How To Remove Moisture From Compressed Air

In that location's h2o in the air all around the states. The moisture level in air changes as the temperature changes. For example, cold wintertime air can feel drying to our skin, but a hot, humid day can create wet in all kinds of unassuming places. Your hair may show signs of unruliness on a hot day due to the increased wet in the air. But what happens when this moisture builds up and your air compressor is full of h2o? Common practices to remove moisture from compressed air include:

Draining the tank
Using a water trap and filter regulator
Using a refrigerated air dryer
Using a desiccant air dryer
Using a deliquescent air dryer
Through pipe organization air drying
With the storage tank cooling method
Through absorption drying

Why Is At that place Water in My Compressor?

The ii leading causes for water collecting in your air compressor are natural wet that occurs during the compression process and the quality of the air beingness used. Your compressor's filtration system works to separate pure air from other pollutants, including excess moisture. The compressor filter traps that wet and stores it away until it is dried or drained, leading to a natural build-upward of h2o.

Both outdoor and indoor air contains a certain level of moisture or humidity. This percentage is influenced by factors such as:

Air-conditioning
Running water
Leaking roofs or windows
Humidifiers
Poor ventilation

Understanding Pressure Dew Bespeak

We measure wet in pressure level dew signal (PDP), which refers to the temperature that the air would take to be at to attain the same amount of dryness. In many industrial applications, a PDP of at least -xl˚F (-40˚C) is desired, so the air is required to have the aforementioned moisture level that it would take at -twoscore˚F.

The Danger of Having Too Much Moisture in Your Compressed Air

Although some level of moisture is normal, too much water can:

Damage your air compressor:When water builds up and remains brackish in the aforementioned location, it tin cause rust to form, which will clothing downwardly your air compressor and contaminate your concluding production. The pressure from excessive moisture in your tank volition likewise put unnecessary strain on the compressor's parts, including the bearings, and prevent your tank filters from working correctly. When these parts become damaged, you risk costly repairs or an entire auto replacement.
Lower air quality:If y'all are working in a heavily regulated industry, so y'all may no longer meet set standards or quality codes if your compressed air is tainted with backlog moisture.
Result in a poor concluding product:Overly moist compressed air can create an junior final product. For example, wet compressed air tin warp woodworking projects, h2o downward powder coating and could lead to rust formation on metal surfaces.

Removing excess h2o and moisture from your air compressor is crucial for the longevity of your machine, as well as the quality of your compressed air.

How to Remove Water From Compressed Air

Pressurized air needs some blazon of system or device to remove its naturally occurring wet. Several options exist to remove h2o from your air compressor, which can be every bit uncomplicated as a drain valve on the tank or as complex as a 4-stage air drying organization. You may exist using compressed air for purposes that require moisture-free output air. In this case, any existence of moisture will negatively affect your operations.

There are applications that tin can tolerate a low moisture content and won't need an elaborate air-drying setup. Either fashion, air compressor wet in your tank and lines is not ideal, so drying the air and releasing the water is absolutely necessary in some grade.

For a compressor that delivers 20 liters of air per second, it as well supplies 24 liters of water a solar day. Most of that water needs to be removed, and it'south unremarkably done in several stages. For example, an industrial air compressor that produces about 24 liters of h2o a twenty-four hour period will move the wet and hot compressed air to an aftercooler, which removes fifteen liters, then to a refrigerated air dryer, which removes some other 7 liters. There may be another stage with a desiccant air dryer for the driest air possible.

Air compressors are used for a wide range of applications, so there isn't i perfect solution to every dry compressed air application. Libation air holds less water, and so information technology uses many systems to cool the compressed air. This allows water to driblet out of the air, so it can be nerveless and drained.

Draining the Tank

The first stage of keeping wet out of your air lines is to drain your air compressor tank frequently. At that place'due south a drain at the bottom of your air compressor force per unit area tank, which releases the h2o and oil mixture that collects at the bottom. This should be done every time you use your air compressor to prevent rust building up on the inside of your tank and to continue moisture out of your lines and tools.

