Visit the Carbon Zero Site

Atlas Copco’s Oil-free Air division announced today (6/30/2009) that the company’s ZR Series of water-cooled, oil-free air compressors with built-in energy recovery systems are the first in the world to be TÜV certified for net zero energy consumption. In specific design conditions, 100 percent of the electrical power needed to run an Atlas Copco ZR 55-750 water-cooled, oil-free screw compressor can be recovered in the form of hot water.  

Industries, such as food and beverage, dairy, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical, chemical and petrochemical, power plants, clean rooms and textiles, that use a large amount of hot water and steam can dramatically reduce their energy bills by utilizing the world’s first Carbon Zero compressors.

Energy savings in compressed air systems are important as energy consumption typically represents more than 80 percent of a compressor’s lifecycle cost. While compressed air systems account for an average of approximately 10 percent of all industrial electricity consumption, compressed air costs can be as high as 40 percent of a plant’s electricity bill. For this reason, Atlas Copco has been researching and developing energy-efficient compressed air solutions for many years, and this new certification is yet another milestone in Atlas Copco’s history of innovation.

The independent Technische Überwachungs-Verein (German Technical Monitoring Association, or “TÜV”) earlier this year supervised the type-testing of Atlas Copco’s ZR 55-750 water-cooled, oil-free screw compressors, equipped with built-in energy recovery systems. The testing process involved real-time measurement of the electrical power input and the output power as hot water. The two measurements were then compared. It was proven that under the specific design conditions of 40°C and 70 percent relative humidity, 100 percent of the input electrical power could be recovered.

While an Atlas Copco Carbon Zero compressor compresses air, the input electrical energy is converted into heat. This heat appears at the compression elements, the oil cooler, intercooler and aftercooler. The built-in energy recovery system circulates cooling water through all of these components and, as a result of the heat transfer, yields hot water at up to 90°C.

Most industries can make use of hot water for space heating, showers and other such applications. However, the industries that will benefit the most are those that have a continuous need for hot water and steam in their processes. Typical process hot water and steam users include food and milk processing plants (scalding, cleaning, sterilization, and melting), pulp and paper industry (in the digester and evaporators, in bleaching and pulping), textile industry (dyeing, and stabilization of manmade fibers), pharmaceutical industry (fermentation and sterilization), refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants (steam distillation, enhanced recovery, stripping, and heat tracing), power plants (electricity generation), clean rooms (humidification).

Hot water or steam is normally generated using industrial boilers that consume electricity or fuels like heating oil or natural gas. When using hot water from the compressor, either directly or as pre-heated boiler feed water, the consumption of fuel can be either dramatically reduced or be eliminated. This results in significant energy savings.