The Magazine for ENERGY EFFICIENCY in Blower and Vacuum Systems March 2021 INDUSTRIAL BLOWER & VACUUM SYSTEMS 5 Optimizing Booster/Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump Performance AERATION BLOWER SYSTEMS 18 Rethinking Aerobic Digestion Improves Performance kW CO 2 24 Measuring Blower Airflow in the Field Select the Right Vacuum Pump 12 Go ahead. Talk data to me. Integrated controls make collecting and communicating data faster and easier than ever. We’re not shy when it comes to talking data For years we’ve led the industry in providing integrated controls. Solving your system With a suite of sensors for complete package monitoring and the onboard Sigma Control 2™, our compressors’, blowers’, and challenges. vacuum packages’ advanced communications capabilities take the guesswork out of connecting with plant controls. If you’re integrating IoT technology, let’s talk. Visit us.kaeser.com/bvbp to learn more. Kaeser Compressors, Inc. • (866) 516-6888 • us.kaeser.com/bvbp Sigma Control is a trademark of Kaeser Compressors, Inc. ©2021 Kaeser Compressors, Inc. All rights reserved. [email protected] MARCH 2021 | VOLUME 7, NO. 1 | INDUSTRIAL BLOWER & VACUUM SYSTEMS 5 Optimizing Booster/Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump Performance with a Plastics Manufacturer By Michael Cicalese and Chris Halbach, Wintek Corporation 12 Select the Right Vacuum Pump By Tie Duan, E.W. Klein & Co. 5 12 AERATION BLOWER SYSTEMS 18 Rethinking Aerobic Digestion Resolves Frustrations, Improves Performance, and Saves Money By David Lauer and Sarah Elger, EnviroMix 24 Measuring Blower Airflow in the Field By Tom Jenkins, JenTech Inc., and John Conover, Tamturbo Inc. EVERY ISSUE 4 From the Editor 30 Industry & Technology News 34 Advertiser Index 34 The Marketplace | Jobs and Technology 18 Compressed Air Best Practices® (USPS# 17130) is published monthly except January-February combined by Smith Onandia Communications LLC, 37 McMurray Rd., Suite 104, Pittsburgh, PA 15241. Periodicals postage paid at Pittsburgh, PA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Compressed Air Best Practices®, 37 McMurray Rd, Suite 104, Pittsburgh, PA 15241. Compressed Air Best Practices® is a trademark of Smith Onandia Communications, LLC. Publisher cannot be held liable for non-delivery due to circumstances beyond its control. No refunds. 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Printed in the U.S.A. blowervacuumbestpractices.com 3 | 03/21 FROM THE EDITOR Industrial Blower & Vacuum Systems BLOWER & VACUUM BEST PRACTICES EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD A plastics manufacturing company called Wintek Corporation Manager, Demand asking for an evaluation and replacement of their liquid ring Doug Barndt Side Energy- Ball Corporation vacuum system used in a PET solid state polymerization/drying Sustainability application. Authors Michael Cicalese and Chris Halbach, Facilities Gentex John Bilsky from Wintek, have sent us a very interesting article sharing Maintenance Corporation the evaluation and the system they ultimately installed. Corporate Energy Bhaskar Dusi CEMEX USA Manager Congratulations are in order for E.W. Klein & Co. for celebrating their 100th Senior Energy Richard Feustel Leidos Anniversary in 2021! Based in Atlanta, one can safely say they are experienced with Advisor engineering industrial blower and vacuum systems. Their own Tie Duan has sent us an excellent fundamentals article titled, “Select the Right Vacuum Pump.” William Jerald Energy Manager CalPortland GTS Energy Stanley Black Robert Kirts Manager & Decker Aeration Blower Systems Industrial Energy Managers Energy/Reliability As our readers know, an article from Tom Jenkins, from JenTech, never fails to provide Kurt Kniss Shaw Industries Engineer a mathematics challenge! This month, Mr. Jenkins has collaborated with John Conover, Corporate Energy from Tamturbo, to provide readers with another math challenge titled, “Measuring Leslie Marshall General Mills Engineer Blower Airflow in the Field.” Senior Utilities Nissan North Brett Rasmussen EnviroMix has sent us a very interesting article discussing their modified approach to Engineer America conventional aerobic digestion. Using both aeration blowers and air compressors, this Director Energy Purdue Brad Runda engineering firm designs and manufactures treatment systems. I’m