Benchmarking Test of Two Compressed Air Generators in Large Scale Parallel Operation

Abstract

The wastewater treatment plant Illingen-Wustweiler was subject to several measures of energetic optimization. The most important of these was the replacement of two rotary piston fans by new rotary piston compressors. A test during which both types of aggregates were run in parallel showed that the energy consumption of the rotary piston compressor is 22 % lower than that of the conventional rotary piston fan. In combination with the other measures, as new control system for oxygen transfer, conversion of air distribution mains, installation of an air heat pump, the exchange of the aggregates made the specific electric energy consumption of the wastewater treatment plant fall below the ideal value given by the manual “Energie in Kläranlagen” of the German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia [5]. An energy analysis gave evidence of this fact.