WO2020084639A1

WO2020084639A1 - System and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum

Info

Publication number: WO2020084639A1
Application number: PCT/IN2019/050787
Authority: WO
Inventors: Siddharth Dineshbhai RAJVANSHI
Original assignee: Technik Spirits Inc.
Priority date: 2018-10-27
Filing date: 2019-10-25
Publication date: 2020-04-30

Abstract

A System and Method for Generating Compressed Air and/or Gas and/or Vacuum 5 The present invention relates to a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum from a single unified set up of modular components. The system according to present invention comprises a plurality of compressors modules (102), pressure vessels (104), dryer (106), 10 filters (108), pressure regulators (110), and control system (112). In present invention, plurality of compressor modules (102) are operated and controlled by the control system (112) to produce compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as per requirement. The system according to present invention is integrated, modular, redundant and scalable so that the numbers of the 15 modules can be increased or decreased as per demand. Further, the compressor modules (102) are operated in such a manner that multiple pressure requirements can be fulfilled for compressed air, gas and vacuum without using any separate pressure generating system. 20

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING COMPRESSED AIR AND/OR GAS AND/OR VACUUM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum generation and more particularly it relates to a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum using integrated, modular, scalable and redundant approach.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Various industries such as medical equipment industry, pharmaceutical industry, energy industry and manufacturing facilities all utilize compressed air in their daily operations to produce many goods and services of which everyone became accustomed to. However, in such industries, the air compression systems are the noisiest equipment. There are options available in the market with a sound absorbing enclosure which adds to the cost of the equipment. Even with the sound absorbing enclosure, they are the noisiest equipment in said industries. Because of the large volume of air handled in a traditional compressed air/gas, they waste a lot of input electricity into heat. Current systems generate a lot of heat. Also, the compressed air/gas/vacuum systems are often the most or one of the most energy consuming equipment across industries. There is a dire need for more energy efficient technologies. Most of the traditional compressors/pumps, unless equipped with a variable frequency drive (VFD), have only two states - ON & OFF. There is lot of short cycling affecting the life of the machine unless properly sized. The ones which equipped with the variable frequency drive (VFD) are exorbitantly costly. There is no active consideration of the actual requirement and demand during the operation of system. Mostly, all systems turn on and off based on a pre-selected pressure band. Some high capacity systems are equipped with unloading mechanism but that does not help much with saving electricity. They have a very bulky design and require a lot of space for installation. Most of the compressors/vacuum pumps employ reciprocating piston(s) and because of bulky design, they generate a lot of vibrations. Further, they have the most intense vibrations out of all the other installed equipment in almost all the industries. Thus, they require heavy foundation and involve civil work. Because of the bulky design, the components are transported individually on site and then assembled. This wastes a lot of time to get the equipment up and running on site. For critical applications like medical, one or a plurality of redundant compressors and other components i.e. dryers, filters etc are installed which are prone to failure. Such redundant components add to the space required, connected electric load, initial cost, operation and maintenance costs.

Traditional systems are not scalable as plurality of big compressors is used for critical applications depending on the criticality of the application, where one operates as the main unit, while the others are used as a backup in case of any event of failure or downtime of the main unit. The big compressors and the other components in a traditional system have a typical life cycle of 10 years if properly maintained. More often than not, the demand of equipment requiring compressed air/gas/vacuum to operate would increase over a period of time as the organization would grow. Traditional systems are typically sized with a hefty amount of future provision to accommodate future increase in demand. This sizing strategy keeps the equipment underutilized until its full capacity is reached over the years. Also, sizing the equipment in the above scenario is hypothetical since the future can not be predicted. It might occur that the demand increases quite early than anticipated or the equipment would never be fully utilized in it's entire lifetime.

