Refrigeration Dryers That Overcome Acidic Conditions

KP Foods, a part of the United Biscuits group have had issues in recent years with refrigeration dryers failing because of the acidic conditions on site due to ingredients such as acetic acid affecting the internal copper tubing of refrigeration dryers. A number of different brands of dryer have been tried and tested on site with limited success. Some dryers actually failed in less than 6 months.

BEKO TECHNOLOGIES looked at the PH value of the condensate and the acidic ambient conditions. From this a tailor-made DRYPOINT RA 600 solution was offered, where all the internal copper piping and condensate discharge points of the dryer were coated with a special anti-corrosion treatment. The first RA dryer sold to KP Foods has been installed on site now for nearly 4 years without a single failure. This was a major factor in the choice for the new dryers for the Hoops compressor room location.

Pressure drop was also a major factor as well as pipe work distribution. With this in mind BEKO were invited to tender for the whole turnkey project which included removing all the old equipment, supply and installation of new dryers, filters and pipework. BEKO successfully won the order for the complete turnkey project and in conjunction with Direct Air and Pipework of Coventry the whole installation was carried out in less than 48 hours. The installation included a complete new 6” manifold, 4” drops into the 2 x DRYPOINT RA 600 dryers and 2 x Flanged filters.

Timing was essential as the compressed air went off at 2pm on a Saturday and had to be installed and running by 8pm on a Sunday. The installation was successfully carried out on time. KP Foods are now reaping the rewards in energy reduction of very low pressure drop and a constant dewpoint throughout their factory with the added reliability of the BEKO DRYPOINT RA range.