Energy efficiency improvements in compressed air systems: A techno-economic evaluation approach

Compressed air systems (CAS) are important electricity consumers used for various purposes in manufacturing systems. Compressed air is a comparatively expensive energy carrier and numerous measures to improve its energy efficiency have been proposed in the literature. However, the results of applying efficiency measures are very context-dependent, with the same measures leading to different results in terms of energy savings and economic impact. In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues related to the evaluation of measures to increase energy efficiency in CAS and propose a techno-economic evaluation framework for assessing the impact of such measures in terms of both technical and economic results from a life-cycle perspective.