5 replies to this topic

[surananda]

Dear all,

 

I'm working in a plant which has Air Separation Unit (Air Liquide). Our Air Compressor, its discharge line is wrapped by pipe insulation. Downstream equipment of this Air Compressor discharge is Air Washing Tower which will decrease the compressed air temperature. I intend to remove this pipe insulation in order to decresase cooling water consumption of Air washing tower to achieve the same temperature setting. My questions are:

 

1. Does anyone have some experience of such case?

2. Is there any effect of removing discharge pipe insulation to air compressor performance?

 

Thank you for the answer.

 

Regards,

SDN

 

 

[breizh]

SDN ,

anything related to safety , to prevent people to get injury touching the pipe . What is the temperature at the discharge of the compressor ?

 

Temperature above 60/65C could lead to accident !

 

Hope this helps

 

Breizh

Edited by breizh, 29 October 2013 - 11:52 PM.

[Art Montemayor]

An air compressor - depending on the type and the discharge pressure - in an air separation plant could reach a discharge temperature of 300 ^oF.  Breizh is pointing out a very important and critical issue:  the insulation could be there in order to furnish Personnel Protection (PP) - especially if the discharge line is accessible by a human operator.  This issue must be considered before assuming that the insulation was installed in error.

 

Yes, it is important to cool the compressor discharge as soon as you are able.  But there will always be a section of discharge pipe that is exposed until it reaches the aftercooler.  How long that section is and where it is located depends on the local installation.

[surananda]

Currently the pressure of air compressor discharge 5.6 - 5.7 barg, and temperature 86 - 87^oC. Yes indeed, according to P & ID this insulation is meant to be personal protection, but I can say clearly no one can access this pipe section unless they use additional support. The discharge pipe is located 5 meter above ground and nothing such platform, ladder nor any other fixed tools that can make us access this pipe. So, I presume the purpose of this insulation for personnel protection is not proper.

[curious_cat]

Is it worth it? How much extra cooling duty do you gain by uninsulating that segment? What fraction of the water cooling can you save? Have you done a calculation?

 

My hunch says this is false economy, but I could be wrong. 

[Zauberberg]

Ultimately you could remove the insulation but provide some color coding of the line (warning / hot surface). Whether this is allowed, depends on the company standards.

 

I agree with Curious_Cat: unless the line is several hundred meters long, or the facility is somewhere in the Arctic region, you won't gain much by removing insulation. I would rather look into replacing the air exchanger into fin-fan cooler. Might be more effective.