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Instrument air compressor type that usually used in offshore application is a screw rotary type. This type is used due to its
large flow capacity and relatively low discharge pressure but still more than enough to supply instrument equipment or any other
utilities needed.
Since the instrument air compressor didn’t constantly supply a certain flow, thus it need some control scheme in order to operate
the instrument air compressor efficiently. There are on-off or start/stop control, load/unload control, and also variable speed
control.
This control scheme is effectively used when the continuous demand of the compressed air is less than 50% of the compressor
capacity. This type of control scheme usually also limited to a small compressor size only (below 10Hp).
The disadvantage of this control scheme is that too frequent start/stop cycle will make a bearing part worn down.
Load/Unload Control
This load/unload control scheme is utilizing a load/unload valve. When the pressure in the instrument air network reach a high set
pressure, the load/unload valve will close but there are still certain small intake volume goes through the flow restriction.
At the same time, the discharge of the compressor bleeds out to the atmosphere through a vent valve. In this way, the
compressor will operate on atmospheric pressure only and reduce the power consumption.
This control scheme is also completed with a timer so that after several minutes the compressor was unloading, the motor with
also shutting down by the controller. This is the most use control scheme for a large number of instrument air users in the
instrument air network.
By applying this control scheme, instead of having a frequent start/stop it will have an unload condition for certain time (can 30
minutes or more). If after certain time it still unloads, then it will surely off the motor.
This VFD will adjust the motor speed to adjust the compressor compression speed. Thus the compressor capacity will go down
following the low demand on the instrument air network.
When the load is high, the pressure in the instrument air network will be down and the pressure transmitter will send this signal to
the VFD.
Once again the VFD will adjust the motor speed so that the compressor capacity is increasing. This control scheme is the most
precise control of the compressor but having an initial high installation cost.
The on-off control scheme can be selected for a small use only while the variable speed control scheme can be selected after
some cost comparison calculation with the load/unload control scheme.