Switching to Oil-Free Compressed Air: The Affordable Solution from ELGi

Food and beverage manufacturers are evolving as they strive to ensure the highest of qualities in the food that they produce. As ISO22000 food safety management systems are adopted across the industry, food and beverage manufacturers are paying more attention to food contamination. The 3 primary hazards identified by ISO 22000 include physical, chemical and microbiological contamination.

As compressed air is an essential component used in all aspects of food and beverage manufacturing, the quality of the compressed air used by the manufacturer is being scrutinised. As a result, many decision makers in the industry are discovering that compressed air with direct or indirect contact with food is a potential source of contamination. With this knowledge, many leading manufacturers have, or are in the process of switching their compressed air supply to 100% oil-free air compressors. Although the initial investment is high, the elimination of contamination is essential to ensure food safety and sustainability.

However, in Australia, most of the food and beverage manufacturers have not yet made the switch to oil-free compressors. For many, the high initial cost of oil-free compressors coupled with high cost of ownership is seen as an impediment to the upgrade and instead look to use oil-lubricated compressor with increasingly more complex compressed air filtration and conditioning systems, as well as substituting lower risk lubricating oils. Ultimately, these steps reduce risk of contamination but require higher levels of intervention, monitoring and administration with only minor reductions in the risk of contamination. In the long term, this leads to much higher ongoing expenses. Although switching to oil-free compressors requires a very high investment, the reduction in ongoing maintenance and administration costs results in a pay-back period in the long term.

The above graph shows how the lower ongoing maintenance costs of an oil-free compressor installation can provide a payback for the higher initial investment. With the initial investment in oil-free compressor being up to 2.5 times the cost of oil-lubricated compressors, the payback can take several years to materialize. Typically, the larger the compressor, and the more shifts it operates across, the shorter the payback period.

Unlike some of the very large food and beverage manufacturers with installed compressor power in the hundreds of kilowatts with factories running 24/7, most food and beverage manufacturers in Australia operate at a much smaller scale. For these manufacturers, the high initial investment in oil-free compressors that are used by the larger companies is too prohibitive and the payback period is too long to be viable.

It took an up-and-coming global compressor manufacturer, ELGi Equipments to see the potential for an oil-free air compressor that would suit the needs of small to medium sized food and beverage companies. Their solution was to disrupt the traditional approach and offer a simple oil-free air compressor with lower investment costs and provided lower cost of ownership compared to the traditional complex oil-free air compressor.

The ELGi AB range of oil-free air compressors is the perfect answer for all small to medium food and beverage manufacturers that want the benefit of using oil-free compressed air in their process but without the extremely high initial investment and with even lower cost of ownership for an extremely short payback period.

Available in the range of 11 kW to 110 kW, the ELGI AB range of oil-free air compressors is “Always Better” than traditional complex oil-free air compressors in the same size due to the simplicity in design. The below table compares some of the important advantageous of the ELGi AB Series over traditional oil-free compressor technology:

Additionally, The AB Series also boast greater uptime with up to 30% longer on servicing intervals, around 8 to 10% higher energy efficiency and an overall reduction in operating cost of 8 to 10% compared to traditional oil-free screw compressors. This is on top of the over 40% lower investment costs compared to traditional oil-free air compressors. All of these factors combine to allow converting to oil-free air compressors the affordable solution with typical payback less in less than 2 years.

The AB series of oil-free air compressors have been designed by ELGi to perfectly suit the requirements of food and beverage manufacturers. With this in mind, the internal components of the machine use FDA approved stainless steel with proprietary coatings which eliminates chances of corrosion. ELGi’s AB series of compressors delivers 100% oil-free air, in compliance with the stringent norms of ISO 8573-1 Class 0 and ISO 8573-7. The result is high quality compressed air, free of oil AND microbiological contamination.

Because it is an ELGi, all models come with the option of CONSERVE VFD technology for the utmost in energy efficiency. For added peace of mind, all ELGi AB oil-free air compressors comes with the ELGi Uptime Assurance warranty. The warranty covers the compressor package for a period of 60 months regardless of running hours and is not conditional on service contracts.

There has never been a better time for small to medium food and beverage manufacturers to make the switch to oil-free compressed air. The ELGi AB series of oil-free air compressors has been designed specifically to meet the needs of those companies that want to ensure food safety with lower costs of initial investment, ongoing maintenance costs and reduced energy costs.