to 12,000 cartons per hour, disruptions and downtime are not welcome with the aseptic filling machine.

University of Manitoba Bannatyne Medical Campus Saves 15% Annually in Energy Costs

The University of Manitoba Bannatyne Campus, Canada, upgraded its compressed air system to include variable speed drive (VSD) air compressors and the use of internal heat-of-compression (HOC) drying, replacing oil-free air compressors and refrigerated dryers that reached the end of useful life. In doing so, the campus reduced annual energy consumption by 15%, improved the quality of the compressed air to modern day instrument air standards and gained additional compressed-air capacity. The local utility also awarded the medical campus an incentive of \$13,500, offsetting the cost of the initiative.

 

New Air Compressors Aren’t Always the Answer

Replacing unreliable air compressors is often a smart choice. Sometimes there is a better one. Take the case of a wallboard plant with two compressed air systems, including one for its board mill and another for its rock mill. Each had two 100 horsepower air compressors, all of which constantly overheated. When they did, plant personnel had to scramble to turn on a machine manually every time a unit shut down. Three units ran the plant so any shutdown had them walking on pins and needles.

From Wastewater Agitation to Air Compressor Controls-Food Processor Finds 74% Savings Potential

As many well know, system measurement is essential to ensuring a compressed air system is running efficiently and effectively, with good air quality and adequate pressure.  This is also well understood by a multi-national food company (name has been withheld to protect the innocent) who started a focused effort to measure and improve their compressed air systems in their many processing plants worldwide. 

Chicago Heights Steel Saves $215,000 Annually in Energy Costs

Chicago Heights Steel, Chicago Heights, Ill., leveraged an advanced data monitoring system and adopted a demand-based compressor air management approach to save 2.5 million kWh and \$215,037 per year in energy costs. With an incentive of \$188, 714 from local utility ComEd, the project delivered a payback of 2.4 months.

Compressor Controls

As part of its ongoing corporate initiative to find ways to reduce its energy bills, and the costly

Piping Storage

Blowing a jet of compressed air at an object is a common but “poor” use of compressed air. Often

End Uses

In this article, we will provide detail on the characteristics of the baseline system and then

Pressure

During Dealer Week, they needed enough compressed air to power multiple machines at a time all day

Air Treatment/N2

Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase of manufacturing facilities

Leaks

Given that compressed air leak management programs are meant to save energy, reduce CO2 emissions,

Pneumatics

If there was ever a place where manufacturers can save energy using compressed air and make

Vacuum/Blowers

A ‘Process’ application, is one where it’s all about controlling the contents of a vessel, pipeline