The requirement of compressed air/gas/vacuum varies drastically across different industries and different sizes of organizations. Looking at the current traditional systems available in the market, there are at least 10 different models available in each of different kinds of compressors/pumps under 30 HP to cater to these varied requirements, where 10 different models means 10 different designs. This unnecessarily adds to the time and efforts required in manufacturing, inventory management, design process, and most importantly the cost. The time cycle of the dryers and/or gas generators in traditional systems are based on a standard time cycle and fail to account for the demand. This approach of completely neglecting the demand wastes lots of energy. In traditional PSA/VSA/VPSA systems (dryers or gas generators), there is not approach if the compressor and dryer are integrated as one unit. Traditionally, a separate vacuum pump is employed for VS A/VPS A system. In many industries, there is a requirement of more than one product i.e. compressed air, gas, and/or vacuum. With the traditional technologies available, there would be separate systems for each product. There is no known system which delivers multiple products from a unified system. Multiple and separate systems handling and generating multiple products unnecessarily add to the space required, electric load connection, initial cost, operation, and maintenance costs.

In many applications like medical, pharmaceutical, laboratories, etc., there is a need of more than one pressure bands in some applications or processes which require low pressure air and some applications or processes which require a higher pressure air. Usually, the entire compressor run on a higher pressure band to generate high pressure air and then the pressure reducers are employed to selectively reduce the pressure. This works well but is an energy in-efficient way. Further, in medical application, usually there is a requirement of compressed air at two separate pressures i.e. 4 bar and 7 bar, where 4 bar is used as breathing air via ventilators, anesthesia machines, and similar equipment and 7 bar is used in central sterile supply department (CSSD) in ETO sterilizers to puncture ETO cartridges, and for blow drying of the medical and surgical tools and instruments, etc, and as surgical air to power surgical instruments such as orthopedic tools, etc. The requirement of 7 bar pressure is quite minuscule and very intermittent and 4 bar is majorly required. Currently, they have a single system generating 7 bar pressure and later on, with pressure reducers, they reduce rest of the compressed air to 4 bar. This way works but is very inefficient in terms of electricity consumption, and need to install a heavy duty compressor to generate the higher pressure. Various prior arts have been disclosed describing the compressed air system and gas generation system. The prior art document W02008025938A1 disclosing a modular compressor unit which has separate sections for the compressor, the controls and the air intake. The modular compressor unit comprises three separate adjoining sections, being an intake section, a compression section and a control section. This document does not address the modular, scalable, redundant and integrated approach in any way, and there is no any complete compressed air and/or vacuum and/or gas system.

The another prior art document US6332917B1 describing a processing system for the preparation of compressed air made up of individual units, such as a filter unit, a control unit, an oiler unit and/or the like. The individual units are connected to each other by means of a system bus. It also provides for an interface by which the system bus is operatively linked with the customer bus, which in turn can be connected to a control device. Moreover, the further prior art document US2007245896A1 describing about a modular nitrogen generator including a housing including a bracket and defining an interior space, a flow path having an inlet adapted to receive compressed air and an outlet.

However, abovementioned conventional air compression and gas generation system are complex in nature and do not apparently describe about the modularity, scalability, redundancy and integrated approach which adds to the space required, electric load connection, initial cost, and operation and maintenance costs. Hence, a need exists in the art for an integrated, modular, redundant and scalable system that is capable of generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum according to the requirement from a single unified set up of modular components. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The main object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum that overcomes the limitations and drawbacks associated with conventional air compressor system in terms of consumption of electricity, structure complexity, investment, maintenance cost, and scalability.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum which is capable of producing compressed air, gas and vacuum without using separate system for air, gas and vacuum. Further object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum which ensures scalability such that any numbers of compressor modules are added or removed to the system based on requirement.

Yet, the further object of the present invention is to provide system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum which increases overall system efficiency by providing increments or decrements of compressor capacity that are more precisely matched to system load changes.

Still, another object of the present invention is to provide system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum which is facilitated to replace the failed modules without interruption during working of entire system.