If you lot avert draining your tank because it's hard to reach the drain valve, yous should install a bleed extension kit, so it'due south easily attainable. You could also install an automated tank drain with a timer that yous tin fix to periodically drain the tank for you lot. Either style, it'southward a matter of safety and essential.

H2o Trap and Filter Regulator

Designed to piece of work with incoming cool air, a water trap is a simple method of removing moisture from compressed air. The air enters i side, and so information technology circulates effectually the bowl where the water collects at the bottom of the trap and drains out. The air volition get out through a filter, which traps other impurities in the air.

A h2o trap is not generally used on its ain, merely as part of a multi-step organisation to remove every bit much moisture from the air every bit possible. It is especially used for applications that crave extremely dry out air, such as painting, sandblasting or powder blanket.

Refrigerated Air Dryer

Working in a similar style as an ac unit, a refrigerated air dryer is continued to the air compressor and cools the air to a specified temperature, normally betwixt 35˚F to 50˚F (1.5˚C to ten˚C). This results in a pressure dew bespeak (PDP) of 33˚F to 39˚F (0.5˚C to 3.8˚C).

The water drops out of the air and is separated, and so the air is heated up and sent through the lines for its end-use. Some applications crave a lower PDP, which would crave a desiccant air dryer considering the condensate will freeze at 32˚F (0˚C) and not be able to be removed. This is not 1 of the well-nigh economical ways to dry compressed air, but information technology is i of the most efficient and has a consummate drying system in one unit.

There are two configurations of refrigerated air dryers: non-cycling and cycling.

Non-cycling refrigerated air dryers:

Cool the compressed air in a heat exchanger
Warm compressed air as it travels in one side, while low-force per unit area liquid refrigerant is metered on the other side of the oestrus exchanger
Reduce the temperature of the compressed air as refrigerant is heated
Regulate the catamenia of refrigerant as the estrus load from the compressed air changes

Alternatively, cycling refrigerated air dryers:

Cool the compressed air through a heat exchanger medium like sand, metal or a fluid
Comprise two rut exchangers fitted inside a tank that is filled with a thermal conducting fluid, such every bit water with propylene glycol added to forestall freezing and corrosion
Remove heat from the thermal conducting medium using the refrigeration system, then the compressed air is cooled by the thermal conducting medium
Bicycle on when the fluid rises to its upper limit
Are designed to be more than energy-efficient than not-cycling designs because refrigeration is only used to cool the heat exchanger medium and not the constant flow of hot air
Use a simpler refrigeration circuitry than non-cycling because hot gas bypass valves are not required

Desiccant Air Dryer

A multitude of tiny absorbent beads — called desiccant beads — remove h2o from the air in a desiccant air dryer. These units are similar in blueprint than the water trap filter. The air goes through the center of the pressure vessel, removing water equally information technology circulates. Once the specified wet content is reached, the air is moved out of the dryer to the lines for its end-use. A loftier-efficiency coalescing prefilter is needed to forbid damage from water and oil sludge.

Most desiccant dryers have two vertical pressure tanks that continuously operate through a drying-regeneration cycle, referred to as a NEMA wheel. An example setting may be a 10-minute NEMA cycle, where the unit of measurement is drying for five minutes, so regenerating for five minutes.

While the drying fourth dimension cycles, the fully pressurized compressed air flows through the online desiccant vessel through a bed of desiccant beads that strip the water vapor and hydrocarbon molecules from the air. The compressed air is released from the vessel when the specified PDP is reached.

During the regeneration cycle, the vessel depressurizes, and the regeneration process begins to heat the moisture out of the desiccant. After regeneration, the tank is pressurized once more and prepare for its next drying cycle.

