Air Dryers

Description

Air and gas dryers are designed to extract moisture from air and utility gases (hydrogen, nitrogen, inert gases, etc). These industrial dryers remove condensation and moisture from air or gas, and thus protect the life of pneumatic instruments. For certain applications, dry air is also supplied as feed gas.

Types:

The basic types of air and gas dryers are listed below:

• Heatless air and gas dryers - Heatless air dryers are used to absorb moisture from compressed air to achieve low dew points; these air dryers are made out of tough and inert materials; the operation of these types is simple and automatic
• Refrigerated air and gas dryers - The refrigerated air dryers are usually used for drying of plant air or gases; these dryers are available as air cooled and water cooled types; the advanced design of the dryers removes dirt or oil contamination by integral filtration system
• Heat regenerated air and gas dryers - The heat regenerative dryers remove dirt particles, oil and oil vapors from air by using two desiccant towers; air is compressed and is dried in one tower while the second tower is regenerated. A purge of dry airflow regenerates the heating cycle of the second tower; the regeneration cooling cycle is carried out by using the dried air from outlet of the first tower. The dryers are available in full automatic and semi automatic modes

Other types are given below:

• Skid mounted compressed air and gas dryers
• High pressure air and gas dryers                    

Applications

The air and gas dryers find their application in pneumatics, instrumentation, pulp and paper, chemical industries, in off-shore oil rigs, and other hazardous locations. High pressure air and gas dryers are generally used in marine and defense applications. They are also used for high pressure generator starting, high pressure testing, air circuit breakers, etc.