Further object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum which provides multiple pressure output without using separate pressure system. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum which does not require the back up module for redundancy. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum which is modular and scalable. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum which is cost effective, easily portable, less noisy and require less installation time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum from a single unified set up of modular components. The system according to present invention comprises a plurality of compressors modules, a plurality of pressure vessels, a plurality of dryer, a plurality of filters, a plurality of pressure regulators, and a control system. In the present invention, plurality of compressor modules are operated and controlled by the control system to produce compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as per requirement. The system according to present invention is integrated, modular, redundant and scalable so that the numbers of the modules can be increased or decreased as per demand. Further, the compressor modules are operated in such a manner that multiple pressure requirements can be fulfilled for compressed air, gas and vacuum without using any separate pressure generating system. The system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum of present invention provides multifold benefits to the end users which are described in the following pages of specification. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 illustrates the main components of a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of the construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawing. The invention is capable of other embodiment, as depicted in figure as described above and of being practiced or carried out in a variety of ways. It is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. It is also to be understood that the term "comprises" and grammatical equivalents thereof are used herein to mean that other components, ingredients, steps, etc. are optionally present. For example, an article "comprising" (or "which comprises") components A, B, and C can consist of (i.e., contain only) components A, B, and C, or can contain not only components A, B, and C but also contain one or more other components.

The present invention discloses a system and method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum. Now, according to the present invention, the system and method particularly relates with integrated, modular, scalable and redundant approach for generating air and/or gas and/or vacuum as shown in accompanying drawing. In Fig. 1, a system (100) for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum is shown which comprising a plurality of small compressor modules (102) working in tandem is integrated together in the system (100) to generate the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum, a plurality of pressure vessels (104) to store the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum, a plurality of dryers (106) to remove moisture from the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum, a plurality of filters (108) to remove solid particles or any other contaminants from the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum, a plurality of pressure regulators (110) to regulate and adjust pressure of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum before final delivery to pipeline, and a control system (112) to control, operate, coordinate, monitor and analyze the modular and integrated components of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum generation system according to the present invention. According to an embodiment of present invention, the system encompasses arrangement of the compressor modules (102) in a varied number depending on the capacity and type, for instance, in one embodiment each of the plurality of compressor modules (102) is of the same capacity and same type while in another embodiment, the compressor modules (102) are of different capacity but same type, and/or same capacity but different type. Further in other embodiment, the compressor modules (102) are of different capacity and different type. The capacity range of the compressor modules (102) is from 0.1 to 100 HP. The types of the compressor modules (102) include lubricated or oil-flooded modules, oil-free modules etc. The plurality of the compressor modules (102) run in any number of stages and operate by any mechanism such as reciprocating, rocking piston or screw, scroll, rotary vane etc. In some embodiments, several or all of the compressors modules (102) can be engaged simultaneously. In other embodiments, the compressor modules (102) can be run in sequence. The tandem compressor modules (102), when activated in sequence, can be deactivated in sequence as well or shut off simultaneously. Further, the electric motor of the compressor modules (102) can be one of an integrated motor, a belt driven motor, an engine driven motor and any other prime mover driven motor. Further, the speed of the electric motor can be a fixed speed, a variable speed or a mix of a fixed and variable speed.

Now, proceeding further towards the system operation as shown in Fig. 1, the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum generated by the compressor modules (102) passes to the pressure vessel (104), wherein the pressure vessel (104) stores the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum. The pressure vessel (104) can be a single unit or a plurality of pressure vessel units working in tandem or individually. The capacity of the pressure vessel (104) ranges from 5 liters to 10,000 liters. The pressure vessel (104) is of a cylindrical shape. The compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum then pass through the filter (108) to remove solid particles or any other contaminants before moving towards the dryer (106). The compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum are then received by the dryer (106) for removing moisture. The different types of the dryers (106) include a refrigerant, desiccant (heatless, heated or heat of compression), membrane, thermoelectric etc. The dryer (106) can be a single unit or a plurality of dryer units working in tandem or individually. The dried and compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum from the dryer (106) then pass again through the filters (108). Here, the filter (108) is configured to remove any solid, liquid or any other kinds of contaminants from the dried and compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum. The types of the filter (108) include a solid particles filter, a moisture separator or cyclone separator filter, an oil filter, and a bacteria (sterile) filter. The filtration ratings of the filter (108) can be of 5, 3, 1, 0.1, 0.01 microns.

