While you may not be as familiar with low-pressure blowers are you are typical air compressors, you can rest assured that they are essential pieces of equipment in many key industries! Low pressure technologies are used in a variety of applications for an array of purposes. Let’s explore how eight different industries use blowers for critical processes.
Aquaculture
Whether it’s helping to guarantee water quality, installing an efficient feeding system, creating a protective bubble curtain, or moving live organisms from one place to another, the aquaculture industry deals regularly with applications that require compressed air or oxygen. Many of the processes within the cultivation of fresh or saltwater populations of organisms such as fish, crustaceans, and mollusks are dependent on the delivery of Class 0-certified clean, oil-free air or - in case of dense populations - oxygen generators.
Cement Plants
The moving, mixing, heating, and cooling processes of cement manufacturing are achieved through the use of blower technology. From pneumatic conveying and combustion air to cooling air and aeration, many processes wouldn’t be able to take place without low-pressure equipment.
Flue Gas Desulfurization
In coal-fired plants, where the burning of fossil fuels results in the release of sulfur dioxide, low pressure blowers are used to remove sulfur dioxide from the exhaust flue gases. The resulting process of flue gas desulfurization helps meet government requirements for reducing emissions. Since coal-fired plants must be up and running 24/7, the plants rely on machines that can provide the correct amount of air based on demand, with virtually zero downtime.
Food and Beverage
Low pressure, oil-free blowers play an integral role in the food and beverage industry. The main subsegments that use low-pressure air for numerous applications in this industry include meat processing, poultry, dairy product manufacturing, preserved fruits and vegetables, as well as brewing and beverage processes. The primary use of low-pressure air in this market is pneumatic conveying in both vacuum and pressure. Many food manufacturers also operate wastewater treatment facilities independent from their municipalities to decontaminate process or sewage water and to treat organic waste.
Non-Woven Textiles
Oil-free air solutions for the textile industry are used in applications such as adjusting the flow in order to influence fiber characteristics, aerating the water used during the production of textiles that must be treated before it can be released back into nature, pneumatic transport of fabrics, and PET chips.
Petroleum Refining
These machines play a key role in powering petroleum refining, or the variety of processes employed in converting crude oil into useful products, including gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, and diesel oil. Within petroleum refining, sulfur recovery and thermal incineration/oxidation are two of the key processes powered by low-pressure blowers.
Pneumatic Conveying – Dilute Phase
Many manufacturing processes use dilute phase pneumatic conveying to transport any dry bulk materials, including powders, granular forms, and chips and pellets. A reliable stream of low-pressure oil-free air is essential to keep the production running smoothly. And because manufacturing plants that use pneumatic conveying have employees working nearby, blowers that utilize low noise and low vibration technologies are necessary for worker’s safety.
Wastewater Treatment
In the wastewater treatment industry, plants treat wastewater using aerobic biological processes to digest waste by-products. In other words, millions of bacteria feed on organic waste, breaking it up into carbon dioxide, nitrogen gas and water. Because bacteria need oxygen, large amounts of air are blown into aeration tanks. This process requires continuous operation of blowers and a reliable, steady flow of clean, 100% oil-free air.
Energy consumption typically represents up to 80% of a blower’s total cost, so saving energy is incredibly important when it comes to the industries that use low pressure blowers. The other thing these uses have in common is continuous operation-- making reliability and performance a necessity. Visit us at www.atlascopco.com/blowers-usa for more information!
