The air consumption of a pneumatic conveying system depends on the bulk material to be conveyed, the conveying method, the conveying system used, the desired conveying capacity and the conveying distance.

Conveying methods are subdivided into dense and dilute phase conveying. The first method provides the necessary energy in the form of pressure, the latter provides energy in the form of volume or speed.

Conveying systems are special designs assigned to the respective conveying method. In the dense-flow process, a dense-flow pipe can additionally be used in order to optimize energy consumption and operational reliability.