At that place are three mutual desiccants used:

Silica gel:an amorphous form of silica with superior water-vapor-absorbing qualities that provide a PDP of -40˚F to -85˚F
Activated alumina: a porous form of aluminum oxide with silicon dioxide that provides a PDP of -xl˚F to -100˚F; the best selection for heatless air dryers
Molecular sieve: a porous form of zeolites formulated to blot specific vapor and gas molecules that provide a PDP of -100˚F and lower

Desiccant dryers are commonly found in industrial environments, where the highest amount of moisture needs to be removed from the compressed air.

Quincy Desiccant Dryers

Quincy Compressor manufactures a total line of desiccant air dryer systems with dual towers that allow for purging — regeneration of the desiccant — in one tower while the other belfry dries compressed air. This feature provides customers with longer use of the desiccant and continuous operation for extended periods, as in common in industrial environments.

Quincy offers four models of desiccant dryers to accommodate the diverse applications of air compressor systems.

The QHD Heatless Desiccant Dryer:

Regenerates the off-line belfry by using a small fraction of the dried compressed air
Offers depression maintenance costs and low initial cost
Has an average-to-high operating cost

The QDHP Heated Purge Desiccant Dryer:

Regenerates the off-line belfry with half the corporeality of the compressed air equally compared to the heatless series
Offers low maintenance costs and fairly depression operating costs
Has an boilerplate initial toll
Cuts energy utilisation past 50 pct with the optional Quincy MicroBurst Regeneration system

The QDBP Blower Purge Desiccant Dryer:

Regenerates the off-line tower past combining oestrus with ambient air
Offers relatively low maintenance costs and operating costs
Has a high initial cost

The QMOD Heatless Modular Desiccant Dryer:

Regenerates the off-line tower with a small fraction of the dried compressed air
Offers low maintenance costs and initial price
Runs with moderate-to-loftier operating costs

Quincy air dryers purify your compressed air with our proprietary Q-Sorb desiccant product, which consists of an amplified chemical compound of activated alumina. This formula facilitates assimilation and a lower pressure drop, which helps to meliorate the energy efficiency of your air compressor over fourth dimension.

If you're deciding betwixt a heated or heatless desiccant dryer, remember this general rule: heatless dryers are best for applications below two thou scfm, and heated dryers are best for applications higher up 2 g scfm.

Deliquescent Air Dryers

Deliquescent air compressor dryers have a single tank and also use a desiccant, but they can only provide a PDP of xx˚F to 25˚F lower than the air temperature entering the dryer. When the compressed air enters the tank, it reacts with the desiccant material to produce a liquid effluent that needs to be drained out of the dryer and tending of co-ordinate to hazardous waste regulations.

These types of dryers are non used in industrial applications considering the dried compressed air tin can incorporate small-scale particles of the affluent, which would exist corrosive to equipment down the line.

Pipe Organisation Air Drying

You can plumb your air lines to remove water from your compressed air. By using long lengths of metal piping built into two or more than up-and-down patterns, the air is cooled every bit the piping absorbs the heat. Reacting to gravity, the water drops downward to the lesser of the piping system into a 'drip leg' or 'drop leg' and is trapped, either by a water trap or a T-fitting and a ball valve.

The air continues on its path in the up-and-down piping, releasing more moisture through each segment. Each drip leg volition accept less h2o. By the time the air moves through the last segment, at that place should be no water in the drip leg. This tin can be used equally a stand-lonely method of drying compressed air and is the about common and near cost-efficient way to dry compressed air in a shop for business or personal employ.

The most important elements of compressed air drying systems are as follows:

Have all the horizontal piping line-fishing downwardly, so the water moves along with the air as opposed to settling in the pipage. A minimum slope of 1 in 100 is recommended.
Add a drop leg whenever the piping needs to exist elevated or go vertical, then gravity volition move the water down to the dip leg to exist removed.
Add a h2o trap or filter regulator at the finish of the pipe to remove any remaining h2o.
Keep the drop legs away from electrical sockets.
Be aware of how much pipage you apply and how much it volition impact the force per unit area drop. Use the Compressed Air & Gas Found Installation Pipework calculator to determine force per unit area drop and observe other useful calculations for your compressed air organization.