The system (100) further comprises the pressure regulator (110) configured to adjust and regulate the pressure of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum before the final delivery towards pipeline or further process. The pressure regulators (110) work on different pressures such as one of the pressure regulators (110) can be used as a backup pressure regulator, one of the pressure regulators (110) can be a single unit or a plurality of the pressure regulators (110) working in tandem or individually. Furthermore, the system (100) comprises the control system (112) including a logic mechanism configured to operate the plurality of compressor modules (102) as per the demand, where the demand is in real-time. The control system (112) is also configured to switch over the load to one or more backup modules in case of failure of any compressor module(s) from the plurality of compressor modules (102). The control system (112) further includes sensing mechanisms including a pressure switches, a pressure sensors and flow sensors of different types and categories. The control system (112) is controlled by a single start/stop button and further controlled by a rate of change of pressure of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum. The control system (112) employs any control mechanism such as a programmable logic controller, a microcontroller or any other type of controller.

According to an embodiment of present invention, the major aspects of modularity are described herein such that the plurality of compressor modules (102), the pressure vessel (104), the dryers (106), the filters (108), the pressure regulators (110) etc. are connected in series to deliver a better product in terms of pressure, purity, etc. The aforesaid system components are connected in parallel to deliver more products in terms of higher flow rates. The aforesaid system components are connected in parallel for redundancy and/or for scalability. Further, the aforesaid system components with some connected in parallel and some connected in series to deliver better product and/or more products for redundancy and/or scalability. It also can be connected in any other conceivable possible pattern. In the present invention, the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum is generated through a modular approach, where the compressor modules (102), the pressure vessels (104), the dryers (106), the filters (108), and the pressure regulators (110) are configured with the control system (112) such that the aforesaid system components are divided to generate required compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as per demand. The system components are operated through the control system (112) in such a manner that the rate of change of pressure is maintained as zero or close to zero so that supply matches with the demand. Furthermore, the system components are operated to achieve separate pressure requirement, hence a pressure booster (not shown) is employed in the present invention. The pressure booster is also known as pressure amplifier or pressure intensifier which selectively raises the pressure of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as per requirements. Moreover, separate low pressure and high pressure system components are mounted on a single frame with common or separate filters, dryers and other accessories according to the present invention. In some embodiments, the system (100) and the pressure booster share the same compressor modules (102), the dryers (106), the filters (108) and other accessories. After the low pressure compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum is generated, dried and filtered, a desired portion of clean compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum is fed to the pressure booster to generate the desired higher pressure and both the outputs leave the common frame separately. In other embodiment, the system (100) and the pressure booster have separate compressor modules (102), the dryers (106), the filters (108) and other accessories, but all are mounted on the common frame and together everything is a unified system. The pressure booster is a full featured compressor module receiving low pressure compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as an input and generating higher pressure compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum. The pressure boosters can be pneumatically or hydraulically driven, and can be of single stage or a plurality of stages.

The modular approach employed as encompassed by the present invention ensures the redundancy such that the small compressor modules (102) are used depending upon the criticality of the application, for example, only a small number of compressor modules (102) are required where the application involved is not critical. This eradicates the need to unnecessarily maintain a backup of the entire set of large compressor modules for redundancy. The redundancy achieved by the present technique ensures that in case the compressor module (102) happens to fail, another redundant compressor module becomes operational and further in a case where the multiple compressor modules (102) happen to fail, the system (100) can still be operational in lieu of remaining compressor modules (102).

The modular approach of the compressor modules further ensures scalability such that any number of compressor modules (102) is added to the system (100) as and when required depending upon the growth in demand, without having to invest and install a big system in the beginning. Similarly, it provides flexibility to remove one or more compressor modules (102) from the plurality of compressor modules (102) in the event the demand decreases over time. The modular approach also facilitates ease in the manufacturing, inventory, and assembly of compressor modules (102) where each of the plurality of compressor modules (102) is of same capacity and type. Such modular approach of compressor modules (102) also achieves improvement in the overall efficiency of the system by facilitating increment or decrement in the capacity of the compressor modules (102) as required in accordance with the demand.

