Air Chillers for 3rd and 2nd Stages of Air Compressor

If you can keep personal whimes away, particularly I have found armstrong make moisture seprator traps functions reasonably satisfactorily. Ocasional cleaning and blowing is needed.

Still I have seen many operators uses drain separators with LCV and bypass drain valves as neccesary provisions.

Than you for the reply. My concern about moisture traps, is that it is very humid here. I did simple bucket test today, and i got .1 gpm of water out of my chiller. Meaning in 6 gallons of water an hour, seems like a bit of a flow for moisture trap to be handling ?

Lot of information like type, discharge pressure, temperature and flow rate of compressor, average RH etc are missing. Why need chilling, is only cooling not sufficient?

Moisture traps are essential in air compressors. In the process of compression moisture condensed after each stage due to interstage cooling need to be removed before entering the air to next stage, otherwise it will have adverse effect on next stage impeller or piston.

Automatic moisture traps are of two types- 1) sensing condensate level and opening and 2) opening with resettable timer. First type is good because of no air loss but reliability is to be ensured frequently. Second type has two timer settings, a) open duration and b) gap between openings. Settings depend on rate of condensate generation which in turn depend on atmospheric RH and pressure rise in stage. For dry inland areas moisture traps are generally not required after first stage.

Let me paraphrase, its actually cooling we just always called them "chillers". Usually we try to keep temps below 120F. IT is a 5000 scf/m compressor at least was rated for that flow when it was new. Discharge pressure is roughly 100 psi.

Thank you, that helps a bit. I only have one year of experience and I'm chemical engineer, with some mechanical back round. Thought it was a commonly used operations (at least makes sense not to waist the air and run portable compressors).

thank you. Yeah I see that a lot too, unfortunately.

If you don't dump the condensate then you are reducing your storage capacity by 6GPH or filling up the interstage plumbing at that rate. Could go hydraulic if not manually purged and throw a leg out on the subsequent stage(s).

Ask you super what his hang up is with water traps. It would be good to hear his reasoning. He is your mentor after all. Maybe he has experienced a career changing moment that involved a water trap.

Thank yall for helping me out. I'm going to talk to my supper, from what I've gathered he had a lifechanging experience in 70's when he shut down the refinery because of the moisture...But from what I've been told its more than just compressors, air dryers and so on...So I believe that is trying to be over conservative on this matter, but if you upkeep the moisture traps and check them periodically, it should not be a problem at all. And i did check into sensing devices on the moisture traps, however the cost per one with those spikes to almost 7k $. And I do not understand why you need those if operator should check them at least once per shift anyhow.

There are automatic moisture drain valves in the market. You need not keep blowing the moisture manually. By the way, moisture that is condensing has to be blown away.

If you need to purge manually then it's not automatic.

Fully automatic traps exist. Reputable brand here