Savings via audit
January 1st 2005

Boge Compressors has assisted Hallam Plastics in saving 55.6 tonnes of carbon. The company has recently installed two frequency controlled Boge screw compressors which, along with saving energy, has solved several further problems for the company.

Hallam Plastics was using a piston compressor to power many functions on its site, including breathing apparatus and spray tools in the paint shop.

As the piston aged, problems started to develop; the air has to be clean in order to be used for breathing apparatus and it was becoming increasingly expensive to provide the extra filtration to purify the air. Production changes also meant that the existing piston could no longer ensure an efficient supply of compressed air.

These factors had created an expensive compressed air system that was causing unplanned expenditure in the form of breakdown and repair. In addition (as is the case for many compressed air users), there was the further ‘unseen’‚ cost of growing electricity bills being created by the compressor system.

At this stage Tony Winfield, the maintenance manager at Hallam Plastics, contacted Dave Beer, general manager of local Boge distributor Compressor Services (East Midlands), for advice on rectifying these problems. Tony was keen to ensure that compressed air supplied to the factory was clean, efficient and reliable.

A further consideration was to optimise their energy use.

It was clear that the ageing piston compressor had to go. In order to justify the investment in a new compressor the existing system was audited. The compressor system was monitored over a set time period, first to benchmark the existing production demand levels, then to demonstrate best practice to optimise the installed compressor system - over a corresponding set time period and again taking into account the production demand levels the net energy savings were then revealed. The audit demonstrated that a staggering 38.5% of the air being used by the compressed air energy generation system before optimisation was non-productive energy. Following the installation of the SF 60 machine, none of the compressed air generated is wasted in non-productive energy. This has generated an estimated saving for Hallam Plastics of 4% per annum.

As Dave Beer suggests “By auditing the existing compressed air system we were able to demonstrate to Hallam Plastics that, in this instance, by installing a Boge SF frequency controlled screw compressor, their electricity bill could be reduced by 4%. This equates to saving some 55.6 tonnes of carbon”

The CCL has inevitably created an extra cost for those companies who don’t take energy saving measures. This exercise demonstrated to Hallam Plastics, one energy conserving measure that they could take to reduce the impact of the CCL on their business. Moreover, the Boge SF range not only offers energy saving capabilities, but also matched two further requirements of the compressor system; to provide efficiency and reliability.

The Boge SF range of frequency controlled screw compressors works strictly in accordance with the compressed air demand by producing the exact volume of compressed air at the pressure required.

Frequency control minimises idling time and evens out air demand fluctuations.

Energy costs can therefore be reduced considerably.

A BOGE SF60 and a further SF40 were installed to replace the ageing piston compressor.

As Tony Winfield comments “Saving energy, producing clean reliable and efficient compressed air were certainly deciding factors in choosing the Boge SF60 and SF40 to do the job. As air is used for breathing systems, we were constantly changing filters and incurring downtime while in the process of changing them.

“Furthermore, a final clincher for us was the back-up support and maintenance planning provided by Compressor Services, which to us is very important”.

The SF series models are available in the pressure ranges of 8, 10 and 13 bar. Flow regulation ramps down to 25%. Output capacities range from 1.34 ˆ 7.00 m3/min the SF 60-2 (45kW), and for the SF 100- 2(75kW) from 2.30 ˆ 12.1 m3/min.

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