Further, according to present invention, the compressor modules (102) are divided in separate low pressure and high pressure modules with common or separate pressure vessels (104), filters (108), dryers (106) and other accessories as per requirement. Thus, the compressor modules (102) with the pressure vessels (104), dryers (106), filters (108), pressure regulators (110) etc. are operated by the control system (112) as per requirement by considering various factors like, sensor data, an IOT/cloud based monitoring system, load factors system, flow rate etc.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the construction of the components of the system (100) is in modular and integrated manner. The components are mounted on a single frame to enable ease of material handling, transportation and installation of the system. One of the features of integrated construction is to reduce the installation time on site to zero. The components of the system (100) are assembled, mounted, wired and piped at the factory itself. Another feature of integrated construction is single point electric connection and single point compressed air output from the system (100). Also, the components of the system (100) can be divided and mounted on separate frames. The integrated construction of the system (100) makes it possible to relocate the system (100) quite easily. Furthermore, in another embodiment, the frame is made up of modular elements such as slotted angle, extruded aluminum profiles (t slot), strut, channels etc. and their respective fittings. The modular nature of the frame also makes it possible to mount, dismount, and rearrange the components of the system (100) as required and anywhere on the frame. The frame can also be of simple metal adjoined by processes such as welding, brazing, bolting, interlocks, etc. One of the features of the modular nature of the frame is the expansion i.e. ability to adjust or alter the height, width and depth of the frame during the manufacturing process or later in the future if required. The modular nature also makes it possible to assemble, disassemble, or rearrange the frame. The frame of the system (100) is enclosed in an enclosure made of metal, polymer, or any other material with or without a lining of acoustic absorber or diffuser material on the inner side so as to reduce noise and prevent ingress of solid particles, dust, etc. from entering inside the system (100).

According to an embodiment of present invention, various electrical control systems and control strategies are used to control, operate, coordinate, monitor and analyze the modular and integrated compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum generation system (100). The main purpose of the control logic is to:

1) Operate, as required, a plurality of control valves across the system wherein the following process/methods/systems are employed:

o Hot swapping of failed compressor modules (102) without shut down of the entire system

o A combination system wherein the compressor modules (102) are shared across compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum generation system (100)

2) Identify the failed or about to fail compressor modules (102) and cut them off from the sequence,

3) Generate alarms (SMS/email) in case of any failure of a compressor module (102) or requirement of maintenance,

4) Determine the components which require maintenance and the maintenance type based on historical data and/or predictive maintenance strategies, and 5) In case of a combination system wherein the compressor modules (102) are shared by multiple systems generating multiple products, assign particular number of compressor modules (102) required for compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum generation system (100) and varying them as per individual demands.

The main purpose of the strategy of the operation is to keep the pressure roughly constant whilst operating minimum number of compressor modules (102). In other words, maintaining supply with the demand while operating the exact number of compressor modules (102). In other words, when and based on what a module would turn on and when a module would turn off. Yet in other words, maintaining the rate of change of pressure (DR or dP/dt) as zero or close to zero so that supply matches with the demand. There are various ways which are described in the present invention to achieve this:

1) Based on Pressure:

o All the compressor modules (102) are manually switched ON and OFF o All the compressor modules (102) are simultaneously turned ON and OFF on fixed set points e.g. all compressor modules (102) start at 4 bar and stop at 6 bar. A time delay between the starting and stopping of the modules can be incorporated.

o Separate set points for each compressor module i.e. each compressor module (102) have an individual ON and OFF set point according to which they turn ON and OFF. o Common set point for all the compressor modules i.e. the compressor modules (102) can be added or removed from the operation loop based on a common set point. The compressor modules (102) can be incremented or decremented based on common set point.

