February 2022

S tandards can have an impact on your business as an end-user. Below is a snapshot look of both direct and indirect Standards that businesses need to be aware of. Direct Impact: BS/ISO 8573-1 (Classification of air quality/purity): This standard is applied for any process requiring compressed air to be delivered / used at a pre-defined purity specification. The standard allows for a consistent purity level to be defined and measured against. Note that the dated revisions of the standard define the purity specification at the time of specification, and care should be taken to note the date of the standard referred to, as the permissible solid particulate levels were revised. For example: Air purity compliant to ISO 8573-1:2001 Process, Controls & Plant Focus on: Compressed Air 24 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk February 2022 Standards and their impact on your business Which Standards have an impact on your business as an end-user? BCAS reports. Class 1:2:1 defines maximum permissible amounts of contamination as: Particles at Class 1 (100x 0.1 to 0.5 micron/m3 & 1x 0.5 to 1 micron/m3 & 0x 1 to 5 micron/m3) Water at Class 2 (-40°C Pressure Dewpoint) Oil at Class 1 (0.01 mg/m3 Aerosol + Vapour) Whereas: Air purity compliant to ISO 8573-1:2010 Class 1.2.1 defines maximum permissible amounts of contamination as: Particles at Class 1 (20,000x 0.1 to 0.5 micron/m3 & 400x 0.5 to 1 micron/m3 & 10x 1 to 5 micron/m3) Water at Class 2 (-40°C Pressure Dewpoint) Oil at Class 1 (0.01 mg/m3 Aerosol + Vapour) BS/ISO 11011:2013 (Energy efficiency audit for the entire compressed air system): This existing standard is applied to provide a structured plan to carry out an exhaustive survey on an existing system to identify areas of improvement. This is not limited to finding and fixing leaks. It also focuses on eliminating waste, optimising control of compressors (where more than one compressor is used) and addressing point of use inefficiency. Planned Part 2 (intended to be published as an ISO/TR) is the ‘how to supplement the existing standard (which will become Part 1). PSSR:2000 (Pressure Systems Safety Regulation): This piece of legislation states that a user (or owner, in the case of a mobile system) of an installed compressed air (or “relevant fluid”) system with a stored energy capacity (Pressure vessel pressure x internal volume) greater than 250 bar litres under their control is required to have a Written Scheme of Examination (WSE) in place. This WSE will define the required examination scope and period, along with the expected maintenance interventions and period. F-Gas (restriction of supply to market of harmful HFC products): The phase-down process is ongoing, and the benefit of ‘reclaiming and recycling’ is being promoted as a method to reduce the impact of increasing costs due to restricted supply. The promotion of lower GWP refrigerants is also being encouraged to increase end-user awareness. ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management): From a compressed air perspective, compliance to this standard will focus on waste oil disposal (including air treatment consumables and drain condensate disposal). Ensure your service provider is a BCAS member and be confident that latest best practices are being adhered to. Indirect Impact: ISO 1217 (Manufacturers (Positive Displacement Compressor types, only) reference standard for performance measurement): Allows comparison of the efficiency performance of different positive displacement compressor technologies from different suppliers. BS/EN 1012 (Manufacturers reference