Taking it upon yourself to understand how a desiccant air dryer works can help you decide if it the ideal fit for your compressed air application. In a nutshell, desiccant refers to a substance or material that has the sheer ability to absorb moisture from its surroundings. It is commonly used to reduce humidity or moisture levels in the air, gases, or solids, thereby preventing corrosion, mold, and other undesirable effects related with high humidity.
As for a desiccant air dryer or an adsorption dryer, it is simply a piece of industrial equipment that uses desiccant materials to eliminate water from the air channeled through it. A standard desiccant dryer system uses a two-lower setup to ensure a continuous air-drying cycle.
The term ‘regenerative’ is used in reference to an industrial desiccant air dryer that can renew its desiccant material by reversing the adsorptive process. Typically, regenerative desiccant dryers have paired desiccant-packed towers that allow water absorption and material regeneration to occur simultaneously.
In industries using compressed air, desiccant air dryers are widely leveraged. For example, the oil and gas industry counts on compressed air for different operations, such as oil recovery, refining, and transportation. The equipment used in these processes is often at risk of damage from moisture.
After long-term operation, when the operating parameters of the drying system remain unchanged and the equipment works normally, but the dry air can’t reach the dew point requirement, that’s the desiccant has failed and needs to be replaced and updated.
When the regenerated desiccant cylinder discharges exhaust gas, its pressure should be ≤05Mpa. In the event that the pressure exceeds this value, the muffler should be removed to clear the dust.
Ensure you make the gas flow resistance small, replace the cartridge or muffler, if necessary, generally the exhaust pipe and muffler should be connected to the outdoor, more so the inlet volume flow in less than 10m³ must be connected to the outdoor, but the pipe must be lower than the regeneration outlet height.
As we conclude, you should remember that desiccant air dryers consist of two pressure vessels, which are both filled with desiccant operated via switch-over. The wet compressed air flows through a vessel, under high pressure and low temperature, the moisture is thoroughly removed by the desiccant, so the compressed air will be dry. Be sure to research more about the desiccant air dryer before investing in one.
