How important is the compressor type to air quality?
A common misperception exists around the use of oil-free air compressors. We have visited facilities with oil-free air compressors installed and absolutely no filters and dryers. An oil-free air compressor alone is not a solution. You have removed only one of the ten contaminants-the oil aerosol. No matter what the air compressor technology is, the air treatment requirements do not change. No matter what type of air compressor is installed, they all draw in large volumes of airborne contamination and therefore the level of compressed air purification equipment required in a compressed air system is not dependent upon the type of compressor installed. Adequate filtration and separation products will always be required to remove the large volume of dirty contaminated water as well as dirt, pipe-scale and microbiological contamination. Air treatment requirements (for the food industry) do not depend upon the air compressor, rather they depend upon the application of the compressed air. It
