Oil Free Compressed Air and Carbon Footprint

[su_note note_color=”#eee”]The below article regarding Oil Free Compressed Air and Carbon Footprint is adapted from Compressed Air Expert Mr Chris Lybaert (Senior Advisor – Expert in Oil-Free Compressed Air)[/su_note]

Energy Savings

Many experts write about oil free compressed air and the carbon footprint.  Most of these articles describe how these oil-free compressors will bring energy savings to your compressed air installations.  These experts will do an audit in your production site and measure the real air demand.  They will then promote their products and convince you that the saving will be over 10-30%.  The issue however, does not lie in air-consumption.  Air consumption is how you analyse your compressed air usage.  And it is based on this air consumption that users can select the right combination of air compressor and compressor room composition.  Energy savings, however, is a bit more difficult to measure as there are so many variables.  For example, the air demand of one week may differ from the air demand the next week which will have an effect on energy savings.  Another example is that the power consumption of the compressor you purchased, can be worse in two months due to deterioration of a compressor screw air-end.

The Golden Rule

Choosing the right size and number of compressor/s to handle your air demand is crucial in optimizing energy saving.  For flows below 50m3/min, an efficient volumetric compressor(s), at full load and at part load is the better option. Depending of the redundancy wanted on the equipment, multiple compressors can be installed.