Carbon and Energy Saving Financial Opportunities in the Industrial Compressed Air Sector

The transition towards a more sustainable energy scenario calls for both medium-to-long and short term interventions, with CO2 reduction and fossil fuel saving as main goals for all the Countries in the World. Among all others, one way to support these efforts is the setting-up of immaterial markets able to regulate, in the form of purchase and sales quotas, CO2 emissions avoided and fossil fuels not consumed. As a consequence, the upgrade of those sectors, characterized by high energy impact, is currently more than an option due to the related achievable financial advantage on the afore mentioned markets. Being responsible for about 10% electricity consumption in Industry, the compressed air sector is currently addressed as extremely appealing, when CO2 emissions and burned fossil fuels saving are in question. In the paper, once a standard is defined for compressors performances, based on data from the Compressed Air and Gas Institute and PNEUROP, the achievable energy saving is evaluated along with the effect in terms of CO2 emissions: with reference to those contexts in which mature intangible markets are established, an estimation of the financial benefit from savings sale on correspondent markets is possible, in terms of both avoided CO2 and fossil fuels not burned. The approach adopted allows to extend the analysis results to every context of interest, by applying the appropriate emission factor to the datum on compressor specific consumption.