Is this drier big enough to handle a 200 HP air compressor?

by Rob Sprague
(Winchester, VA)

Is a 400 cfm Refrigerant Air Dryer big enough to handle a 200 HP air compressor?

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Bill says...

Hi Rob:

As a rule of thumb, a 200 HP compressor will discharge about 800 CFM of compressed air at 90 PSI.

So no, a 400 CFM drier won't be big enough if your downstream applications are using the entire output of the compressor.

On the other hand, if the downstream applications are using 200 CFM, then regardless of the compressor output, only 200 CFM of air would flow through the drier, making it suitable.

The problem with an undersized drier is that your compressed air demand will almost always grow to exceed the capacity of the compressor, therefore, in short order, it's likely that you would exceed the capacity of the drier.

Ask yourself (or the drier supplier) what the desired result of the drier is. If the dew point in your plant is higher than normal, then you might be able to work with a smaller drier for awhile.

Even though it costs more, if it were me, I'd make sure to size the drier properly.

Cheers,

Bill