Emirates Refreshment Company (ERC) has selected Atlas Copco, a leading provider of sustainable productivity solutions, to provide the ZDXtend four-stage high pressure compressor to serve the major PET bottler in UAE.

 

The ZDXtend compression system is based on a combination of screw and piston technology providing two-stage screw compression to achieve a pressure of seven-10barg as required and boosting compressed air to 40 barg with two-stage reciprocating booster both housed in acoustic enclosures that reduces noise to the lowest in the industry, said a statement.

 

Mohamed Elgharib Dibba, plant manager at ERC, said: “After having worked with the old standard three-stage piston compressors, whenever I walk to the compressor house, I try and listen to see if the machines are working, as I hear almost no noise or vibrations that the standard piston units produced.

 

“The ZD concept is definitely a great concept and the fact that Atlas Copco has managed to listen to the customer concerns is worth appreciating.”

 

The ZDXtend set up will allow a user to obtain both 7barg medium pressure air and 40barg high pressure air from the same set of equipment. Moreover both the compressor and booster deliver 100 per cent pure, clean oil free air that complies with ISO 8573-1 Class Zero (2010) certification which ensures complete elimination of the risk of contamination to the process downstream.

 

In a PET plant, energy accounts for a third of the total cost of production of PET bottles. Keeping energy costs in control and bringing a reduction to the energy foot print of a plant is one of the key barometers monitored by the plant management. 

 

With four-stage compression of Atlas Copco’s ZD solution provides seven per cent direct reduction in energy consumption besides elimination of refrigerant dryer with a built in heat of compression dryer provides further avenue for energy reduction.

 

If the compressed air system is further provided with variable speed drives the Atlas Copco ZD solution has the potential to deliver additional 20 to 25 per cent energy savings eliminating energy waste due to fluctuations in air demand that occurs in PET plants due to change of bottle size or shape, cadencies, seasonal peaks, maintenance, stop etc. 

 

An Atlas Copco ZDVSD solution is delivered with integrated VSD (variable speed drive) and provides a solution by automatically tuning the compressor’s capacity to meet precisely the increased or decreased air demand thereby eliminating unloaded compressor operation and bringing the desired savings. - TradeArabia News Service