2) Based on rate of change of pressure:

If the DR is a positive number, the supply is more than the demand. If the DR is zero, the supply is exactly equal to the demand. If the DR is a negative number, the supply is less than the demand. The purpose of the present invention is to keep the DR as zero. And based on the quantification of the rate of change of pressure, the number of compressor modules (102) is directly assigned to meet supply with the demand.

3) Based on flow:

At least one flow meter can be employed right at the outlet of the discharge manifold of the compressor modules (102) or at the final outlet of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum system (100). The control system (112) in communication with the flow meter decides the number of modules to be run. One of the ways to achieve this is by employing a PID controller (not shown) in communication with a flow meter relaying the flow of compressed air to the PID controller.

4) PID controller: The abovementioned PID controller can be employed for receiving the process values from a pressure and/or flow sensors. And based on the process value and a pre-defined set value, the PID controller decides the number of compressor modules (102) to be run. Alternatively, the individual PID controller with pressure and/or flow sensors can be employed for each compressor module (102) or system module and which in turn is controlled by a master control system employing a master PID loop.

The entire compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum generation system (100) have a common and central control system. The plurality of system components such as the filters (108), the dryers (106) etc. have individual control systems. The individual component control system operates the individual system component and further, all the individual component control systems can be in communication with each other so as to take the system decisions. In other iteration, the individual control systems can be in communication with a central control system which takes the system decisions.

The same concept applies to a gas generator system where molecular sieves are used instead of desiccant media inside the towers. And a gas analyzer is employed instead of dew point sensors which constantly measure the concentration of the gas coming out of the gas generator system. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a gas generation system (not shown) having a plurality of the gas generator modules is located at downstream of the pressure regulators (110). There is a plurality of gas generation or separation techniques such as adsorption, pressure swing, vacuum swing, vacuum pressure swing, membrane, etc. available which separates oxygen/nitrogen from the compressed air, flushes out the undesired gas and delivers the remaining gas as an output. Various useful gases that can be separated from air are Nitrogen, Oxygen, Zero Air, etc. The core idea of the modular compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum system (100) combined with the gas generation system of a modular nature is that the entire system is modular and scalable, and the entire system is mounted on a common frame and integrated. There is different configurations are possible i.e. a plurality of the gas generator modules can be connected in series to deliver a better purity of gas, a plurality of the gas generator modules can be connected in parallel to deliver more products in terms of higher flow rates, a plurality of the gas generator modules can be connected in parallel for redundancy and/or for scalability, and a plurality of the gas generator modules with some connected in parallel and some connected in series to deliver desired better purity and higher flow rates and/or for redundancy and/or for scalability. The gas generation system can also accommodate the pressure booster to boost generated gas to a higher pressure to fill cylinders or for any other applications requiring a higher pressure than generated pressure. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum system (100) and the gas generation system share the same compressor modules (102), the dryers (106), the filters (108) and other accessories. After the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum is generated, dried and filtered, a desired portion of clean compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum is fed to the gas generator modules to generate the desired the gas and an output of both compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum and desired gas leave from the common frame separately. According to another embodiment, the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum system and the gas generation system have the separate compressor modules (102), the dryers (106), the filters (108) and the other accessories but everything is mounted on a common frame and together everything is a unified system. Moreover, there is a need for oxygen/nitrogen gas or zero air along with compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum at a single location. The application such as equipment in a hospital like medical ventilators, anaesthesia workstations, BiPAP blend a ratio of air to oxygen and force feed it to the patient's lungs. Usually, air is supplied by medical air systems and oxygen is delivered by high pressure cylinders. The modular system of the present invention supplies both i.e. medical grade compressed air and medical grade oxygen from a single frame. Alternatively, separate systems for medical grade air and medical oxygen can also be installed, where both are modular and integrated in nature. In pharmaceutical application, the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum and nitrogen are needed for a variety of processes. In laboratories, the compressed air, nitrogen, zero air and oxygen are needed in some rare cases. The exact concept applies to a vacuum swing adsorption systems wherein the amount of time for which the towers are vacuumed depends on the number of compressor modules employed. Further, the system according to present invention also include features like generating the vacuum i.e. multiple cylinders handling multiple products, dual output from a single compressor/pump, using standby compressor as a vacuum pump for adsorbent towers, common vacuum pump for all the adsorbent towers, suction port as a vacuum source etc.

