Adsorption Dryer - the best way to protect air systems

Practically at all industrial enterprises,where the central compressed air system is used, the piping of the air system is conducted outside. The air passing through them has 100% humidity. It cools in the air network, resulting in condensation. That he - the most common cause of corrosion of air systems and, as a consequence, the marriage of the final product. To solve this problem allows the adsorption dryer.

How does an adsorption dryer work?It is based on the adsorbent - a substance with high porosity, characterized by a high ability to absorb moisture. When humid compressed air penetrates through the layer of adsorbent, it is dried. However, it should be noted that the adsorption dryer requires periodic regeneration, because its ability to absorb moisture is limited. The essence of the regeneration process is the extraction of accumulated liquid from the pores. The most popular methods for the regeneration of adsorption devices are:

• Cold regeneration.For these purposes, pre-dried compressed air is used. It is passed through an adsorbing layer and it “sucks” excess moisture from it. This is the cheapest method of regeneration, however, it has a significant disadvantage: some loss of compressed air can not be avoided (from 15%).
• External hot regeneration.The adsorbent layer is blown under pressure above atmospheric air, preheated in the external elements. Then it must be cooled. Already dried air is also required for this purpose, however, with this type of regeneration, the loss is much lower (up to 2.5%).
• Hot regeneration under vacuum.In this case, hot air is supplied under pressure below atmospheric, that is, under vacuum. Unlike the previous method, in this case the adsorbers can also be cooled using atmospheric air. This means that the loss of compressed air in the system is zero.

How to choose an adsorption dryer dependingon the type of regeneration? Everything is simple here. If it is necessary to supply less than 35 cubic meters per minute to the air system, from the point of view of economy, it is worth choosing dryers with a cold type of regeneration. But options with hot regeneration are appropriate when more than 35 cubic meters of air are fed into the system per minute.

Allocate adsorption air dryers of 4 classes (depending on the dew point):

1. -70 degrees Celsius (for the conditions of the Far North).
2. -40 degrees Celsius (for an ordinary continental winter).
3. -20 degrees (for winter in European countries, regions with a mild climate).
4. +3 degrees (summer version).

The class indicates the temperature limit at whichguaranteed no condensation in the system. If the incoming air is colder than the specified limit, the adsorption air dryer can simply not cope with the load.