Standard volume compressed air measurement in a distribution station
Application Note | Food & Beverage
- Compressed air measurement of standard volume, as well as temperature and pressure measurements using a measuring device
- Reduced pipeline cross-section with sandwich installation at measuring point
- Simple installation thanks to 2-wire connection technology
Background
Compressed air is required in almost all operations producing beverages. Only seldom are the compressed air supplies monitored and adapted to actual consumption. Considerable costs are easily saved when compressor output is controlled based on consumption. To accomplish this, the entire compressed air consumption must be measured so that leaks, for example, and the called for compressed air requirement can be exactly measured.
Measurement requirements
A producer of beverages had to measure compressed air with the following process parameters:
- Media: Compressed air
- Standard volume flow: 3000 Nm3/h / 1870 SCFM
- Operating pressure: 6 bar 87 psi
- Operating temperature: 20 °C/ 68 °F
- Room / ambient temperature: > 40 °C / 104 °F
Originally, the plant was designed for large flow volumes. That is why the compressed air pipeline narrows at the measuring point in front of the distribution station, allowing even smaller flow volumes to be exactly measured.
KROHNE Solution
For this compressed air application, KROHNE provided the OPTISWIRL 4070 C vortex flowmeter. The device has sandwich connections, making installation easy and keeping investment costs low. The size used is DN 100 / 4" and pressure rating PN 40. The device is equipped with pressure and temperature compensation as well as a flow calculator so that in the event of pressure changes the correct consumption quantity of the standard volume is automatically recorded.
Customer benefits
The KROHNE measurement technology installed here provided enormous advantages for the beverage producer in terms of investment and follow-up costs. The integrated pressure and temperature compensation with flow calculation eliminates the need for separate devices. Compressor output can now be adapted to consumption values. Some customers have also carried out comparison measurements with with devices from other manufacturers. The best performance came from the KROHNE OPTISWIRL 4070 C due to its robustness, versatility and not least its superior measuring accuracy.