Piece of gasket fell into lube / seal oil reservoir

[BS26]

Hi,
We have combined sealing and lube oil tank for our syn gas compressor train. While opening the oil tank purging flange to vent out the gas before carrying out shutdown activities, piece of flange gasket fell into the oil tank. We are running short of time to empty out the oil tank and need to take a call if its ok to keep this gasket piece till next oil replacement cycle or other options to take out the gasket piece. Looking for ideas.

 

[JJPellin]

Switch pumps and check the strainer for the pump that was on-line at the time. It may be in the strainer already. How large was the piece? What is the size of the suction line to the pumps? What type of gasket? I would probably leave it there until the next outage and then pull an inspection cover and go fishing. I would not dump and replace 3000 gallons of oil to retrieve a 1 square inch piece of gasket.

Johnny Pellin

 

[georgeverghese]

Will the gasket remnant sink to the bottom of the LO tank ? Is the LO pump suction nozzle at the tank bottom or is it elevated above tank bottom ?

 

[BS26]

Thanks. Unfortunately there is no strainer upstream of the oil pumps. Gasket is of rubber. Pump suction nozzles are 6 inch size and 20 inch above tank bottom. I think there is a chance that the rubber would settle down at tank bottom but still its likely that the rubber pieces may get disturbed or break up further due to oil flow disruption. Since we don't have any line strainer between tank and pump, we have a risk of pump damage.

 

[georgeverghese]

You can install a witch's hat style 40mesh strainer between any pair of pipe flanges in the suction line to the pump. Should be easy to procure.