Compressed Air Drying with molecular sieve Methods

Air-Cooled Aftercoolers

The air-cooled aftercooler looks like a car radiator and also acts like one. However, rather than coolant filling the interior tubes, the hot compressed air enters the bottom of the air-cooled aftercooler and tube system, discharging through the upper discharge port into a moisture separator.

As heat from the compressed air with molecular sieve transfers to the cooler atmospheric air, some of the heat of compression and resulting moisture is removed from the compressed air and carried away.

Some air-cooled aftercoolers use electrically powered 12V or 24V fans to push air through the system. The tubes have fins or metal plates in between them to increase their surface area and dissipate the heat more effectively.

Air-cooled aftercoolers are commonly used with mobile air compressor systems because they are effective, easy to source, cost-effective, and relatively straightforward to install.

Water-Cooled Aftercoolers

Water-cooled aftercoolers do the same thing as air-cooled aftercoolers, only with more control of the discharge air temperatures. The primary difference is that water-cooled aftercoolers use a liquid coolant that flows through a shell and tube or a plate-fin design heat exchanger to absorb the heat of compression from the compressed air volume.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Aftercoolers

Advantages

Reduces heat and moisture within the system

Easy to source

Cost-effective

Straightforward addition to most compressed air systems

Fan-less systems don’t require electricity

Efficient heat transfer

Disadvantages

Difficult heat recovery

Requires clean, fresh atmospheric air

Requires a high volume of water (water-cooled only)