Transforming Air Dryer Design and Performance, Atlas Copco Introduces Cerades™ — the First-Ever Solid Desiccant

Atlas Copco is introducing Cerades™, its revolutionary, patented desiccant for compressed air dryers. As the first-ever solid, ceramic desiccant, Cerades offers operators of compressed air significantly better air quality, lowering pressure drops by up to 70%, with improved energy efficiency, lower service costs, and improved environmental benefits.

The technological advancement represented by Cerades is the result of Atlas Copco’s extensive research and development aimed at radically improving desiccant dryer design, efficiency and performance. The vibration resistant Cerades desiccant, enables trouble-free installation and continuous operation in rigorous applications such as ones commonly found in the transportation industry.

Cerades is designed to deliver significant savings by streamlining the flow of the compressed air through a desiccant dryer. Compressed air flows directly through Cerades’ straight-structured tubes, as opposed to pushing its way through the thousands of separate beads found in loose desiccant. This no-resistance flow means the air experiences a smaller pressure drop as it travels through the dryer, significantly lowering the energy cost of operation.

“Cerades really represents a quantum leap in dryer performance and maintenance,” says Trey Ragsdale, vice president of industrial air for Atlas Copco Compressors USA. “This is a great example of looking beyond just the product to find a solution and looking at the complete process. Desiccant has not changed in decades, but the new Cerades desiccant outperforms traditional desiccant on every level.”

Cerades’ structural integrity and long lifetime offer a number of operational and environmental benefits to customers. Traditional desiccant decays over time as it bounces around during cycling. This can compromise air quality and necessitate more frequent maintenance. In addition, as loose desiccant decomposes, it releases a fine dust into the air system, which requires extra filtration and maintenance. The solid desiccant eliminates this dust problem, giving users an ISO 8573-1:2010 Class 2 air purity for particles without any extra filtration.

Cerades desiccant lasts on average a minimum of two years longer than traditional desiccant, and under normal operating conditions you would only change Cerades desiccant every seven years. Changing a traditional loose desiccant in a dryer, due to the amount of dust particles, is a time-consuming health and environmental hazard, which is eliminated by Cerades.

The new CD 20-335⁺ (CD⁺) range of more than 30 models are the first dryers where the Cerades desiccant will be used. In addition to the benefits created by the incorporation of Cerades, the CD⁺ is an extremely powerful, efficient, reliable and quiet dryer which can operate continuously with 100% airflow. The CD⁺ range offers a standard-pressure dew point of -40°C/-40°F and users can adjust the dew point to optimize the dryer performance for the needs of their specific applications.

The Elektronikon^® Touch controller is available to be ordered with the CD⁺ series. The touchscreen controller allows users to easily maximize dryer performance and efficiency, even more so in combination with SMARTLINK remote monitoring.

For more information about the Cerades, CD⁺, Elektronikon and other Atlas Copco products and technologies, please visit www.AtlasCopco.com.