A project intended to quickly identify and clamp down on industrial compressed air leakages won a technology initiative award at the Malta Intellectual Property Awards.
AIR Save is a project that intends to improve the sustainability of pneumatics and save manufacturing companies large sums of money in the process.
Led by engineer Paul Refalo, the researchers realised that industrial compressed air systems (CAS) have a low energy efficiency of around 10-20 per cent, mainly due to significant leakages.
They found out that their systems are usually only maintained annually or following major system failures.
The researchers warned that EU-wide compressed air leakages waste an estimated 24 million MWh/yr of electricity a year, which result in more than 6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Locally, it is estimated that manufacturing companies waste up to 16,000 MWh/yr worth of electricity to compensate for CA leakages, an inefficiency which costs industry around €1-€2 million and generates around 6,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Around 32,000 PV panels, occupying the space of around 10 football pitches, would be required to offset that annual electricity consumption in Malta.
The AIR Save project developed, produced and tested a smart system to improve the sustainability of CA systems
Using AI and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) technology, it continuously monitors the CA performance and identifies inefficient sources such as leakages or malfunctioning actuators in real-time.
“More than a trophy, this win validates our belief that when applied research meets industrial relevance, we can create solutions that truly contribute to Malta’s sustainability and innovation ecosystem,” Prof. Ing. Refalo said after the project won the award.
Besides Ing. Refalo, the AIR Save team was also composed of Prof. Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza, Mr Massimo Borg, Ms Jasmine Mallia, Dr. Peter Albert Xuereb, Mr Angelo Mifsud and Ms Ylenia Grech Mifsud.
Meanwhile, engineer Nicholas Borg Calleja and his team won the IP scientific initiative award for his ‘Malti3D’ project – a more efficient and costly way of 3D printing making use of plastic pellets, rather than the more expensive filaments.
Karamellu Tar-Raħal t’Isfel, A Maltese animated series by Neil Zammit and Charles Buttigieg won the IP creative initiative award.
