Upgraded air compressed system makes significant energy savings

Tupperware Hellas decided to investigate the energy savings and efficiency upgrade potential of the compressed air systems of its manufacturing plant. The company needed to measure and control the consumed electricity of compressors for producing compressed air, airflow, system leakage and pressure drop in the system. However, there was lack of a modern control system to facilitate the technical maintenance. Green Air Energy was assigned to conduct the auditing of utility’s compressed air systems. To this end, the on-site collection of operation data through the application of modern technologies as well as the identification of potential energy efficiency and savings actions were conducted. Upgrade actions included:
i. the upgrading of the larger compressor (75kW) in order to reduce the downtimes and losses,
ii. the installation of sophisticated automation and management systems (in order to coordinate the operation of the three compressors),
iii. the installation of monitoring and recording equipment (Scada),
iv. the integration of an efficient dryer which fits the fluctuations of compressed air demands,
v. the use of Ultrasonic devices for the measurement of air leaks and the precise localization of the leakage points, etc.
The limitation of the leaks resulted in energy savings of 16.35%, (8,890 €), the upgrading of the compressor which contributed to lower-level pressure demands (from 8.2 bar to 6.3 bar) yielded a decrease of 13% (5,920 €), while additional savings derived from the reduction of non-productive time resulted in a reduction of 9% (4,095 €). The annual total energy reduction is foreseen to reach 189,050 kWh/year (36.07%) and achieve savings of about 18,900 €.