“Efficient compressed air” – a successful campaign for energy efficient compressed air systems in Germany

Panel: Panel 4. Building the bridge from lab to customer

Authors:
Annegret-Claudine Agricola, Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH
Peter Radgen, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research

Abstract

Compressed air systems are widely used in industry and craft for diverse purposes. Although this special energy form has a lot of technical advantages, it has to be taken into account that the energy consumption of compressed air systems is considerably high. In Germany, these systems consume as much electricity as the Deutsche Bahn (German railways) for traction or as 1.3 nuclear power plants. Nevertheless, according to an EU study published in 2001 (Radgen, 2001), approx. one third of this energy could be saved profitably.

The “efficient compressed air” campaign addresses these huge saving potentials by providing information about energy and cost efficient compressed air systems for all industrial users, mostly via internet, expert press articles, seminars, conferences, and networks. The results show that the information and the instruments offered by the campaign are appreciated by the target groups.

Above this, companies are invited to have their compressed air systems (the whole range from the compressor to the end use device) analyzed by compressed air experts, in order to detect weak-points and subsequently to show solutions for improvement of both the compressed air quality and the energy efficiency. Due to public and private funding, this analysis can be provided free of charge for about 100 companies until the end of 2002. The results will be worked out as branch-specific case studies which will be distributed among the industrial users.

Further instruments of the campaign are a benchmarking which compares compressed air systems of different companies, a competition for the best compressed air systems supply and a demonstration plant.