Storage Tank Cooling Method

Storage tanks, also known every bit air receiver tanks, act as a temporary storage reservoir to store compressed air as it exits the air compressor. They are used in loftier-need projects that require a lot of compressed air with trivial time to spare, including many industrial applications. The air storage tank pressurizes the compressed air to keep information technology usable. Receiver tanks can be used for either "moisture storage" or "dry storage:"

Wet storage: Wet storage is when compressed air is held post-compression, but earlier going through the air-drying process. This allows boosted moisture to condense out of the compressed air before it ever reaches the air dryer, which greatly minimizes the corporeality of water in the final result.
Dry storage:Dry storage is when the compressed air is stored in the receiver tank post-air drying, which protects the compressed air from gathering whatever boosted moisture.

In both moisture and dry air storage, "arroyo temperature" plays a large function in reducing excess moisture. Approach temperature refers to the difference in temperature between the discharged air and the temperature of the interior of the storage tank. When the two different temperatures see, the air begins the condensation process that expels moisture into the tank and out of the compressed air. It does this until the air in the storage tank reaches a steady temperature.

Absorption Drying

If you lot're wondering what absorption drying is and why yous might not accept heard of it before, you are likely not lone. Assimilation drying is a chemical process that uses absorptive materials — typically either water-soluble sodium chloride or sulfuric acid — to absorb excess moisture. This method of air compressor h2o removal is not used as often as other drying methods but is still a viable option for the following reasons:

Absorption drying has a depression initial cost compared to another types of drying machines because it does not require purchasing additional air drying equipment or tools.
Maintenance is usually more straightforward due to the lack of moving or electrical parts involved.
Information technology is a simple process that requires piffling monitoring or involvement on your part.

There are also a few disadvantages to using absorption dryers, such equally:

The absorbent materials need to be re-added every time they deliquesce, which takes additional time and money.
The absorptive materials might solidify or build-up, which could create a blockage problem in the tank.
Residue from the materials may transfer into the other parts of your air pinch or air drying machine.
The dew point is not lowered as much as it is with other drying methods, meaning in that location are more than effective drying methods bachelor.

What to Consider When Ownership an Air Dryer for Your Compressor

If you are unsure what air compressor dryer to buy, the post-obit factors volition touch which type of air dryer is best for you:

Bachelor utilities
Dew point requirement
Operating pressure
Inlet air temperature
Ambience air temperature
Airflow

The dew point requirement is the first affair to consider. You may be able to eliminate some air dryers just by examining how much or little h2o needs to be removed for your application. You lot may need to consult a professional to decide the PDP for your applications. The ranges below bespeak what blazon of dryer is best to achieve specific dew points:

0 F to fourscore F – Deliquescent air dryer
0 F to 32 F – Refrigerated air dryer
-xl F to 0 F – Desiccant air dryer with a silica desiccant
-100 F to 0 F – Desiccant air dryer with activated alumina desiccant

Call back to consider the chapters (CFM rating) and the pressure (PSIG) of your air compressor. You lot must choose the right size for your compressed air drying system. It should be the right size for your air compressor and application.

The purchase cost is certainly one consideration, simply the free energy use and maintenance costs are besides major deciding factors, equally well equally the boosted cost of the pressure drib that will occur every bit your compressed air travels through some other system. You will demand to run your compressor at a slightly higher pressure level with an air dryer to compensate for the loss of force per unit area through pipe or run information technology with a dryer unit of measurement to achieve the same pressure for end-utilize.

Desiccant air dryers with two towers will regenerate the desiccant in various means, so this is too something to analyze as your operating costs volition be significantly affected depending on where the free energy is coming from.

