Blowers for Wastewater and Industrial Applications

Blowers are essential to achieving process and energy goals in water resource recovery and industrial systems. This course provides a deep dive into blower technologies, from thermodynamic principles and performance calculations to control strategies and ancillary components. With guidance from an expert with over 40 years of field experience, participants will gain the knowledge needed to specify, operate, and maintain blower systems with confidence.

• Engineers designing or managing blower systems in wastewater or industrial applications.
• Operators, supervisors, and managers responsible for blower system performance and maintenance.
• Consulting engineers, regulatory staff, and federal agency personnel involved in system evaluation or oversight.

The course will be offered as a live online course, with recordings made of each session so that participants can watch them at other times if they are not available at the meeting time. Therefore, this course can be flexible and accommodate a variety of schedules. The course meetings will take place twice a week over a 3-week period, for a total of 6 sessions. Each session will be approximately 1.5 hours.

This course is part of the Wastewater Systems Certificate. Course may be taken individually as well.

 Session 1: Basic Thermodynamics

• Properties of air
• Fundamentals of compression processes
• Terms and Definitions
• Units of Measure
• Specification parameters

Objective: Understanding of the thermodynamic properties of air and their impact on blower system performance.

Significance: Knowledge of these foundational concepts is required for understanding and selecting blower systems and components.

Session 2: Analysis Methods

• Conversion of flow rates
• Determination of pressure
• Friction losses
• Power of compression
• Electric motors and electric power
• Economic evaluation
• Specification parameters

Objective: Proficiency in calculating key performance parameters and evaluating their impact on system design and specification.

Significance: Evaluating these parameters and their deviations is necessary for understanding design constraints, specification of system performance, and evaluating operation.

Session 3: Characteristics of PD Blowers

• Fundamental principles
• Types of PD blowers
• Performance characteristics
• Testing requirements
• Maintenance requirements
• Specification requirements

Objective: Understanding of the key operating characteristics and limitations of PD blowers.

Significance: This type of blower dominates some application segments and understanding them is necessary for successful applications.

Session 4: Characteristics of Centrifugal Blowers

• Fundamental principles
• Types of centrifugal blowers
• Performance characteristics
• Testing requirements
• Maintenance requirements
• Specification requirements

Objective: Understanding of the key operating characteristics and limitations of centrifugal blowers.

Significance: This type of blower is more complex and is growing in market share. Understanding them is necessary for successful applications.

Session 5: Blower Controls

• Common instrumentation
• Blower protection strategies
• Blower control strategies
• Optimization considerations

Objective: Knowledge of control systems, understanding of the process benefits controls can provide.

Significance: Controls have become an important part of blower systems and are necessary for blower optimization. Most suppliers offer integrated control and blower packages.

Session 6: Ancillary Components

• Motors
• Filters
• Enclosures
• Control valves
• Process controls
• Testing

Objective: Familiarity with typical ancillary components necessary for successful system operation.

Significance: Selection of compatible and properly sized ancillary components is essential for insuring that system performance meets operator expectations.

Tom Jenkins

Tom Jenkins co-founded Energy Strategies Corporation (ESCOR) in 1984 and was General Manager until 2007. He was the Chief Design Engineer at Dresser Roots Wastewater Solutions Group (now part of Howden Roots LLC) from 2007 until 2010.

As the owner and President of JenTech Inc., Tom now provides consulting services to the wastewater treatment industry. This includes design and analysis of control systems, aeration systems, energy conservation measures, and blower systems. While specializing in aeration and aeration controls, his services cover related wastewater process systems such as DO control, piping system design, and blower control systems. His experience includes the design and implementation of PLC, SCADA, and telemetry systems. Tom is the author of many articles and books on wastewater aeration and control. He is the chairman of ASME's Performance Test Code 13 Committee and a Fellow of the Water Environment Federation.