A Packaging Firm Saves Big on Electric Bills through Energy Audit

JHFOSTER Compressed Air Audit Produces Significant Savings in Electric Bill

A Midwestern state-of-the-art packaging firm with 70+ years of experience providing corrugated containers searched for ways to improve their plant’s efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Offering solutions to help customers lower their packaging costs, they use compressed air to run their corrugators’ glue unit. They decided to replace an existing glue unit, which was operating at less than full capacity. Their purchasing group went to Xcel Energy to explore rebate possibilities offered through the Compressed Air Efficiency program.

CHALLENGES

JHFOSTER performed an audit to analyze their entire compressed air system. The audit offers a bigger picture of improvement opportunities, enabling them to choose those that would save them money. The JHFOSTER Compressed Air Audit revealed energy being unnecessarily lost throughout their system while running at a high operating pressure. As a result, artificial demand created significant amounts of blow off. Plus, the existing dryer ran continuously and the drains slowly, but constantly leaked air.

SOLUTIONS AND BENEFITS

JHFOSTER’s energy audit let plant managers to see how their compressed air system was operating and provided an action plan. The air compressor unit the firm had been considering was oversized for their needs. So to match load to demand, they installed a smaller compressor and cycling dryer. The installation reduced losses from blow offs and leaks. This reduced the amount of energy used during production, while the addition of no-air-loss drains eliminated leakage from former drains. Also, a new demand receiver, pressure controller and mist eliminator allowed overall operating pressure to be reduced. Consequently, they saved thousands of dollars per year in operating costs and extending the life of the equipment.

Less than a year after JHFOSTER’s Compressed Air Audit, the packaging firm has seen significant savings on their electric bills. In addition, they have experienced improvements in their plant’s response times and ability to serve customers. The new system also reduces downtime needed for maintenance, troubleshooting and repair.

For further information regarding compressed air system audits, please contact us at 800.582.5162 or email us.