What is air compressor condensate?

As part of the compression process all air compressors produce water condensate. This is an unavoidable law of nature, atmospheric air contains quite a lot of water (the exact amount depends on the temperature and humidity), compressed air only holds a much smaller amount of water. The difference between the large amount held in atmospheric air and the much smaller amount held in the compressed air comes out of the air as condensation within the compressor / receiver system as the air cools down.

In an oil free compressor the water condensate is basically water, in a lubricated compressor a little of the lubrication oil mixes with the condensate resulting in a mix of water and oil in the condensate that is expelled. There is only a tiny amount of oil in the condensate but there is enough to be a serious oil pollution problem if the condensate isnt treated properly.

Condensate Separators

Since 99.9% of condensate is water it makes sense to remove the oil and other chemical waste from the water so that the remaining clean water can be legally disposed of down a foul drain (maximum oil content that can be put down a foul drain is 20ppm).

Our preferred condensate cleaning system is from Sepura, which provides a simple but effective cleaning solution using a patented sterling filter media reducing oil content of discharged water to less than 10ppm. The condensate cleaning system can be directly connected to all condensate sources (filters, compressor, receiver) and can be designed to drain down condensate automatically.

Watch our condensate management video for more information about use and set up of condensate separators