Recently, I was reading the  book "Lessons for the 21st Century" written by Yuval Noah Harari, in which he describes the current challenges we are facing.  One of the major challenge is the Climate change and the catastrophic consequences it has on our society. 

He underlines the need for action today or better yesterday, to safe our planet against Climate change.  He is quite pessimistic on whether we still can reverse on what humanity has triggered resulting in global warming.  So many people and Climate experts are putting the alarms on that we need to take action today.  Every day, somewhere in the world,  people protest for the need for more actions which need to be taken.

What I take away from this interesting  book is the "ACTION NOW, TODAY, NOT TOMMOROW".

In Compressed Air, alot can be done to contribute to the fight against Climate change.   As the compressed air production world-wide, represents 10% of the global electricity production for the industry, the contribution from the Compressed Air Industry can be substantial.  

One single action needs to take place, when selecting a new compressor,  is the comparison of real performances of Air-compressors.  Real performances, should be measured, not only claimed.   We don't need a Dieselgate first to before making progress, because it will be a loss of time.

A very efficient Air Compressor is an Industrial Oil-free Reciprocating compressor.  With todays design and Innovation, the Oil-free Reciprocating compressor is often outperforming  other compressor types.  Similar as the piston engines in the cars are unbeatable (except with full electrical cars replacing fossil fuel by renewable electrical drive systems), the Reciprocating compressors are unbeatable in the Air-Compressor business.

WHAT are the benefits and WHY ? 
Compared to an Oil-injected compressors, they are slightly better in performance, but outperform dramatically in partial load and reduced waste generated by Oil-injected compressors.  The fact that it is an Oil-free compressor, it generates less waste, no Oil-seperator elements, no oil-filters, no contaminated condense water.

Compared to an Oil-free screw compressor, the energy performance of an Oil-free screw compressor is much higher, up to 15%.

Compared to a Centrifugal Air compressor, the Energy performance of the Industrial Reciprocating compressor is much higher in variating conditions and in partial load.

At part load, the Industrial reciprocating Air compressor is more efficient at regulating from 0% to 100% than a variable speed drive, which on its own, also consumes another 3-5% of the total input power.

Any configuration, needs of course the right combination of the right technologies and the application and load cycle will define the right selection.


My advice is that in every factory, the Industrial Oil-free Reciprocating compressor shoud be back on the table when evaluating the potential attempts to reduce the Carbon footprint of Compressed Air installations  !