Air dryer for Pneumatic bottling

[Lorenzo]

Hi There,

Having recently purchased a pneumatic bottle filler and air compressor with Coalescing type filter,  and will be using food grade lubrication,we have been told by the company that installed the unit that we should have an air dryer for our compressor as the filter will not be enough to keep condensate etc from ending up in the spirits !  

Can anyone give me some advice on this, are most of you using an Air Dryer refrigerated or other wise in connection with your bottling line?

Thanks

[starcat]

All Plant setting compressed air systems should have refrigerated air driers installed. You need to filter the air both before and after the drier, and your air receiver needs and automatic blowdown on the tank.

[Skaalvenn]

Our air compressor has a belt guard aftercooler, an auto-drain solonoid, and then a coalescing filter before the refrigerated air dryer.

The cooling from the aftercooler works pretty well, brings air temps off the compressor from about 170 degrees down to just over room temperature (hot air holds more moisture), so a lot of the moisture falls out and condenses inside the tank where it's removed by the auto-drain.  The coalescing does get SOME of the water out of the air supply, but on humid days the refrigerated dryer has a fairly steady trickle of water.  After that dryer we run through another coalescing, moisture traps before each tool hookup, and then another coalescing at each tool.  I never get any signs of moisture beyond the refrigerated air dryer.  FWIW we do not have our air supply come in contact with the spirit.

The entire system cost quite a bit, but well worth it as our air supply is the least of my worries these days.  I can run our bottling line, a large AODD pump, and an air mixer all at the same time with plenty of air pressure and volume to spare.

[Lorenzo]

Hi Skaalvenn, Starcat

 

Great info, Skaa, what is the system that you are using, are all the components from same company, I have been shopping California Air, Chicago Pneumatic and a few others, cost is up there and I'm pricing a 18 CFm @175psi system.

[Skaalvenn]

11 hours ago, Lorenzo said:

Hi Skaalvenn, Starcat

 

Great info, Skaa, what is the system that you are using, are all the components from same company, I have been shopping California Air, Chicago Pneumatic and a few others, cost is up there and I'm pricing a 18 CFm @175psi system.

Castair is the compressor. No idea on the rest. I believe I'm 45cfm @ 175psi.  I have an automated capsuling and labeling machine that requires 16CFM.

[starcat]

Ingersol Rand makes an ok air drier. I have run several. Your drier is sized by your peak load in SCFM. Temperate zones are a lot more sensitive that for expample we are in the High Desert. Back in Texas getting air dry was extreme. Same thing in South Carolina. The big systems we ran additional aftercoolers on the main line into the plant. If you are a small operation and do not have a large amount of pneumatic loads, you can likely get by with running 1/2" into the plant, but I would not go any smaller. You always have to consider future expansion vs. what you are wanting to run currently. Electric auto drains are way better than snap traps.

I

[twalshact]

We use automatic drains on the compressor tank and around the shop. The filter are great less than 1 micron.

https://www.gosuburban.com/our-brands/tsunami-compressed-air-solutions