Compressed air stations are essential for every plant. During the entire life cycle of being put into use, the cost of purchasing equipment and equipment maintenance only accounts for a small part of the total cost of system operation, while the electricity consumed by the system operation accounts for a small part of the cost. To more than 75% of the total cost of the entire life cycle, so the energy-saving operation of the air compressor station is particularly important.

(1) Understanding of energy saving

There are three aspects: 1. Energy saving of air compressor; 2. Energy saving of air compressor station; 3. Energy saving of compressed air system; this is a composition of points, lines and planes. After years of development in the manufacturing industry, the energy saving of air compressors is close to the ceiling, but the energy saving of air compressor stations has just started. Many energy-saving companies are doing this work, indicating that there is still room for energy-saving, and there is still a lot to do. Single-unit energy-saving air compressors may not always be able to exert their due efficiency in the compressed air system, so many of our colleagues are thinking about the energy efficiency of compressed air stations. Equipment and system requirements, operation requirements, energy efficiency requirements and grades, energy efficiency calculations, energy efficiency measurement methods and comprehensive evaluations in compressed air stations.

At present, in the big data environment, the energy saving of the air compressor station must first be intelligent and visualized, and secondly, the operation matching of the system must be adjusted in real time according to the changes in the working conditions during the production process. Finally, in order to make the entire system in the best operating state, this Adjustments and changes can be displayed and recorded through icons or data.

(2), the composition of equipment and compressed air in the air compressor station

Let's analyze the process flow of the air compressor station: air → filter (to remove mechanical impurities) → air compressor (for compression) → after cooler → oil-water separator (separate oil and water) → air storage tank . For those with low air requirements, compressed air can be used directly at this time. If the air quality requirements are high, further purification is required. The purification process is as follows: compressed air → dryer (removing the remaining oil, water and other impurities) → filter (to further remove mechanical impurities) → purified air storage tank → gas terminal user.

The main equipment of the compressed air system:

1. Air compressor. This is relatively familiar to everyone, and will not be described in the main. Users have a lot of choice, and choose energy-saving and high-efficiency equipment.

2. After cooler. Its function is to cool the high-temperature gas compressed by the compressor, and to condense most of the oil mist and water vapor in the compressed air into droplets for separation by the oil-water separator. Structural types are: tube type, coil type, casing type, coil type, etc. At present, most of them are tube type, mainly composed of shell, head, tube sheet, tube and other parts. If it is a water-cooled air compressor, the after-cooler is prone to scale, causing pipeline blockage, reducing heat exchange area, poor heat exchange effect, and increasing energy consumption costs.

3. Gas tank. Store a certain amount of gas to reduce the pulsation of air flow, adjust the imbalance between the output air volume of the air compressor and the air consumption of the user, maintain a continuous and stable air flow output, and further separate the oil and water in the compressed air. The size of the air storage tank is the most important parameter for how long the compressed air system can maintain when the air compressor is stopped.

4. Dryer. It further removes impurities such as moisture and oil contained in the compressed air, and dries the wet air for users who require high quality. The refrigerated dryer mainly uses the freezing method to cool the moisture in the compressed air to below zero, and remove the moisture in the compressed air. Generally, the dew point temperature is not required. Adsorption dryers use adsorbents such as coke, silica gel and molecular sieves to adsorb moisture in compressed air in one step, and the adsorbent needs to be regenerated. The regeneration methods include heat-free regeneration drying method, micro-heat regeneration drying method, etc., but all require heating, consume a certain amount of finished product drying gas, and have a large energy consumption. There is a lot of energy-saving space for energy-saving products.

(3) Ways to save energy

1. Reasonably reduce gas consumption. From the compressed air system, the compressed air pipeline network of the factory is combed, the upper end of the unused gas points is closed, and the leakage points existing in the pipe network are blocked to improve the gas consumption points.

2. Reduce the air supply pressure. The high-pressure equipment is taken out and an air compressor is installed separately, and the air supply pressure of the entire factory is set within a reasonable range to reduce the pressure loss of the piping.

3. Optimize the operation of the air compressor. Shorten the running time of the air compressor, shut down the air compressor, change the continuous air supply to intermittent operation air supply, and shorten the exhaust distance to reduce standby energy consumption and shutdown energy consumption.