Ultima upgrade leads to £58,000 energy saving for Accord Healthcare

Accord Healthcare, an international leader in the development, manufacture, and distribution of pharmaceutical products, has upgraded the compressed air systems for its Fawdon site in the UK to two oil-free Ultima compressors from Compair, with a £58,000 energy saving achieved in the first year.

The upgrade is in line with Accord’s environmental goals to ensuring its operations are as sustainable as possible, with a key commitment being to reduce its total energy usage and water consumption by 25 per cent by 2025 across all Accord manufacturing sites.

The manufacturing facility in Fawdon, Newcastle, had been completely shut down in 2015, but a new commitment to domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing meant Accord acquired and re-opened the site in 2018. To breathe life back into the historical manufacturing facility, investment in new infrastructure and equipment was needed. A key element to building the site back up again was restoring compressed air and providing an efficient, up-to-date solution, which could also realise potential energy savings.

Accord inherited the site’s previously installed compressors when acquiring the facility, and it was one of the first projects to be tackled. The majority of on-site machinery is driven by compressed air, including conveyor systems, control systems and valves. Kyle Storey, engineering team lead at Accord, explained: “We use compressed air for virtually everything on site. In essence, if we lost compressed air, all our heating systems would shut down and production would stop. In terms of critical utilities, compressed air is on par with electricity and water. I can’t imagine the pressure that I would be under if a system was to fail.”

The two inherited compressors were over-sized and old. After discovering the compressors were no longer supported by the manufacturer, the decision was made to go to tender and consider variable speed options. Accord spoke to different providers, but Ultima technology from Compair distributor Direct Air stood out, after being recommended for the company’s Barnstaple site.

Direct Air conducted a thorough site survey, including data logging the previous compressed air system. Of the existing compressors, one had suffered failure to both the main and fan inverter drives, so would need significant expenditure to fix. And due to the failure, compressed air was being delivered to the facility from the other fixed speed compressor. Due to low air consumption compared to the size of the compressor, it was heavily off-loaded, resulting in wasted energy. The data logged reported annual levels of wasted energy of 335,824 kW/h, equating to an annual cost of £27,000.

With reliable compressed air vitally important, new compressor technology was the best solution. Direct Air recommended two water-cooled U75 Ultima compressors, with a closed cooling water system and airblast cooler. The second U75 compressor would act as a stand-by machine.

An oil-free compressor, Ultima is 100 per cent oil- and silicone-free, meeting ISO 8573-1 Class Zero (2010) requirements. This makes the technology the ideal choice for pharmaceutical manufacturing environments, where air quality cannot be compromised.

Its design helps drive real energy efficiencies for businesses such as Accord’s. Traditional oil-free compressors are driven by a single motor using a gearbox, which – in turn – drives both the low- and high-pressure airends. However, gearboxes require oil and create friction, resulting in energy loss. In contrast, Ultima uses two highly-efficient, permanent magnetic motors that replace the traditional gearbox set-up. These variable speed motors can achieve speeds of up to 22,000 RPM and efficiencies greater than IE4, monitoring and adjusting the speed of each airend in line with demands. This ensures maximum efficiency and pressure ratios at all times.

Taking up a much smaller footprint than the previously installed compressors, Compair claims the Ultima compressor is 37 per cent smaller on average than a conventional two-stage compressor.

Another key benefit to Ultima is that it’s offered as standard from 75kW to 160kW, with each unit fully upgradeable between this range. This means that, should a site’s energy demands increase over time, customers can upgrade their existing Ultima to the required capacity. As a result, there is no need to purchase an expensive new compressor, eliminating the associated downtime, delivery wait, installation costs, and additional space requirements of a new unit.

Ultima also comes with iConn, a remote monitoring service providing real-time updates. Offering operators valuable knowledge and insights about their compressed air systems, iConn helps aid production planning and ensure any potential issues are quickly identified and remedied. Its historic, real-time, predictive and cognitive analytics can help deliver tangible benefits to a business’ bottom line, with real-time monitoring, alarms and warnings all reducing the risk of downtime.

Direct Air undertook the complete mechanical and electrical installation. The cooling water and cables fitted are also suitable for Ultima’s maximum capacity (U160), to meet future increases in production demands. In fact, since installation, air demand has increased at Accord’s Fawdon site, with the compressors now upgraded from the U75 models to the U110 ones. The full turnkey project was also completed over weekends, to provide minimal disruption to Accord’s business.

Following additional on-site improvements, such as fixing air leaks in pipework, the new compressed air system was assessed after one year’s service. The achieved energy savings amounted to just under £58,000; £35,000 greater than originally expected.

Kyle added: “The installation of the new Ultima compressors went exactly as planned. Business continuity was one of the primary drivers during this installation and, as a site, we are vulnerable to any kind of compressed air breakdown. So, as part of this install, we ensured a compressed air contingency was in place, and the solution was a standby compressor. One compressor is sized large enough to run the entire facility, therefore giving us full coverage.

“The Ultima technology is a definite upgrade. The compressor is nicely laid out and everything works as it should. With the old systems, we’d have to perform manual checks, but with iConn I can see how the new compressors are performing at all times, no matter where I am. It’s really good.”