Jaguar Land Rover, Solihull - UK

Project details

Industries

Automotive manufacturing

Products

Condair MC, Condair ME, Condair MES2

Humidification at Jaguar Land Rover in Solihull, UK

Condair has supplied and installed four evaporative humidification systems to Jaguar Land Rover for use in its exhaust emissions testing facility at the company’s Product Compliance Center in Solihull. The evaporative humidifiers provide humidity control to two rolling-road engine test cells to ensure compliance with international environmental parameters.

Jaguar Land Rover carries out quality control tests on every vehicle before it is dispatched. The strict exhaust emission testing must be carried out within a temperature range of 68 to 86°F and a moisture level between 38.5 and 85.4 grains/lb dry air.

More about Condair evaporative systems

The evaporative humidifiers are replacing several electric steam humidifiers that were proving costly for Jaguar Land Rover to operate in terms of energy and parts. The humidification systems provided by Condair offers much lower running costs without the high maintenance inherent in steam systems.

An evaporative humidifier consists of an evaporative module located inside an air handling unit with an external control panel. The evaporative module is a fully bonded particle-free matrix through which the air passes. Water is delivered to the top of the matrix and flows down its corrugated surface. As air passes through, it increases in humidity and is cooled.

Rather than heating water with electricity to create steam, as the previous electric steam humidifiers did at Jaguar Land Rover, the air prior to the evaporative humidifier is heated by a gas-fired boiler. The warm dry air then absorbs moisture from the humidifier to reach the set humidity. The same amount of overall energy is required but the economy of using gas rather than electricity as a heat source makes the energy cost around 60% less than electric steam humidifiers.

Evaporative humidifiers can operate on mains or demineralized water and can be located in short sections of an AHU as it provides instant evaporation. Unlike steam humidifiers that need regular maintenance to combat scale build-up, the scale that is left behind after evaporation from the matrix is simply washed to drain, reducing maintenance and operating costs.

Condair in Action

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