The rising cost of electricity is highly topical and there is ever increasing environmental legislation with which industry must comply.
In an effort to assist its clients address these factors Artic Driers International has recently introduced two new products - an automatic condensate drain and a range of oil/water separators for condensate treatment.
Automatic condensate drains
To reduce compressed air wastage Artic has sourced a new range of capacitive level controlled drains from Jemaco Flair of South Korea. Allen Cockfield, Artic MD, says that compressed air users who install the new JDM level controlled drains will quickly achieve a payback on their investment.
Air compressors, filters and refrigerant air dryers generate large quantities of waste condensate. For many years, timed automatic drains have been a popular choice for draining dryers, filters, aftercoolers, and receivers. These drains are reliable, simple and cost effective. However, the timed drain cannot sense if it is draining condensate or expensive compressed air. So if a drain is not monitored properly it is quite possible to drain for too long and waste costly compressed air.
At a current cost of around R0.25/kWhr a 28 m³/min compressor fitted with a 185 kW motor will consume ±R405 000 worth of electricity per annum if operated 24 hours a day for 365 days per year. Added to this electrical cost will be the cost of parts, oils, service and supervision. This quickly escalates the cost per cubic metre of compressed air.
The use of a level controlled drain eliminates compressed air wastage by only opening when the condensate level reaches an upper limit in the bowl of the drain and closing again before compressed air is blown down. This means that only liquids leave the valve, eliminating this cause of compressed air wastage. In the past this style of drain has been quite expensive says Cockfield, but with the introduction of the JDM series, the entry cost has been significantly reduced.
These drains are suitable for use on filters, compressors, dryers and receivers or to simply drain air systems. The drain is fitted with volt-free contacts allowing clients to monitor the drain from any supervisory system. Monitoring in this way enables users to alarm drain unit malfunctions and to react promptly to these. As well as saving electricity this reduced reaction time also reduces the potential for water contamination in the air system.
Waste water management
The introduction of the Sepura series of waste oily water management units will assist clients in complying with ISO standards, as well as allowing plants to comply with local authority waste water regulations.
Cockfield says that he is often astounded by some clients' lack of compliance in this area. "It only takes a few litres of oil to seriously contaminate a wetland. And if untreated oily water is dumped into the drain it will find its way into the local waste water sewage plant and destroy the cultured bacteria that are used to clean our sewage and waste water."
The compact Sepura system of oily water separators makes waste water treatment from dryers, filters, compressors very easy for any plant operator. The shell of the unit is manufactured from re-cycled polypropylene and contains two elements, the first of which acts as a pre-separator, coagulating the oils. The second filter is an activated carbon element that retains the oils ready for safe disposal when fully saturated.
The units supplied by Artic carry a full guarantee.
For more information contact Allen Cockfield, Artic Driers, +27 (0)11 425 3484, [email protected], www.articdriers.co.za
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