Industrial Utility Efficiency

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The new solution also saves close to 90 percent of the annual maintenance costs. The side channel blowers required intensive repairs and were therefore a source of high costs. MINK MV claw vacuum pumps provide completely dry compression of intake air and thus work without operating fluids such as oil or water. This makes the vacuum pumps virtually maintenance-free. 

Aeration Blower Turndown

Blower efficiency is a justifiable concern during the design and selection of aeration equipment. However, efficiency may not be the most important consideration in aeration blower applications. In many cases the blower with the highest efficiency will not provide the lowest energy consumption! Blower turndown is a parameter that is generally more important than efficiency in optimizing energy use.

Atlas Copco Screw Blowers Save Small Town Big Energy

The wastewater treatment plant in the Town of Hurlock, Maryland provides service to approximately 2,100 residences. However, the majority of the water treated comes from a nearby poultry processing plant, giving the plant influent a high organic content. That is why the Town of Hurlock replaced its two million-gallon-per-day (MGD) lagoon plant with a 1.65 MGD four-stage activated sludge facility ten years ago. After construction was completed, operating costs of the new plant were significantly higher than before. This meant the town had to get creative in order to keep costs down for their ratepayers.

Howden Roots DO Control System Optimizes Bird Island WWTP

Bird Island Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Buffalo, N.Y., had an inefficient aeration control system that, ironically, had been installed in 1998 as an efficiency upgrade. The operating principle was that air flow to all 32 of the plant’s aeration basins, or zones, would be properly controlled by an average of several Dissolved Oxygen (DO) level measurements taken by DO probes in a few of the basins. However, changes in tank loadings and physical dynamics, along with differences in oxygen transfer rates between diffuser grids, prevented a uniform air flow in the aeration zones.

Black & Veatch Specifications from Diffusers to Blowers - Part 1: The Demand Side - Diffusers and DO Control

Blower & Vacuum Best Practices Magazine interviewed Julia Gass, P.E and Patrick Dunlap, P.E. at the Black & Veatch offices in Kansas City during the summer of 2016. Ms. Gass is responsible for aeration blower specifications while Mr. Dunlap is a wastewater process engineer. We held a general discussion covering technologies impacting aeration blowers in wastewater treatment plants.

Aeration Blower Requirements

Aeration blowers receive a lot of attention from design engineers, suppliers, and end users. That is understandable since blowers account for more than 50 percent of the energy used in a typical wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). They represent “low hanging fruit” for energy conservation measures in wastewater treatment!

DEKKER Optimizes Vacuum Hold-Down in CNC Routers

Vacuum chucks and holding devices have been used in many industries for a variety of purposes, from lifting packages to holding items for machining. With the introduction of CNC routing machine-tools for mass production (of wood furniture, plastics and other non-magnetic materials), there was a need to clamp-down large work pieces on the flat router tables. Mechanical clamping was not an option as it caused damage to the work pieces and didn’t satisfy the need to quickly place items on the table and clamp instantly.

Cabinet Manufacturer’s CNC Routing Tables Switch to a Centralized Vacuum System

Multiple vacuum pumps can be running mostly “dead-headed” in the many production systems that don’t require constant flow.  Any system that evacuates a small volume and then holds a product down while it is being machined, or sucks a bag shut to seal will spend the majority of its time not moving much mass of air.  This type of operation is found everywhere in secondary wood processing, machining, food packaging, and many other industries.  Anywhere vacuum is used as a motive force or to evacuate a small volume repeatedly.  This article will apply to any of these types of systems- and not apply to constant-flow vacuum applications in the process industries.

Austrian Furniture Producer Centralizes Vacuum Supply

ADA Möbelfabrik, headquartered in Anger, Austria, is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of furniture. Upholstered furniture, beds, mattresses and slatted frames are produced for the Austrian market and for many other European countries in two shifts, using modern manufacturing techniques. The vacuum supply required for securing items to the CNC machining centers is provided via a central vacuum plant produced by Busch. By opting for this vacuum system, ADA has integrated an extremely economical and reliable vacuum supply into the production process.

MD-Kinney Optimizes Vacuum and Blower Systems in Food Plants

Vacuum and blower systems are commonplace in food manufacturing facilities. Bakeries, flour mills, breweries, and dairy plants are just a few of the many sites where vacuum pumps and blowers are used. While these facilities may leverage both types of systems, vacuum pumps are more commonly used when processing meats, fish and poultry. Other common vacuum applications include maple sap extraction, confection, vacuum coating, and juice distillation.

Vacuum Cooling Reduces Waste in Postharvest Cold Chain Systems

During the summer season, vegetables tend to deteriorate quickly once harvested from the field—or during postharvest stage of the cold chain. In traditional cold chain systems, vegetables are put into a chilled cooler for preservation, a process that requires approximately 12 hours for the product to achieve proper temperature. In some instances, as much as 25 percent of food product in the chilled cooler will decay before arriving at a proper storage area. Fortunately, there is a process for improving the effectiveness of the postharvest stage—vacuum cooling.

Food

Vacuum and protective gas both reduce the activity of oxygen-dependent microorganisms inside the

Wastewater

When a facility plans for a wastewater treatment plants, they typically design based on population

Containers

Many manufacturing processes are like offensive linemen. When everything is running smoothly,

Auto

The 2023 International Powder and Bulk Solids Conference and Exhibition took place April 25-27,

Plastics

The basic function of vacuum degassing is to remove the vaporized gas and moisture from the

Transit

The IWF 2022 International Woodworking Fair was held August 23-26 at the Georgia World Congress

Pharmaceutical

Ever since it was commissioned in 1974, the Echallens wastewater treatment plant in the Swiss

Auto

The 2023 International Powder and Bulk Solids Conference and Exhibition took place April 25-27,

Energy

Blower & Vacuum Best Practices interviewed Mr. Sid Van der Meer and Mr. Terry Nickel from