According to an embodiment of present invention, multiple compressor modules (102) have multiple air intakes and multiple outputs, for which two manifolds i.e. suction & discharge have been installed. The main purpose of employing the manifolds is combining the several inputs/outputs in one. All the suction ports of the compressor modules (102) are connected to suction manifold and ultimately to a common suction filter. Similarly, all discharge ports are connected to a discharge manifold. The discharge manifold further employs a NRV (Non-Return-Valve) to limit the flow only in one direction and ball valves which enables cutting-off a particular compressor module from the system (100) whilst not affecting the overall output of the system (100). Another aspect of the idea is that the scalability becomes easy with the manifolds. A provision is employed which includes the couplings with ball valves in the manifolds that allows to increase or decrease the capacity of the system (100) i.e. add or remove compressor/dryer modules without shutting down the whole system (100).

According to an embodiment of present invention, the compressor/vacuum pump usually has multiple cylinders, unless it's a single cylinder compressor/vacuum pump. The different cylinders are configured for the same compressor/vacuum pump to handle multiple products i.e. air and/or gas and/or vacuum. For example, a twin cylinder compressor is configured to compress air or boost gas in one cylinder and it generate vacuum in another cylinder. This is particularly useful in industries like medical wherein the compressed air, compressed gas (oxygen) and/or vacuum are simultaneously required. The aforesaid idea can be employed in some or all of the compressor modules (102). The control valves can be used when one type e.g. vacuum is achieved to direct the output to atmosphere or cut-off the supply port through the control valve so as to not over-achieve the product and stress the equipment. According to an embodiment of present invention, the compressor/vacuum pump is configured to create vacuum on the suction side while simultaneously providing compressed air on the other. The filter(s) also included between the vacuum vessel and compressor/vacuum pump to filter out any contaminants from entering the compressor/vacuum pump and further on the compressed air side.

According to an embodiment of present invention, the existing standby compressor modules are used instead of having a dedicated vacuum pump for the regeneration cycle of a VSA or VPS A desiccant dryers/gas generators. The control valves are employed to switch the suction and discharge ports. This method is used for extracting the waste gas from the membrane dryer as well. Also, this is applicable to the multiple twin towers handling multiple products i.e. air, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, zero air. The common compressor acts as a vacuum source between multiple twin towers handling multiple products.

According to an embodiment of present invention, at least one vacuum pump is used which acts as a common vacuum source between all the VSA, VPSA adsorbent towers in the desiccant dryer/gas generator/gas purification modules. However, the multiple vacuum pumps can be used as well. This is particularly applicable to a single location employing multiple systems for multiple products i.e. air, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, zero air, etc. This method is used for extracting the waste gas from the membrane dryer.

The major benefits of the modular approach of compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum generation system (100) according to present invention is ability of only the number of compressor modules (102) required to meet the supply with the demand. Each compressor module (102) have a known flow rate and based on the number of compressors running, the flow rate can be deduced being generated by the compressor modules (102) and in turn the compressed air entering the desiccant dryer when the tower is saturated and need regeneration. In other words, the time cycle of switching the dryers (106) can directly be decided based on the number of compressor modules (102) running. There is no requirement of the flow meters and the dew point sensors which are expensive. The invention has been explained in relation to specific embodiment. It is inferred that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present invention and it is not intended that the invention be limited or restrictive thereto. Many other specific embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the foregoing disclosure. All substitution, alterations and modification of the present invention which come within the scope of the following claims are to which the present invention is readily susceptible without departing from the spirit of the invention. The scope of the invention should therefore be determined not with reference to the above description but should be determined with reference to appended claims along with full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Claims

We Claim:

