Heat exchangers for raising the temperature of compressed air to increase its volume.
Cooling compressed air is essential to condense moisture present in an airstream. However, this process loses the energy or volume from the compressor system. Although the amount varies, it is not unusual to lose 30% of the total energy available from the compressed air system.
A reheat drying system adds this energy or volume back into the compressed air system using the heat of compression from the air compressor. A particular advantage of such a system is that it requires no external energy to reheat the air, which results in significant savings in plant operating expenses.
A packaged reheat drying system cools compressed air in an aftercooler, removes the moisture using a separator, and then reheats the air using a regenerative heat exchanger. It operates in the manufacturing process without using an external energy source. Essentially, a reheat system supplies free heat to a process while significantly reducing plant operating expenses.
Sample illustration of reheating compressed air:
