My Green Earth Day Suggestion

[Peter]

 <jmyshrall at ...> writes:
> All large scale compressed air needs to go through a drier. When you
> compress air it warms up. Warm air has a better ability to hold moisture.

Most small compressor plants use air storage tanks. The delivered air is cooled
to room temperature and water condenses in the tanks, being let out from the
bottom. So the output air is much dryer than ambient air.

You are right that in a continuous delivery system condensation does not occur
and moisture must be removed using special condensers. However, most systems
contain moisture separators because too much moisture can cause a lot of trouble
to the system itself. Vapor lock, freezing small expanders, liquid lock and
corrosion are some of the problems that can happen, plus steam explosions when
the air is used to drive f.ex. plastic injection molds.

There is a pretty easy way to find out if the air is wet. Put an empty glass jar
in the freezer for 1-2 hours then remove it, wipe it squeaky clean with a dry
clean rag, put it on the table, and blow air from the nozzle into it at not too
high volume. If there is any moisture the glass will fog immediately and even
build ice on the inside (ignore outside fogging - wipe it off).

Dry Helium was used in some old disk drives and to pressurize various gyroscopes
afaik. It's also used in rocket technology to pressurize oxidizer (the oil would
ignite if present). Book move.

Peter


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