sure you’ll like the & Utilities University article provided by authors David Lauer and Sarah Elger titled, “Rethinking Aerobic Vice President Paul Humphreys Atlas Copco Digestion Resolves Frustrations, Improves Performance, and Saves Money.” Communications Blower Product Thank you for investing your time and efforts Stephen Horne Kaeser Manager into Blower & Vacuum Best Practices. Harris Phil Kruger General Manager ROD SMITH, Editor Equipment Blower Assessments & Vacuum tel: 412-980-9901 Register at https://cabpexpo.com Ralph Wilton Marketing Manager Aerzen [email protected] SFI-00993 2021 MEDIA PARTNERS 4 blowervacuumbestpractices.com INDUSTRIAL BLOWER & VACUUM SYSTEMS 03/21 | Optimizing Booster/Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump Performance with a Plastics Manufacturer By Michael Cicalese and Chris Halbach, Wintek Corporation c Background and Existing curve detail. This obviously would have made water usage and created a significant Vacuum System getting replacement parts or technical support volume of contaminated water that Wintek Corporation was contacted by a extremely difficult. In addition to the lack of needed to be treated. plastics manufacturing company in the information, the customer was noticing the summer of 2015 to evaluate their process following operational issues: 2. Additionally, the issues with the vacuum capabilities. The customer was knockout pot were exacerbating design looking to replace a recently purchased used 1. The inlet knockout pot was improperly flaws with the liquid ring vacuum vacuum system to be used in a PET solid designed causing excess product system. The vacuum system was not state polymerization/drying application. The carryover into the liquid ring pump. designed to promote robust, reliable, process required high heat and vacuum This meant that the customer had and safe operation which are normally and needed to run at 1 mBarA (0.75 Torr). to dump their contaminated sealant selling points of a liquid ring-based The customer had purchased the dryer almost once per day. This increased system. A typical full recovery liquid and accompanying vacuum system from an overseas supplier. While they were happy with the dryer, the vacuum system was not delivering the desired performance. The customer asked Wintek to come on site to review the system, target improvements, and quote a replacement system. The used vacuum system consisted of an inlet knockout pot and three vacuum boosters in series backed by a liquid ring vacuum system. None of the components had a nameplate nor make and model info on them. The customer had no information on the unit’s reported capacity nor any performance operating Figure 1: Existing System Sealant Reservoir and Cooler blowervacuumbestpractices.com 5 | 03/21 INDUSTRIAL BLOWER & VACUUM SYSTEMS Optimizing Booster/Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump Performance with a Plastics Manufacturer ring package would contain a discharge vapor-liquid separator, 3. The third issue with this setup was that it was difficult to as well as a sealant heat exchanger. thoroughly clean the system as carryover accumulated leading to maintenance issues and decreased heat transfer. Additionally, The customer’s vacuum system had an open reservoir with a the system had no flow sensing instrumentation to know when a cooling coil submerged inside of it (Figure 1). This presented significant clog could be present. This was another potential cause a few issues. For one, this container was not air-tight which of high sealant temperature and reduced reliability and capacity. meant the area was exposed to process vapors which is an obvious safety issue. Second, this was a very inefficient method 4. As a result of the poor liquid ring vacuum system design and of cooling the sealant leading to warmer than desirable sealant the resulting capacity deficiency, the overall system was temperatures. The customer had 57˚F(14˚C) chilled water but experiencing high temperatures in the booster vacuum pumps. was only seeing a sealant temperature of 85˚F(29˚C). High The temperatures were so high that the paint on the booster sealant temperature not only leads to decreased performance, vacuum pumps was starting to discolor. In general, high but the customer was reporting that the pump always ran in temperatures in vacuum booster pumps is a result of a booster