Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy Inter-sectorial benchmarking of compressed air generation energy performance: Methodology based on real data gathering in large and energy- intensive industrial firms Simone Salvatori a, ⁎ , Miriam Benedetti b , Francesca Bonfà c , Vito Introna b , Stefano Ubertini a a Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, University of Tuscia, Largo dell’Università s.n.c., Viterbo, Italy b Department of Industrial Engineering, “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, Rome, Italy c Energy, New Technology and Environment Agency (ENEA), Via Anguillarese 301, Rome, Italy HIGHLIGHTS • Benchmarks for energy consumption in Compressed Air Systems (CAS) are identified. • The analysis is carried out on data available from Energy audits carried out in over 15,000 companies. • Results of surveys regarding compressed air systems use, maintenance and monitoring practices are discussed. • A more reliable baseline for benchmarking is proposed. • Guidelines to improve energy performance in Compressed Air Systems are developed. ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Energy efficiency Compressed air systems Directive 2012/27/EU Energy benchmarking ABSTRACT Industrial systems management is nowadays increasingly devoted to improve the control of most critical pro- duction aspects. In this context, the performance of all the systems involved in production processes have to be measured and analysed in order to get better insights in terms of potential production and quality improvements as well as energy savings. In order to evaluate the performance of a certain system, a possible and effective way is to compare it with data from similar systems, thus to conduct a benchmark analysis. In the area of energy management, although the compressed air system (CAS) is one of the most important and energy consuming services within industrial plants, enterprises often have difficulties understanding and appreciating the entity of potential benefits coming from the improvement of its energy efficiency. The present paper aims at developing a new benchmark analysis for compressed air systems in industrial plants. The proposed methodology starts from the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) already available in the scientific literature for CASs’ energy performance and is mainly based on the analysis of a huge real dataset collected from over 15,000 energy audits made on a wide range of different companies, all related to produced quantity of compressed air and energy consumed by CASs. Collected data present some limitations and related improvements and corrective actions have been un- dertaken and are presented in the followings. Data analyses have been followed by complementary surveys regarding compressed air systems’ use, maintenance and monitoring practices performed within several Italian enterprises and aimed at enhancing and creating a more reliable baseline for benchmarking. 1. Introduction The uncertain condition of primary energy market, fluctuating high prices and environmental problems are driving the industrialized countries to undertake corrective measures to improve energy effi- ciency and reduce environmental impact [1]. Greenhouse gas emission reduction is a shared target which European Union (EU) members have worked for, developing policy instruments and sector-specific pro- grammes [2,3]. Industrial production is responsible for about 50% of world’s energy consumption and is one of the main responsible for greenhouse gas emissions [4–6]. Energy efficiency is also inter- nationally recognised as a good practice to reach global competitive- ness [7]. For these reasons, reducing energy waste through technolo- gical processes, which is to say improving energy efficiency, is one of https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.02.139 Received 15 November 2017; Received in revised form 13 February 2018; Accepted 21 February 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: s.salvatori@unitus.it (S. Salvatori). Applied Energy 217 (2018) 266–280 0306-2619/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T