Compressed air audit and upgrade

A recent multi-stage upgrade of the chicken processing facility at Adelaide Poultry, with the assistance of Champion Compressors, was able to reduce the power consumption of the plant’s compressors by 15%, while increasing throughput by 375%.

A key element of the plant-wide upgrade was the overhaul of the processing facility’s compressed air system.

According to Adelaide Poultry maintenance manager Steve Burton, compressed air is critical to the production process. “Compressed air is used throughout the plant, from unloading the chickens, through to clean-up stage, so it needs to be reliable. We can’t afford to have a line down,” says Burton. “It was clear to us that our original system wasn’t running efficiently and needed overhauling, so we called in the experts.”

Adelaide Poultry chose Champion Compressors to assess, redesign and overhaul the company’s legacy compressed air system. A collaborative affair, the two companies established an upgrade plan with three clear goals — minimise power consumption at the plant, optimise the air quality and ensure the reliable supply of compressed air into the future.

The first task was to determine the ‘real’ compressed air requirements of Adelaide Poultry’s chicken processing facility. Using the Champion-developed Energy Measurement Unit (EMU), an air audit was conducted. The EMU records the actual events of the compressors’ off- and on-cycle transitions (for up to six compressors concurrently), rather than depending on cyclical data sampling. The EMU’s event logger strategy produces plots that are easy to diagnose.

The results of the air audit were quite revealing. As suspected, the recent increase in production had resulted in Adelaide Poultry outgrowing its original compressed air system. As a first step, the plant’s existing 15 kW reciprocating compressor was replaced with a Champion CSF-22, 22 kW rotary screw compressor while a complete system redesign was carried out.

The team overhauled the compressed air system, ensuring it would accommodate a significant increase in the chicken processing rate. The installation of the redesigned compressed air system coincided with a multi-stage plant-wide upgrade of Adelaide Poultry’s processing facility.

The predominant compressed air supply at Adelaide Poultry’s chicken processing facility is now provided by the Champion CSF-22 and a Champion 30 kW CSF-30 air compressor — one ‘operation’ unit plus one ‘standby’. Fitted with a sequence controller, the two units are able to share the workload evenly, or vary the compressed air output depending on the demand of users. “This ensures that both units share the load and operating hours equally and allows increased operating flexibility,” says Champion Compressors’ state manager, Daryl Edwards. “Adelaide Poultry can safely reduce or increase its compressed air consumption depending on the workload, without wasting electricity.”

The existing compressed air pipework was also redesigned and replaced, eradicating air leaks and allowing efficient reticulation of compressed air around the plant. This, in conjunction with the implementation of the sequence-controlled twin compressors, has resulted in a reduction of power usage of about 15%.

The new compressors, coupled with the addition of an oversized 4000 L air receiver, provide the plant with increased capacity and backup — more than enough to accommodate the plant’s increased throughput.

Champion Compressors
www.championcompressors.com.au