Camfil Farr Power Systems AB

Breth of fresh air

With more than 40 years experience, Camfil Farr Power Systems is an expert when it comes to protecting people, machines and the environment.

It designs and manufactures air cleaning devices, noise reducing equipment and dampers for the oil and gas sector, installing thousands of Camfil systems throughout the world to ensure the reliable, efficient and cost-effective daily operation of turbomachinery. The business also offers its customers service and refurbishment by means of retrofits, upgrading existing systems and filter changes.

Tord Ekberg, area sales manager for oil and gas, introduces the company and its activities: “We work mainly with air inlet filtration and acoustic systems for gas turbines and turbo compressors, which are mainly used in the power generation, and oil and gas industries. Camfil is a leading supplier within the air filtration industry, so we have a complete range of filtration solutions, for the Arctic to the desert; we have a very wide product scope and can support the customer in any environment. That includes acoustic systems, which can provide noise protection solutions for even the most stringent requirements.”

Revealing more about who benefits from Camfil’s offering, Tord continues: “Our customers are mainly gas turbine OEMs, such as GE Oil & Gas, Siemens, Solar, etc. who are buying inlet filtration as well as noise protection to be included as part of their gas turbine packages. This is a major part of the business. We also work with end users, which are the oil companies, such as BP, Maersk, Statoil and Shell. Even though we offer a wide range of products we’re flexible within that range in respect of meeting specific project requirements. We sometimes become involved in our customers’ R&D projects so, for example, when they have a specific problem, we can develop a product for them and it’s a joint process.”

For part of the company’s own R&D undertaking, it draws on the opportunities provided by being part of a larger organisation, as Tord explains: “As part of Camfil Farr, we get to utilise the big R&D resources within the group and that mainly relates to filter technology development. Additionally, Camfil Farr Power Systems operates development groups in Sweden and Germany for the advancement of in-land systems’ designs, exhaust systems and acoustic systems.”

Thanks to its commitment to research and searching for innovative solutions, the company is able to boast an array of inventive products that have been well received by the market. Detailing two such products on the filtration side of the business, which have proved to be very important to Camfil Farr, Tord says: “The first is Cam GT, which is the static barrier filter widely used for an offshore environment and was developed based on the know-how we gained during the 1990s, which meant that we knew how it should be designed to solve the humid conditions on an offshore installation. Secondly, our Campulse HemiPleat is used for pulse cartridges and this pleating technology outperforms the alternative, which is the conventional type of pleating filter media.

“Our product range is one of our main strengths and Camfil Farr produces market leading technology in air filtration, so of course as part of Camfil Farr we are part of a global organisation – and this means we can provide support to customers around the world as well as supply production and service locally in all the main areas.”

Notably, Camfil has developed a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) programme for gas turbine filtration and this interactive software reveals how different filtration options affect the total LCC of gas turbine ownership. “We have been working a great deal in recent years on LCC analysis and subsequently the healthy programme we have developed that evaluates optimum solutions for different environments is an important tool for us and our customers,” Tord asserts.

Furthermore Camfil has always been a market leader regarding HEPA filtration and it is increasingly seeing customers choose to have longer service intervals, which means the grade of filtration is increasing with more systems provided with HEPA filtration, such as H10, H12, etc. HEPA filters are highly efficient and best suited to environments with very small particles. They dramatically decrease fouling on the turbine leading to lower maintenance and a more effective operation.

In terms of the company’s current remit, Tord discusses what is keeping Camfil busy: “Offshore, we are now working with a number of projects for various areas such as West Africa, Brazil and the Middle East. We are strengthening our global presence and maintaining close working relationships with our customers on the OEM side and on the end user side. With regards to our future plans, we are positive that we will see continued interest in the use of gas turbines, and on the offshore side we believe we will see a great deal of activity combined with an increasing interest for Camfil’s inlet filtration solution, so I am feeling very confident about the future for Camfil.”

Camfil Farr Power Systems AB

Services: Air cleaning, noise reduction and dampers