During the summer months the service technicians of Donaldson are working around the clock, because during the warm seasons the compressed air processing plants are particularly challenged. As warm air binds more water, the water content in the summer can clearly be higher compared with moderate temperature conditions. At 20°C, 1 bar and a relative humidity of 70%, the vapour content of the air sucked in by the compressor amounts to 12.17 g/m3. If the temperature is 30°C (1bar and 90% relative humidity) the vapour content is 27,36 g/m³ which is more than twice as high. In the winter at 10°C, 1 bar and 50% relative humidity the vapour content is only 4.70 g/m³. That has substantial effects, not only does the higher humidity require more performance from the compressed air dryers and filters, but also for condensate drains and condensate treatment systems. The control of the plants must be flexible so that the efficient operation is ensured even under extremely varying conditions.
How large the influence of the condensate technology can be on the efficiency of the compressed air supply and processing is underlined by a practical example in the painting technology, which depends on particularly high-quality compressed air. Peter Schaffrath, Safety Inspector for KSK Industrielackierungen GmbH & Co. KG in Geilenkirchen, which paints high-quality decoration parts for the automobile industry state "At our plant pollutions from the compressed air network are separated by Ultramat drains. Before we converted to the Ultrasep oil/water separator technology we had to make use of a service provider to dispose over 90 tons of condensate. That was a cost factor of approximately € 30.000. In 2005 only 2.6 tons of condensate was allotted to foreign disposal. Within two months we had written of the investment in the oil/water separation system." (picture)
The conclusion we draw from this is: the larger the volumes of condensate to be treated, the more economically is the use of modern condensate drains and oil/water separation systems. When level controlled condensate drains are connected to the oil/water separators the investment costs are quickly written off.
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