Saving electrical energy when using a conventional fan

A salt plant can save up to 1.6 GWh of electricity per year using a conventional fan 

Task

The British company Salt Union uses special tumble dryers in its salt production to produce millions of tons of this raw material annually. One of these tumble dryers processes granulated coarse salt, which is used in dishwashers

However, a large amount of electrical energy is wasted The fan that draws air from the drying drum was previously controlled by a damper located in the pipe due to the difference in air flow rates During the work of salt production, the above mentioned damper was closed by 95%, and the maximum amount of electricity used by the fan was used to draw air out of the drum through the remaining limited space

At the same time, the drying drum fan had increased dimensions, because the salt drying apparatus itself was used to evacuate salt crystals before being used in this installation. The fact is that salt crystals used to have small sizes compared to spherical ones of 2-3 mm in required for granular salt Thus, ideally sized crystals put more pressure on the dryer than a coarse product

Salt Union was therefore tasked with developing an appropriate technology to optimize energy consumption in salt production

Solution

With the assistance of partners from the ABB Drives Alliance corporation, a solution was developed, and over time, implemented a solution to the issue of saving the electrical energy used for the set goal. Thus, the existing fan was replaced with a new one, more compact in size, with a speed controller. Then an electric motor with a nominal power of 337 kW was installed on it. As a result, calculations that were previously made by ABB showed that in this solution to the problem of saving electricity, it is enough to use only 132 kW for a motor with a fan to ensure the efficiency of the blowing air flow required by the dryer machine

Advantage of this technology

After the introduction of technology to save electrical energy by reducing the size of the tumble dryer fan, the energy saving with the help of the fan has become equal to 1.6 GW per hour annually. this project is about 20 thousand British pounds sterling, the British company Salt Union was able to save more than 100 thousand pounds sterling after one yearIt turned out that even a small amount of heat reproduced by the operating drives of the dryer drum is sufficient to heat the air in the equipment room in the winter season. salt manufacturer