DENSO Reduces Compressed Air System Energy Use

DENSO’s corporate office set an ambitious goal to be carbon neutral in all facilities by 2035. To achieve this goal, DENSO’s manufacturing facility in Battle Creek, Michigan engaged Energy Systems Group (ESG), a consumer energy organization, to perform a full factory energy audit. ESG determined that a critical next step toward compliance with the corporate scope 2 emission reduction goal was to optimize energy use on the factory’s air compressors. At this facility, part of DENSO’s North American Thermal (TAC) business, they manufacture automotive air conditioning and engine cooling components and systems.

Compressed air is a common power source in factories, but it’s also notoriously inefficient – with as much as 80% of the energy going into compressors being lost as waste heat. The Battle Creek’s factory’s compressors were running constantly – overnight, on weekends and holidays, and regardless of how loads changed during manufacturing. As an additional challenge, some of the older compressors were installed when the facility was first built 30 years ago, making those even less efficient than newer models. Most compressors operated continuously, regardless of actual demand, and the facility lacked a centralized control system to coordinate compressor usage for optimal efficiency.

DENSO’s Battle Creek facility decided to engage CAM Technologies, a gold-level member of the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork™ program, to develop a solution to automate and modernize their compressed air system. CAM Technologies managed the full scope of the project from equipment procurement to final commissioning.

CAM Technologies relies on Rockwell Automation for its industrial automation solutions. They have a mature software product designed to optimize the operation of any multi-compressor compressed air system regardless of brand or technology. Their solution can be easily designed, configured, and deployed – which maximizes return on investment.

To modernize DENSO’s compressed air systems, CAM Technologies delivered a solution that used Allen-Bradley® circuit and load protection, circuit breakers, fuse holders, network media, switches, signaling devices, relays and terminal blocks. PanelView™ Plus 7 Performance HMIs were used to give operators visibility and ability to control the system. PowerMonitor1000 was used for energy monitoring and optimization. And control for the system was built using CompactLogix 5380 Series PLCs.

Having the new system connected to the building automation means DENSO now has full control over when a compressor runs and when it can sit idle without drawing much power. Having this level of control means energy use is down and so are emissions.