Compressed air car…and a bit of a rant

Among my favourite things is wandering the web to see what I can see, and I found this jewel earlier today.

It seems that India is miles ahead of North America in planning the use of other than fossil fuels or cereal based alcohol to run vehicles in their cities.

There are a number of writers of the piece, so click their “about the authors” link if you want to see who’s writing the article.

Neat reading….enjoy it here!

Dewpoint – a definition

My thanks to David Connaughton of Parker for permission to publish this information here. David is a marketing and sales professional at Parker Hannifin, responsible for membrane air dryers and OEM nitrogen membrane modules.

The term “Dew Point” can be a confusing term. It is used in the dry air business with the assumption that everyone knows what it means.

To confound the confusion we also use the terms Pressure Dewpoint and Atmospheric Dewpoint. Let me try to explain what these terms mean and why they are important to consider in a compressed air system.

Dewpoint can be defined as the temperature at which moisture in the air will begin to condense if the air is cooled at constant pressure. At this point the relative humidity is 100%.

Pressure Dewpoint is the temperature at which water will begin to condense out of air at a given pressure. Pressure dewpoint is important when the goal is to keep moisture out of a piping system that might travel a long distance or outdoors.

Atmospheric Dewpoint is the temperature at which water will begin to condense out of air at atmospheric pressure. This is important when spec’ing an air dryer at the point of use which is usually low pressure.

Since air is a compressible gas, a pressure dewpoint indicates less water presence than an atmospheric dewpoint at a given dewpoint. That is, a pressure dewpoint of 35F at 100 psig holds less moisture than air at an atmospheric dewpoint of 35F. For a given pressure dewpoint, as you lower pressure, you lower the pressure dewpoint of the air.

Now that we’re using our home compressors more…

In the northern hemisphere, we’re well into summer now, and for me that means doing a lot more outside jobs, jobs that need compressed air.

Like many folks, I’ve got a small, DIY compressor at home, and I use it pretty regularly. In fact, the uses grow now that I’ve got compressed air handy in my workshop.

So, are you using yours more? If so, don’t forget to check and fill the oil.

Oil level site glass

As you can see from the photo, there’s oil in my compressor, but I should add just a bit to bring the level mid-point or a little higher than the red dot. That’s what my manual says. Check yours.

If the oil’s dirty, do your compressor a favor and drain the oil, and add fresh compressor oil. It’s good for the machine and will increase the time between maintenance requirements.

Are you throwing energy (and dollars) away?

Once again, as energy costs and the impact reverberates throughout society, the undeniable need to “spend” energy wisely comes to the fore.

More and more I find articles like this one, confirming that compressed air is a very expensive energy source, and that many plants and users, through not understanding the process completely, waste significant electrical energy in creating compressed air that’s wasted to atmosphere.

If you had a pocket full of coins, and a hole in the pocket allowed your money to dribble away, you’d get that fixed pretty quick.

Consider a compressed air leak a BIG hole in your pocket. Sew up the leaks. Save your money, your company’s money, and reduce energy use at the same time.

Need more information on using compressed air? Here it is!