Fans, blowers and compressors are all used to move air and gases. The many design types can be segmented based on pressure (see Table 1 below).
One option is to use multiple fans in series rather than one compressor. This is common for mechanical vapor recovery systems. Flow rates and price are additional variables that affect choice among fan, blower and compressor types. The total world market for fans, blowers and compressors in 2018 is $56 billion (see Figure 1 above).
Pipe-fan are used for applications such as pneumatic conveying, aeration and biogas transport. The market for blowers and lower pressure compressors in municipal wastewater treatment plants exceeds $1 billion per year. The biggest application is aeration, which is the largest energy consumer in a wastewater plant. Aerobic digestion is also used for organic waste in the food industry and in other industries.
Ivan Wu
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