Energy cost reduction strategies are vital to staying competitive. One major source for optimization often overlooked is recovering the heat generated by compressors. Since as much as 100% of the electrical energy used by an industrial air compressor is converted into heat and 96% of this energy is available for recovery, the potential for savings is huge.
The fully-enclosed design of modern rotary screw compressors makes them especially suitable for heat recovery. This is true of both fluid-injected as well as oil-free compressors. The bigger your system and the more you run it, the more you'll save with heat recovery. Many of our mid and larger size (direct drive) models have an integral heat recovery option, but you can add heat recovery to your existing system with external heat exchangers described below.
Up to 96 % of the compressor's exhaust heat can be used for space heating.
To learn more about the savings that can be achieved using hot air heat recovery compared to fuel oil or natural gas, see our Heat Recovery brochure.
Use our heat recovery calculator to calculate the usable heating energy volume of a rotary screw compressor. Click here to go to the calculator.
Compressor heat recovery systems can heat water to 158 °F (higher temperatures possible upon request). You can recover up to 76 % of the heat energy. The heated water can then be used in production, in your heating system, or as service water.
Rotary screw compressors from the SM series (from 7.5 hp) and up can be equipped with PTG systems. Depending on the size of the compressor system, the PTG heat exchanger is either integrated within the unit or is installed externally.
In water-cooled systems, integrated plate or shell and tube heat exchangers are available, depending on the available water quality. Our compressed air specialists can advise you about which design is right for your particular application.
To learn more about the savings that can be achieved using hot air heat recovery compared to fuel oil or natural gas, see our Heat Recovery brochure.
Use our heat recovery calculator to calculate the usable heating energy volume of a rotary screw compressor. Click here to go to the calculator.