The plant air system has a large condensation tank for collecting moisture from several dryers that drain into it. Every few months, build-up in its drain line causes a blockage. Sometimes, the weight of the condensate will flush this out, sometimes it won’t. When it won’t, the condensate backs up into the dryers and causes big problems.
The plant engineer wants to minimize the need to manually unplug the line, but wants an alarm to sound “before the level gets too high.” He wants you to design and install a high-level alarm system that will meet both criteria. Should you implement this solution or suggest another one?
This is really a flow problem. During fairly low humidity periods, the flow of condensate from the dryers isn’t sufficient to clean the drain line. With sufficient flow, this problem won’t exist.
That’s one thing the plant engineer missed. The other is he has a condensate tank that, if utilized properly, will provide the necessary flow. This requires modifying his initial solution.
Have the mechanics install a suitable drain valve that’s solenoid-operated and outfit this tank with a level switch float port if it does not already have one. Install a dual-level switch; it will operate the valve and secondly (as a backup) operate the alarm.
