Design Concept for Plant Compressed Air Ultra Tech Cement Limited

NOTE ON COMPARISION OF AIR COOLED VS WATER COOLED AND OIL INJECTED VS OIL FREE COMPRESSORS

Air Cooled Vs Water Cooled Water cooled compressors are comparatively more efficient in terms of specific energy consumption than the air cooled compressors, but it adds/ increases following equipments and operating cost. Additional handling of water from source, treatment and recirculation of water. The size of water treatment plant, treatment cost increases. The recirculation pumps and piping cost increases. The size of cooling tower also increases. It is important to look at the total operating costs involved with the water cooled compressors, the cooling water circuit includes cost of pumps, piping, cooling tower treatment, chemical and pumping cost.

Oil Injected Vs Oil Free Oil injected screw compressor offers several advantages over Oil free Low maintenance cost. High reliability and long compressor life. Medium purchase price. The continuous flow of cooling lubricant permits high single stage compression ratio. High speeds and compression ratios help to maximize the available power efficiency. Drawbacks Lubricant injected into a screw compressor reduces power efficiency due to the oil compression phenomenon and oil carry over due to the presence of oil. The drawback of oil injected compressor of oil carry over can be minimized using the additional oil and dust filters in the line and also the inlet of equipment where air is used is generally provided with filter and regulator unit this also helps in removing of oil to certain degree.
R. Jagtap & Associates, Nagpur

Design Concept for Plant Compressed Air Ultra Tech Cement Limited

In case of oil injected and oil free compressor the maintenance cost in oil free compressor is more and is the major cost. Also the advantage of specific energy consumption in oil free is reduced over the period as Teflon coating at screw erodes due to high temperatures. The use of dust and oil filters for oil free compressor cannot be avoided as dust from atmosphere and the rust in air pipelines before air dryers enters the air dryers and pipeline. Also the HOC dryers the adsorption material gets erode and is carried in the distribution network. Therefore a pre and post filter is required in oil free and HOC of dryers combination. The only advantage with oil free compressors is that the HOC type air dryers can be used for higher dew points at air dryers. It is important to look at the total capital and operating costs involved with the water cooled and oil free compressors, in water cooled compressors the cooling water circuit includes cost of pumps, piping, cooling tower treatment, chemical and pumping cost and the oil free compressors requires more maintenance cost and the specific energy consumption increases over the period. Therefore Air cooled Compressors are proposed as most of industries are facing water shortage problems and the availability of water is increasing day by day. Due to this many industries are also switching from water cooled to air cooled compressors. Even if the water availability at both Rajashree and Rawan site is assured as on today, but as the raw water source is the rain water, which is not guaranteed.

R. Jagtap & Associates, Nagpur

Design Concept for Plant Compressed Air Ultra Tech Cement Limited

The proposed schematic arrangement is as follows.

Based on above comparison Air cooled, Oil injected screw compressors are proposed. To improve the quality of air, pre and post filter at inlet and outlet of air dryers are proposed. Based on the outlet air quality requirement refrigerant type air dryers are proposed. And to further optimize the system the air requirement is categorized based on the pressure requirement i. e vital air (7 bar pr.) and dedusting air (5 to 6 bar pr.) this will help in reducing the energy consumption of compressor, as the compressor will be operating at 7 and 5 bar separately. The compressor energy consumption increases by 7% for every 1 bar rise in generation pressure. To improve the reliability of the system the dedusting compressor will always supporting the vital compressor through a NRV valve arrangement. This is proposed as the vital air requirement is directly related to plant operation and the arrangement will assure that air supply to vital equipments will always there. Regarding VFD & Energy optimizer it is proposed to have one compressor each in vital and dedusting as VFD compatible and VFD can be installed after successful commissioning and plant stabilization. Similarly the energy optimizer can be installed on plant stablisation.

R. Jagtap & Associates, Nagpur