How to Keep Moisture out of Your Air Compressor

Because the air compression and filtering process results in natural moisture, it is not possible to preclude all moisture from getting into your air compressor. Still, there are a few steps y'all tin take to prevent excess moisture from building up and keep your compressor equally dry as possible:

Minimize Unnecessary Moisture in Your Workspace

Even when y'all work indoors, there is ever a level of moisture nowadays in the air around you. Luckily, in that location are several steps you can take to minimize unnecessary wet in the air:

Ensure adequate ventilation:Brand certain the room and edifice you work in are adequately ventilated, and then airflow tin help expel naturally-occurring moisture.
Use fans:Both standard fans and exhaust fans volition help dry out the air in your workshop or warehouse. Assuming the additional airflow will not hinder your work operations or cease production, install and place them in the area where compressed air is used and stored.
Prepare leaks and structural issues:Leaks in your walls, windows, plumbing and flooring tin can lead to undetectable standing water and create additional wet in the room.
Invest in a dehumidifier: Dehumidifiers are machines yous identify in your room or building to reduce the corporeality of humidity and moisture in the air. This too helps prevent mold and mildew formation and helps proceed energy costs depression.
Eliminate continuing water:Immediately eliminate all sources of continuing water in the room that houses your air compressor, including areas that are wet from leaks or spills.
Clean your ac filters:If your building uses an air workout system, chock-full or cleaved filters can pb to backlog humidity. To prevent this, have your filters checked and changed regularly by a professional.
Install insulation:Install insulation in your building'due south walls, floors and around all windows and doors. Insulation will keep your infinite at a more abiding temperature and will prevent cool or damp air from seeping indoors and causing water build-up in air compressors.
Check the weather and plan ahead:Humidity in the air translates to backlog wet in your air compressor lines. Pre-plan or schedule air compressor functioning for a time of day that is not every bit boiling or when the dew point is at its everyman. For example, recall about the dew that you run into on the grass in the early on morning — it'southward ordinarily gone past the early afternoon. Take your planning a step further and check the weekly weather forecast to run into which days are going to be drier than others, which includes avoiding rainy days or days with a lot of fog.
Use a larger air compressor: If your air compressor is too small, it will likely overheat as it tries to continue upward with the demand. As the temperature inside an undersized tank begins to rise, moisture will form. Eliminate this concern by investing in a larger air compressor, or using multiple smaller systems to go the chore washed.
Use and maintain compressor air filters: Air compressors require a filtration arrangement to separate pollutants and contaminants from pure air, including water and moisture. Brand certain you are using a high-quality air filtration organization with your compressor, and that information technology is fitted correctly to your automobile. One time installed, you must regularly inspect and make clean your filters. Replace your filters regularly and when damaged.
Drain your air compressor regularly: Simply above the drainage area is where all removed debris — including particles, oil and excess wet — are stored when separated past your tank's filter. The drain needs to be emptied to avert rust, clogs, back-upwardly and to ameliorate performance. Remember to practise this after every use to keep moisture out of your air compressor.
Schedule preventive maintenance checkups: Preventive maintenance is the best way to proceed your air compressor running finer for every bit long as possible. Preventive maintenance tin can permit a technician to grab issues before they grow into more than pregnant, costly problems subsequently. It also minimizes the chance you will have to cease operations in the event of a compressor break down or repair.
Supplant your air compressor when necessary: Quality air compressors are designed to terminal a long fourth dimension, but that doesn't hateful they won't eventually need to exist replaced. If you are having trouble with excessive moisture, noticed additional concerns that repairing has non stock-still or if a service technician has recommended it, consider a machine replacement.

Quincy Compressor's Air Dryers

Need more than data nigh how to dry compressed air? Contact Quincy or locate a sales and service representative nearly you. We'll help yous find the best air dryer for your air compressor arrangement.

Concluding Updated on May 4, 2022 at 7:45 am

Source: https://www.quincycompressor.com/the-best-ways-to-dry-compressed-air/