Don't let apathy reign
August 1st 2007 Geoff Taylor, managing director of BOGE Compressors and a director of the British Compressed Air Society discusses the apathy faced in industry today towards taking action to reduce compressed air energy consumption and highlights that it is never too late to take affirmative action… ix years on from the introduction of the Energy Tax (or CCL) this seems to be the overwhelming reality in industry today with many compressed air users demonstrating indifference to acting on projected and quantifiable energy savings. Undoubtedly industrial consumers' are aware of the need to reduce energy consumption, the ramifications of not taking action, and in most cases the specific savings potential of introducing new low carbon technology to their plant – yet, apathy to take affirmative action reigns! Unbelievably all of these businesses will have already taken on board sizeable increases in their kW energy costs. The Quarterly Energy Prices report from the DTI (March 2007) highlights that the average electricity prices for all nondomestic electricity consumers increased by between 20 and 30% between Q4 2005 and Q4 2006. Compressed air remains one of the easiest technologies with which to make significant energy consumption reductions starting in most cases with no and low cost methods. Boge has prescribed to a tried and tested four step approach to energy management.This approach not only benchmarks an existing system but also provides for continual assessment and validation of the ongoing live air system. Step 1; Audit To establish the benchmark a system must be comprehensively audited by evaluating generation, treatment, distribution and process usage. The generation evaluation may include identifying factors such as the number of compressors being used to meet the demand, the quality of maintenance and so on. Even seemingly small factors could be unnecessarily heightening energy costs.A common cause of poor efficiency is the use of spurious spare parts.Not using the manufacturers original parts, for example rotary screw elements, can drastically alter compressor specification and efficiency. Leakage is another area that creates unnecessary energy costs which can be assessed within the audit. An ultrasonic leak detector can detect precisely where leaks are. It is worth remembering that just one 3mm leaking hole costs roughly 3kW which equates to some £1,150 per annum. Step 2; Optimise Once an audit is completed, the whole compressed air system can be optimised to reduce and if possible eradicate the identified energy waste and misuse. In many cases the recommended changes will only incur low costs - if any. Step 3; Post-Audit After the whole system has been optimised the system efficiency (kW/m3) should be compared with the original benchmark in order to validate changes that have been implemented.At the same time it is possible to verify the 'payback time' for any investment that was implemented to create the on-going energy savings. Step 4; Continual Improvement As system dynamics change so will the demand for compressed air. Ongoing evaluation is therefore vital in order to maintain an energy efficient compressed air system.Where applicable, there are significant savings to be made by integrating low carbon technologies such as upgrading to a frequency controlled screw compressor to implementing an energy management control system. There are also a number of financial avenues to explore which can assist in funding low carbon technologies such as the Carbon Trust Energy-Efficiency Loan designed to provide the user interest free money when investing in replacing existing equipment with more energy efficient technologies. SME's within the UK can apply for an unsecured, interestfree Energy-Efficiency Loan from £5,000 up to £100,000 to support such project funding*. BOGE can also assist in the application process for such a loan. | 
