Design and Specification of A Compressed Air System

An industrial compressed-air system is expected to supply air of defined quality, required pressure and desired quantity to all the plant air and instrument air consumers. With air being one of the most critical utilities of a chemical plant, a compressed air system should function efficiently and cost effectively. Therefore, designers should consider parameters such as air quality, air consumption and supply, storage and distribution and control management in their designs. Most equipment manufacturers supply air compression and drying systems as packages comprised of many units put together. However, the purchaser of the system has the option of buying this complete package system or requesting only a portion of it. It is commonly observed that most compressed-air users design and install the air storage and distribution system themselves. For instance, in most FEED (front-end engineering and design) and basic engineering jobs the process licensors or the engineering contractors clearly demark the scope of work on a piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID). Thus on a P&ID of a compressed air system, the compressor and dryer along with associated instrumentation and piping will be shown simply as a dotted block indicating…