Air compressor could help industry slash energy costs

A UK clean-tech start-up claims to have developed a solution for reducing the average 10 per cent of total electricity European industries spend on air compression.

Lontra, based in the Midlands, has unveiled details about the design of its patented air compressor technology for the first time publicly since the company formed in 2004. 

Their technology known as the Blade Compressor moves and looks different to other compressors on the market notably because its piston, instead of moving down and up in a chamber, whirls around a like a gondola on a high-speed Ferris wheel.

As the piston–which in this case is a blade–completes each rotation it slides through the slit of a disc–another important part of the Lontra compressor– which continuously spins in the middle of the drum.

Simon Hombersley, business development director for Lontra, explained that as the piston rotates it induces a volume of air behind it in the same way a traditional piston will induce air as it drops down into a cylinder. When the piston blade slides through the slit of the disc, the volume of air trapped behind it pushes to the front, he said.