A European Union (EU)-funded demonstration project has found a way to make both energy and cost savings by developing revolutionary hydraulic actuators.

Many factories rely on actuators, motors controlling mechanisms that help lift, press or open different technological components and machine parts which can often be fuel intensive and expensive to run.

The project, called HYDRACTDEM, has demonstrated the efficiency gained when production in brewery, dairy and pharmaceutical industries switched from the more common pneumatic - or compressed air - actuators.

All three are industries that use these motors to operate valves to open and close pipes where liquids flow. The researchers found that water-based actuators not only offer savings in energy and carbon emissions – up to 65% – but they are also cleaner, as they are less likely to leak.

Between 30-50% of air in pneumatic actuators is leaked in a year, which means that not only is average efficiency lost, but parts that fail in the system, like valves, are also lost. “So, it is not just about energy saving, but it is also about being much more reliable, and therefore better and faster,” added HYDRACTDEM’s project coordinator, Mark Fairhurst.

Hydraulic actuators can be cheaper to operate and easier to install, taking just a few minutes to fit onto the place where pneumatic motors once were.

The project is specifically aimed at industries with strict hygienic requirements, which have traditionally used compressed air pneumatic actuators. The HYDRACTDEM researchers tested the hydraulic alternatives with different types of valves to cope with different forces and modes of operation. An earlier, linked research project, HYDRACT, developed the actuators that the HYDRACTDEM team used.

“This research is a major technological breakthrough and could help industries in Europe save funds and energy,” explained Mark Fairhurst, who is the technical director at VirtualPiE Limited, a British company specialising in engineering design.

In addition, the team tried different factory scenarios while checking reliability over a sustained period of time. Some of the trials at the Carlsberg brewery in Denmark were run by Danish company KM Rustfri, which developed the actuator as part of the HYDRACT research, and played a leading role in the HYDRACTDEM project: using high-tech measurements, the researchers were able to calculate the energy savings from the hydraulic actuators.

Germany, Denmark, Portugal were participants in the project, with the UK acting as Coordinator.  

Total costs of the project, which ran from  June 2011 to  May 2013 was € 2,029,614, with the EU contributing € 1,108,300.