•Maintains efficiency across the broadest range of demand
•Provides the most stable, efficient header pressure
•Low Demand Mode eliminates unloaded power losses
•238-1015 acfm delivery
•100-150 psig
•PLC controls standard
•Downstream signal available
•TEFC and NEMA options
•Standard five- and ten-year warranty programs

For more information on the Quincy QGV Rotary Screw Air Compressor or any other Quincy product: Call 1-800-764-9793 or Use our Contact Form.
Also be sure to check out the video below from Quincy Compressor for more on the QGV  air compressor.

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Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is in full swing and most of you are in “convention mode”, which means long days standing on your feet, walking endless miles of aisles at the convention center, and eating stale, expensive convention hall food.

Well if you want to get away from all that! Come see us Wednesday May 2^nd from 12-7pm, for our first annual OTC customer event at the McKenzie Compressed Air Solutions headquarters located at 9260 Bryant St.

We are just minutes from the convention center and right next to Hobby Airport. Come one come all, invite your co-workers and come enjoy fried catfish and boiled shrimp prepared by Sudie’s. And if you haven’t had the pleasure of eating at Sudie’s you need to treat yourself!

Thanks to all of you for being a part of the McKenzie Compressed Air Solutions family. See you Wednesday!!  There will also be a DJ spinning the hits and a raffle every hour. Prizes include several $500 gift cards to Bass Pro Shops and Academy Sports and Outdoors. If you have already RSVP’d, great, we look forward to seeing you here!

Applications are getting more sensitive to contaminants like hydrocarbons – which are very difficult to remove.

Production and quality engineers in industries like the food & beverage, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, and chemical sectors have established internal specifications for oil-free compressed air. The product spoilage and safety issues at risk make oil-free compressed air an absolute necessity in certain processes.

Traditionally, activated carbon filters and towers (carbon absorbers) have been used to remove hydrocarbons. While these technologies do remove hydrocarbons, they are very dependent upon timely and frequent maintenance to maintain performance levels.

Another available technology transforms hydrocarbons, through total oxidation, to produce carbon dioxide and water. The heart of the system is the catalytic converter, a pressure-vessel filled with a catalytic granulate capable of “cracking” hydrocarbons. The catalytic converter ensures and guarantees the removal of all liquid oils and gaseous hydrocarbons as well as all bacteria and viruses from the compressed air stream. In addition, this type system has a recommended maintenance interval of 25,000 hours.

Treating the compressed air, regardless of the air compressor technology, is the only way to ensure oil-free compressed air, and many companies place the highest value on 100% oil-free compressed air – at all times.

Oil-free air compressors are vulnerable to the quality of ambient air conditions. Airborne hydrocarbons, in the 6-10 ppm range, are normal and these can go up to 16-24 ppm in an atmosphere exposed to vehicle exhaust or in an contaminated environment like for example an airport. In many cases, up to 30% of these hydrocarbons may be condensable. Manufacturing processes may also create hydrocarbon releases to atmosphere, which are then ingested by the oil-free air compressor.

Many factories install oil-free air compressors for 100% of their compressed air needs when in reality- only 40% of the compressed air needs to be truly oil-free. Engineers are recognizing this as an opportunity to reduce capital expenditures.

If 700 scfm out of 2,500 scfm needs to be oil-free, the catalytic converter type system is installed at the point of use. This allows the facility to invest significantly less capital in air compressors than if they went with oil-free for the whole facility.

How hydrocarbons are measured in a system is a key. Up until now, end users have not had a way of knowing what the hydrocarbon content was in their compressed air system. They had filters with alarm functions based upon time – but little more. They could send samples off to laboratories and wait to hear the results – while production continued. This was also not very satisfactory.

Now hydrocarbon monitoring systems are available and are designed specifically for compressed air systems. The monitoring technology provides real-time measurement and monitoring of hydrocarbons in compressed air systems.

