Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

drying air BEFORE it goes into the compressor?

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Will_D:
My new, silent, dental compressor lives next to my central heating oil boiler. Nice warm place, so very low humidity in the air intake so very very little condensate in the air tank.

If worried about moisture why not just build a big air box intake for the compressor with a load of silica gel plates to dry the air on the way in?

A bit like a fractionating column!

mc:
Performance and efficiency.

Any kind of restriction on the intake of a compressor, reduces it's performance. If you create any kind of below atmospheric pressure on the inlet side, that is a pressure drop that has to be recovered. Even taking a 0.1bar drop, you'll typically lose 10% of capacity.

Then there is the issue, of air flow. On the intake side, you have far more airflow to have to dry. You would need a lot of surface area to effectively achieve sufficient drying.

RussellT:

--- Quote from: Will_D on March 15, 2020, 07:57:34 PM ---Nice warm place, so very low humidity in the air

--- End quote ---

Surely that only reduces the relative humidity rather than the absolute amount of water in the air, and wouldn't it be more efficient to feed the compressor on cold air?

Russell

velocette:
Lots of industrial compressors had finned pipes to lower the air temprature before it entered the holding reservoir. Something using this principal to lower the temprature as low as possible.
 Then through an after cooler with the temprature of 3 or  4 deg Celsius I.E. a coil of copper pipe from the compressor  through a  refrigerator.
 With a catch tank with a drain valve where it exits the fridge.
Working on large industrial compressed air with this principal for a number of years using this setup to feed a factory with all machines fitted with water traps and drains a clean and dry air supply. To dry the air first before feeding the compressor Dry Air Is Heavier Than Wet Air.

awemawson:

--- Quote from: velocette on March 24, 2020, 02:33:20 PM --- Dry Air Is Heavier Than Wet Air.

--- End quote ---

That sounds counter intuitive  :scratch:

Surely a given volume of dry air, that then is saturated by water MUST weigh more by the weight of the water that it has taken up.  :scratch: :scratch: :scratch:

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