Industries

When Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) set a goal to dramatically reduce water consumption at its Widmer Brothers Brewery in Portland, Oregon, it focused its efforts on its bottling process – and implemented a solution engineered by Atlas Copco that saves 5,000 gallons of water per day. In addition, it saves the craft brewer $39,000 per year, thanks to the elimination of water treatment costs and reduced energy use.

After auditing and field-testing, the Sni-A-Bar Municipal Wastewater Plant in Blue Springs, Missouri, partnered with Inovair to replace 4 fixed-speed rotary lobe blowers on its aeration system with 4 Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), integrally geared centrifugal blowers. The new blowers, along with improvements in blower controls, reduces annual energy use by 442,664 kWh and peak electrical demand by 48.76 kW, which translates to an annual energy reduction of 37 percent and anticipated savings of \$42,000 per year. Additionally, a rebate of \$45,799 from the local utility resulted in a payback of less than six years.

Blower & Vacuum Best Practices interviewed Deepak Vetal, National Sales Manager, Blowers and Low-Pressure Compressors, Atlas Copco Compressors, LLC. 

To put it in perspective, the food and beverage industry accounted for 12 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product in 2017. The main subsegments that use low-pressure air for numerous applications in this industry include meat processing, poultry, dairy product manufacturing, preserved fruits and vegetables, as well as brewing and beverage processes.

DMK Deutsches Milchkontor GmbH produces sliced cheese and Mozzarella at its production facility in Georgsmarienhütte, Germany. The various types of sliced cheese and Mozzarella blocks are vacuum packed after processing in several packaging lines. The vacuum supply for the packaging machines is provided by a Busch centralized vacuum system, which supplies both the packaging lines and the thermoforming machines.

Turndown designates the operating range of an aeration blower or a blower system – and it can often be the most important factor in determining the ability of a system to match process demand. It is also critical to the system’s energy optimization. Unfortunately, in designing blower systems and controls turndown is not always given the attention that its importance merits. Here’s a look at the critical nature of turndown in wastewater treatment plants and recommendations for ensuring adequate turndown when utilizing Positive Displacement (PD) and centrifugal blowers.

Choosing the right vacuum supply can lead to huge cost savings in plastics processing. Mar-Bal, Incorporated has undertaken a critical review of the existing vacuum supply for injection molding when moving to a new plant and has collaborated with Busch, LLC to find a solution that will achieve savings in energy, maintenance and production times.

Originally built in 1958, the CMA wastewater treatment plant serves 14,000 residents, as well as businesses, in Clearfield Borough and surrounding portions of Lawrence Township, Clearfield County, PA. From the start, the plant consistently met water quality and effluent parameters as specified in its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit throughout. However, new mandates in 2010 and the need for ongoing improvements drove the need for plant upgrades.  

The 2018 Powder & Bulk Solids Conference & Exhibition was held April 24-26 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. Sponsored by the Process Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (PEMA®) and produced by UBM Canon, this event is the leading conference for the powder industry. Vacuum, blower and compressed air technologies play an important role in dilute or dense phase pneumatic conveying systems. These technologies are well represented at this event and we hope you enjoy our Show Report.

This article will focus on optimizing the demand-side so the centralized “supply-side” (the vacuum pumps and controls) can then run at a lower energy and maintenance cost. First, I will start with a simplified model of a vacuum pump system demands. See Figure 1 for a one-pump/one-demand simplified system. See Figures 2-6 for some typical controlled and uncontrolled demands. The symbol with the three lines is an orifice, a hole essentially. I am defining three types of system demands adding up to the total demand on the vacuum pump.

Most blower applications for wastewater treatment are for conventional activated sludge aeration. The water level is typically constant, and pressure variations are usually less than one psi. There are other applications, however, that undergo significant variations in water level. These processes present challenges, but they can be accommodated with proper blower system design.