Ryan Schmidt, P.E., CEM

Programming covers System Design & Optimization and Maintenance, Reliability & Performance, plus an opening panel, plenary, technical case studies, and special workshops. The opening panel, “The Critical Importance of Industrial Energy & Water Efficiency,” is moderated by Andrew Berger, President, Indiana Manufacturers Association, and Roderick Smith, Publisher, Best Practices Magazines & EXPO. It addresses aligning plant utilities with zero-carbon and energy targets, compressed air and process cooling engineering, and large-scale utility efficiency projects. The plenary pairs a Compressed Air & Gas Institute update from Matt Smith, President, Compressed Air & Gas Institute, with “The Future of Manufacturing,” a keynote by Jake Hall, the Manufacturing Millennial, on workforce retirements, production demands, energy challenges, plant utilities, automation, digital tools, frontline-worker solutions, and AI. Technical sessions address natural-refrigerant heat pumps; chiller plant optimization and free cooling; integrated HVAC, compressed air, lighting, controls, and waste-heat recovery; multi-variable-speed-drive compressor controls; low-pressure and intermittent air demand; thermodynamic analysis and hidden energy losses; utility incentives and measurement and verification; demand-side substitution of compressed air; compressed-air auditing and on-site nitrogen generation; food, beverage, and pharmaceutical compressed-air safety; operational discipline and industrial energy management; reliability, maintenance, cooling-tower upkeep, oil carryover, process cooling, and chiller design. Special workshops cover compressed-air Treasure Hunt projects with table-top pneumatic labs, industrial chilled-water system design and operation, pneumatic conveying fundamentals and troubleshooting, and sales foundations and precision prospecting.