1. A system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum, comprising:

a plurality of small compressor modules (102) working in tandem to generate a compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum;

a plurality of pressure vessels (104) to store the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum;

a plurality of dryers (106) to remove a moisture from the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum;

a plurality of filters (108) to remove a solid, a liquid or any other kinds of contaminants from the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum;

a plurality of pressure regulators (110) to regulate and adjust pressure of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum before final delivery to pipeline; and

a control system (112) to control, operate, coordinate, monitor and analyze the modular and integrated components of the system (100),

characterized in that, the plurality of compressor modules (102), the pressure vessel (104), the dryers (106), the filters (108), the pressure regulators (110), and the control system (112) are integrated together in the system (100), and are connected in series to deliver a better product in terms of pressure and purity; or are connected in parallel to deliver more products in terms of higher flow rates; or are connected in parallel for redundancy and scalability; or with connected in parallel and series combination to deliver better product and more products for redundancy and scalability, wherein the plurality of compressor modules (102), the pressure vessel (104), the dryers (106), the filters (108), the pressure regulators (110), and the control system (112) are mounted on a single frame,

wherein the frame is made up of modular elements such as slotted angle, extruded aluminum profiles, strut, channels and their respective fittings.

2. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein the compressor modules (102) are hot swappable.

3. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein the frame is expandable with respect to height, width and depth of the frame.

4. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pressure regulators (110) work on different pressure, and it is a single unit or a plurality of the pressure regulators (110) working in tandem or individually.

5. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control system (112) includes a logic mechanism configured to operate the plurality of compressor modules (102) as per the demand, where the demand is in real-time.

6. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control system (112) is configured to switch over the load to one or more backup modules in case of failure of any compressor module from the plurality of compressor modules (102).

7. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control system (112) is controlled by a single start/stop button and further controlled by a rate of change of pressure of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum.

8. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein a pressure booster is employed to achieve separate pressure requirement.

9. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein the each compressor module (102) includes one or more cylinders.

10. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cylinders in each compressor module (102) are configured to compress the air or boost the gas and vacuum simultaneously.

11. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, wherein filter is positioned between vacuum vessel and compressor/vacuum pump to filter out any contaminants from entering the compressor/vacuum pump and further on the compressed air side.

12. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, includes a standby compressor modules for the regeneration cycle of a VSA or VPS A desiccant dryers/gas generators.

13. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 1, includes at least one vacuum pump acts as a common vacuum source between all the VSA, VPSA adsorbent towers in the desiccant dryer/gas generator/gas purification modules.

14. A method for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum, comprising the steps of:

a) generating a compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum by a plurality of small compressor modules (102) working in tandem;

b) storing the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum by a plurality of pressure vessels (104);

c) removing a moisture from the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum by a plurality of dryers (106);

d) removing a solid, a liquid or any other kinds of contaminants from the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum by a plurality of filters (108);

e) regulating and adjusting pressure of the compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum by a plurality of pressure regulators (110) before final delivery to pipeline; and f) controlling, operating, coordinating, monitoring and analyzing the modular and integrated components of the system (100) by a control system (112).

15. A system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum, comprising:

characterized in that, a gas generation system is located at downstream of the pressure regulators (110) to separate oxygen/nitrogen from the compressed air, seperates out the undesired gas and delivers the remaining gas as an output,

wherein the gas generation system having a plurality of the gas generator modules.

16. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 15, wherein the gas generation system comprising a plurality of gas generation or separation techniques such as adsorption, pressure swing, vacuum swing, vacuum pressure swing, and membrane.

17. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 15, wherein the plurality of gas generator modules are connected in series to deliver a better purity of gas.

18. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 15, wherein the plurality of gas generator modules are connected in parallel to deliver more products in terms of higher flow rates.

19. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 15, wherein the plurality of gas generator modules are connected in parallel for redundancy and scalability.

20. The system for generating compressed air and/or gas and/or vacuum as claimed in claim 15, wherein the plurality of gas generator modules with some connected in parallel and some connected in series to deliver desired better purity and higher flow rates and/or for redundancy and/or for scalability.