1. Energy efficiency in process industries

How to reduce energy consumption of bulk solids processes ?

The protection of environment involves everyone. Bulk solids handling factories are no exception. However, bulk processes are sometimes not perceived as a potential source of optimization leading to energy savings important for the environment and cost savings critical for a business to keep it competitive.

www.powderprocess.net contribution is to show unit operations involving handling of solids can represent a non negligible source of savings. This page is aiming at helping process designers and factory operators to design and run effectively their bulk powder processing line by giving energy savings tips for common operations like pneumatic conveying, mixing...etc...

This takes the form of a listing for now, but it will be upgraded in coming months to keep even more relevant content to the industry.

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2. Energy savings tips

How can we save energy in industries like bulk solids handling ?

How to make energy savings in order to have a bulk solids handling process - including pneumatic conveying or mixing - energy efficient. Please refer to the table below proposing :

• Pneumatic conveying energy savings
• Mixing energy savings
• Air conditioning energy savings
• General plant maintenance energy savings

Table 1 : Tips for energy savings in powder handling process industries

Area	Design	Savings of	Operation
Dilute phase pneumatic conveying	Electricity	# Do not overdesign too largely the installation # Work on the pipe layout to make it as simple as possible, this will reduce pressure drop and energy consumption # Use proven design calculation tools to optimize design	# Foresee timers to stop blower if no transport happens for some time # Adjust blower speed to optimize conveying velocity. Conveying with too high velocity will consume a lot of electricity and may damage the material # Follow up pressure to make sure there is no blockage that could lead to higher compression rates and energy spendings
Dense phase pneumatic conveying	Compressed air (Electricity)	# Perform pilot plant tests to optimize the solids load ratio, less air per kg of conveyed product will reduce the load on compressors and generate savings	# Avoid flush at the end of conveying when not necessary, this consumes a lot of compressed air # Check pressure regulator to avoid over consumption of compressed air. Recalculate from time to time the solids load ratio to verify the line performs properly
Mixing	Electricity	# Optimize design so that the asset is used as much as possible	# Optimize mixing time to avoid mixer's several kW motor run too long for no homogeneity improvement
Air conditioning	Electricity, steam, chilled water	# Reduce building air leakage # Recircule clean process air whenever it is possible, it will reduce the need for treatment of external air. The AHU must be designed for this purpose	# Follow-up building air temperature and relative humidity, make sure it stays within specifications
General maintenance	Compressed air (Electricity)		# Create inspection checklist of all pressure regulators in the process lines, especially air flush of bearing seals, filters pulse jet system or fluidizing systems in hoppers