Presently the instrument air supply to the Corner Station is supplied via a piston style compressor at the chiller yard where it feeds underground to the Mechanical Room. Beginning on Sunday, the compressor failed to maintain the pressure required at the GV's. Since then, Facilities has been preparing to install a new, scroll style compressor and drying tower to replace the old and partially decommissioned system.

Given that taking the old compressor completely out of service for the swap will completely remove the supply of air to the instrument air system, and that in parallel we have the Kobelco running, I have tapped into the outlet of the Kobelco (post-dryer). In the past this has fed the manifold for the TMDS system but is currently not in use.

Using a basic off the shelf air regulator behind a ball valve, I have set the feed pressure at ~70psi. An analog gauge on the instrument air piping reinforced this. As this is very much a temporary system, between this new addition and the instrument airline is a basic compressor hose connected via quick disconnect fittings.

In conjunction with re-routing the supply air, I have valved out the feed line from the old compressor inside the Mechanical Room. This does two things; First, it will prevent us from unnecessarily charging the line from the mechanical room back to the chiller yard. And two, will allow us to monitor the behavior of the old compressor over the weekend whilst demand is lifted from it. With demand lifted and the blow-down disabled, should we see any activity from the compressor, we know there is most likely a leak between the two points and will require further investigation.


Attached photos of the connections between Kobelco>IA and compressor runtime at time of blowdown disable.

R. McCarthy G. Moreno J. Csizmazia T. Guidry