Performance map of the hydraulic air compressor (HAC) installed at Dynamic Earth, Sudbury

Abstract

After a 6-month construction phase, the approximately 30m high hydraulic air compressor (HAC) demonstrator facility installed at the Dynamic Earth science centre in Sudbury was officially opened on June 21, 2017. For the first time in the open literature, this paper presents experimental results from a large scale hydraulic air compressor, which proves their performance as an energy efficiency technology for industrial air compression. The temperature rise of air compressed in the HAC downcomer has been repeatedly measured at around 0.010K, experimentally confirming the process to be nearly isothermal. The ratio of mass flow air at intake to mass flow of air at output peaked at 94% for the conditions tested. The theoretical peak efficiency of compression for HAC Demonstrator geometry (predicted to be nearly 73%) was only attained when an in-line air–water mixing system replaced a century-old air–water mixing head design.