Design Sequence

1. Locate and identify each process, workstation, or piece of equipment using compressed air.
2. Determine volume of air used at each location.
3. Determine pressure range required at each location.
4. Determine conditioning requirements for each item.
5. Establish how much time the individual tool or process will be in actual use for a specific period of time (duty cycle).
6. Establish the maximum number of locations that may be used simultaneously on each branch, main, and for the project as a whole (use factor).
7. Establish the extent of allowable leakage.
8. Establish any allowance for future expansion.
9. Make a preliminary piping layout and assign preliminary pressure drop.
10. Select the air compressor type, conditioning equipment, and air inlet locations making sure that consistent SCFM or ACFM is used for both the system and compressor capacity rating.
11. Produce a final piping layout and size the piping network

Piping System Design

Piping layout on the plans shall be reasonably complete, with checking for space, clearances, interference, and equipment drops. In order to use pressure drop tables, it is necessary to find the equivalent length of run from the compressor to the farthest point in the piping system. The reason for this is that the various pipe-sizing tables are developed for a pressure drop using friction loss for a given length of pipe.

1. Measuring the actual length is the first step. In addition, the affects of the fittings must be considered.
2. Determine the actual pressure drop that will occur only in the piping system. Generally accepted practice is to allow 10% of the proposed system pressure for pipe friction loss. It is a good practice to oversize distribution mains to allow for future growth as well as the addition of conditioning equipment.
3. Size the piping using the appropriate charts, having calculated the SCFM and the allowable friction loss in each section of the piping being sized.
4. The temperature used to calculate the friction loss is 60ºF (16ºC).

Tools and Charts

Sizing Tool: Depending on the flow and pressure drop required, choose your diameter. (values for a pressure of 8 bar -116 PSI – and 5% pressure drop).

Flow Calculator: Please contact us for your free download.

A few of many advantages of hydropower are fuel is not burned so there is minimal pollution; water to run the power plant is provided free by nature; relatively low operations and maintenance costs; and technology is reliable and proven over time.

Typical hydroelectric power plant

Hydroelectric energy is produced by the force of falling water. The capacity to produce this energy is dependent on both the available flow and the height from which it falls. Building up behind a high dam, water accumulates potential energy. This is transformed into mechanical energy when the water rushes down the sluice and strikes the rotary blades of turbine. The turbine’s rotation spins electromagnets which generate current in stationary coils of wire. Finally, the current is put through a transformer where the voltage is increased for long distance transmission over power lines.

Pumped storage: Reusing water for peak electricity demand

Demand for electricity is not “flat” and constant. Demand goes up and down during the day, and overnight there is less need for electricity in homes, businesses, and other facilities. Hydroelectric plants are more efficient at providing for peak power demands during short periods than are fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants, and one way of doing that is by using “pumped storage”, which reuses the same water more than once.

Pumped storage is a method of keeping water in reserve for peak period power demands by pumping water that has already flowed through the turbines back up a storage pool above the power plant at a time when customer demand for energy is low, such as during the middle of the night. The water is then allowed to flow back through the turbine-generators at times when demand is high and a heavy load is placed on the system.

The reservoir acts much like a battery, storing power in the form of water when demands are low and producing maximum power during daily and seasonal peak periods. An advantage of pumped storage is that hydroelectric generating units are able to start up quickly and make rapid adjustments in output. They operate efficiently when used for one hour or several hours. Because pumped storage reservoirs are relatively small, construction costs are generally low compared with conventional hydropower facilities.

Hydroelectric Power Plant Compressed Air Applications:

In hydroelectric power plants, the mechanical energy of the water is converted into electrical current using turbines and generators connected to them. Given that the effective head varies; a distinction is made between low, medium and high-pressure power plants. Similarly, there are run-of-river plants as well as storage plants (including pumped-storage plants) depending on the way in which the available water is used.

What high pressure air compressors used for in hydroelectric power plants:

· Braking air for pneumatic brakes

· Adjusting turbine blades and large valves (e. g. governor)

· Blowing air (blowing out the water to eliminate the load during starting)

· Preventing pulsation and cavitation