Water & wastewater

Atlas Copco’s new technology cuts costs

Atlas Copco delivering promises

The ZDXtend line-up of air compressors from Atlas Copco, a global engineering major, provide much needed 24x7 reliability to Klear Water, a provider of pure drinking water, and drive their energy costs down, said a top official.

M I Star Mineral Water Filling, situated at Dubai Investments Park in Dubai, UAE produces pure drinking water under the brand name ‘Klear’.  The company initially started off with a small capacity bottling line and over the last few years has expanded to become one of the leading water brands in UAE.

Klear Water has been operating with a standard three-stage reciprocating compressor since its inception.

However, due to a limitation of the technology and resources, they had several shut downs and failures which have invariably impacted the plant’s capability to deliver product to this competitive market.

Moreover, the low pressure air that was being delivered by a 45 kW oil injected air cooled screw compressor was seen as a concern due to the large amount of oil carryover that was being looked upon as a quality issue by their quality control department.  The company is certified by ESMA (Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology) and ISO 22000, holds a high regard for quality by both local and international standards.

Pratik Harde, managing director at Klear Water is firm in his belief that a plant can only deliver quality product if the machinery and the backup utilities selected are of high standard and reputed quality. Klear Water was looking for a long-term solution so that the company can focus on growth and not on the plant utilities. Atlas Copco proposed a new technology in the ZDXtend that employs a screw compressor as the base to get low pressure air at 10 bar, and a highly efficient booster that converts it into 40 bar oil free air.

This package eliminates the need for separate high and low pressure compressors, which meant an overall energy savings of 47 kW and reduction in maintenance cost of almost 30 per cent for Klear Water, in comparison to their existing compressed air set up. Harde quickly analysed the total cost of ownership by taking into account the long-term operating and maintenance costs, calculating a return on investment of 36 months for their new capex investment and finally decided to invest in the new ZDXtend air compressor package.

The new ZDXtend package was commissioned at Klear Water in early 2016. Based on the evaluation in the past six months, Klear Water has seen a clear reduction in energy cost of over 20 per cent in comparison to conventional system. This is in line as committed by Atlas Copco during their evaluation phase.

On maintenance, the elimination of oil injected screw compressors for low pressure air has reduced maintenance costs linked to frequent replacement of oil filters and oil. On the side of high-pressure air, Klear Water has seen large savings, as the D-Booster only requires maintenance once every 8000 hours.

This is because it receives compressed air at a dew point of -20 deg C which eliminates moisture completely, leading to minimised maintenance in the inlet and discharge valves which would otherwise require frequent maintenance if they were taking in atmospheric air that is high in moisture content.

Harde said: “The reliability and efficiency of the ZDXtend has enabled my products to reach the customer in time and provide a competitive edge in the market. Besides, it has given me something far more valuable – peace of mind.”

Khalid Shaikh, business line manager at Atlas Copco Services Middle East said: “We have delivered exactly what we promised, there is no better promoter than a satisfied customer and today Klear Water is one of the key references of Atlas Copco in UAE.”