Shell Lubricants’ manufacturing
plant at Stanlow uses compressed air
in important stages of the production
process. Engineers at the plant were
concerned that compressors and
dessicant dryers were being asked to
operate beyond their service life and
called in Thorite for advice.

Thorite’s engineering design team
carried out a power logging exercise
to determine compressed air usage
patterns. This indicated that the
three existing compressors, each
supported by a dessicant dryer, were
operating far from efficiently.

Thorite’s solution was to install an
HPC DSD202SFC oil-flooded,
variable speed compressor, powerful
enough to run the main plant under
all load demands, but supported by
two of the original compressors for
emergency backup. Thorite also
installed an HPC Hybritec Dryer to
replace three dessicant dryers. This
has an intelligent control system that
oversees both a refrigerant dryer and
a dessicant dryer, neatly packaged on
a compact skid mounting. It allows
either the refrigerant or dessicant
dryers to maintain a set dewpoint,
giving minimal power consumption
and high compressed air purity.

Thorite also installed a SAM4
controller with full visualisation.