Plan 53A barrier Makeup Fluid

[HoustonMechEngr]

What is the ideal procedure to add barrier fluid to a plan 53A seal reservoir? If the system is pressurized under a nitrogen blanket, how do you go about adding barrier fluid if the leak is at an extremely low rate and you need to add makeup fluid?

I've heard about re-fill carts, but are they able to pump up against the nitrogen pressure? I would htink you would NEVER want to de-pressurize the system as you can see ao-ring shift on the primary seal and possibly never reseat. Thoughts?

 

[CH5OH]

common practice would be to use a handpump (much like a pump used to operate hydraulic tools

 

[flexibox]

Be careful using hand pumps. If you have pressure above 1000Kpa using hand pumps is not so easy if you want to top up say 6ltrs. what happens is that operators start to ignore top ups or depressurize the Plan 53A system to make it easy.
The other option is an air driven piston pump which uses air to drive it and no effort by the operator. Costs are higher but if you save 1 seal failure it's paid for itself

trust this helps

 

[HoustonMechEngr]

flexibox,

Thanks for the response. You would agree however, that the pressure off the plan 53A should never be relieved when adding "makeup" barrier fluid? This would place your seal in a "reverse pressure" situation and o-ring shift could possible manifest itself hanging-up when the correct pressure orientation is re-established.

 

[NGLENGR]

At my facility we use some Plan 53B systems which work on a similar principle, and our systems are refilled from a central tank with metering pumps. The pump pressurizes a loop to a high pressure (2500 psig) and the tanks are regulated to a particular pressure (1500 psig). The process is completely automated except for refilling the atmospheric reservoir tank.

If you have a float-type level device, it could try triggering off of a certain set point.