Sustainable Mining: Reduce carbon emissions with Energy-Efficient equipment

Mining is a key segment here in Australia that involves a variety of applications and processes to extract minerals and other valuable resources from the earth's crust. Air compressors and low-pressure blowers are two critical pieces of equipment found in all areas of mining, they are used in many of these processes. Adopting energy-efficient equipment and practices can help mining companies reduce their carbon emissions which enables improving environmental performance. Read how Atlas Copco solutions can support your transition towards more efficient and energy effective mining operations. 

Click on the links to browse through the article:  

1. The role of an Air Compressor in the Mining Industry
2. The role of a Low-Pressure Blower in the Mining Industry
3. How efficient mining operations can contribute to a greener future
4. Achieve energy reductions with efficient oil-injected screw compressors and oil-free screw blowers
5. Maintenance and service plans
6. Why it is important to invest in a greener mining industry

The world is evolving towards more sustainable and efficient production, including greener mining operations. The focus is to utilise more sustainable fuel sources to power mining operations. By adopting sustainable practices and reducing carbon emissions, mining companies can improve their environmental performance, reduce risks, and position themselves for long-term success. Atlas Copco’s solutions can help the mining industry reduce their carbon emissions. 

The GA ranges are designed for reduced energy consumption, high reliability, and serviceability. These features will ensure maximum efficiency of equipment in your high usage applications. Improved service features ensure these units have minimal downtime and can provide real-time monitoring capabilities from our SMARTLINK technology.

Atlas Copco’s oil-free screw blowers are designed to reduce the amount of carbon released into the environment by replacing inefficient classic lobe systems or meeting environmental guidelines for green field or expansion projects. These blowers are optimized to work at a specific compression rate that covers a variety of pressure levels making them a great fit for various applications. One of the reasons screw blowers are so efficient is due to the lower energy consumption from the internal compression process resulting in minimal energy to heat transfer.

The ZS4 and ZS5 blowers have a pressure band of up to 1.5 bar and can provide flows from 600 to 12,000m³/hr. The VSD and VSD+ range can enable further carbon reductions with their large turn down capacity and process designed flow and pressure control options.

Our latest product offerings are designed to meet the pressure, flow, and environmental demands of the industry.

To complement our products, we offer a range of maintenance and service plans which is crucial to ensure the ongoing reliability and efficiency of our compressors. 

Pre-scheduled maintenance using genuine parts ensures that the compressors are serviced on time.  By servicing the compressor on time with genuine parts that are designed and tested to work with the compressor it is obvious that you are safeguarding reliability.  However, what may not be obvious is that energy consumption and CO2 emissions can also significantly increase because non genuine and overdue serviced components can cause an increase in the pressure drop across the compressor.  To overcome increased pressure drop the compressor must use more energy to maintain the required system pressure.  For every 1 Bar of pressure drop the compressor will significantly use 7% more energy.

As a part of our service offering, we also give our customers access to our SMARTLINK technology, allowing them to easily keep an eye on their equipment through real-time data accessed by a computer or smartphone app.  Depending on the service plan chosen, we can monitor the equipment on behalf of the customer. This gives us the ability to recognize differences in operations and rectify issues before failures occur.  Our SMARTLINK platform also has the capability to allow the customer to track energy consumption and CO2 emissions and provides access to reports and recommendations to increase the efficiency of the compressors.

Reducing carbon emissions in mining is important for mitigating the impacts of climate change, complying with regulations, demonstrating corporate responsibility, improving operational efficiency, and meeting the expectations of various stakeholders. By adopting sustainable practices and reducing carbon emissions, mining companies can improve their environmental performance, and position themselves for long-term success.