Manufacturing has two major categories of industrial vacuum applications, utility and process vacuum. Utility applications are all about utilizing the differential pressure between the inside of the vacuum system and the higher positive pressure of the atmosphere around us to perform a work-based-task in the physical world.

The 2023 International Powder and Bulk Solids Conference and Exhibition took place April 25-27, 2023 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. The event, sponsored by the Process Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (PEMA®) and produced by Informa Markets, is the leading powder and bulk handling and dry processing event in North America. It attracted more than 3,000 attendees and featured over 30 conference sessions and 350 exhibitors, showcasing bulk material handling equipment from 30 different countries. Blower & Vacuum Best Practices and Compressed Air Best Practices Magazines were among the publications available at the show’s entrance.

When a facility plans for a wastewater treatment plants, they typically design based on population and industry growth twenty to thirty years into the future. Regulatory requirements often dictate designing the activated sludge process equipment based on future-state influent flow and loading conditions, resulting in decades of constrained, inefficient, and suboptimal operation. 

Building a vacuum system solution is always a joint undertaking. Each solution aims to be compliant with location regulations, as well as to be reliable, energy-saving, sustainable and economical. An essential part of the process is including the customer and their requests during the planning process. There are six steps to find the optimum vacuum solution for the respective application.