Water contamination in lubrication oil

I would be more worried about finding the source of the water contamination - do you know why you are getting water in the oil?

Depending on the volume of oil you want to treat, and the type of system you are using, centrifuges might be your best option as they would remove both water and solids.
Alfa Laval and Westfalia are the two main manufacturers.

Regards
GT

GT,
Thanks for the response. We've used Alfa Laval and westfalia centrifuges in the past. They are extremely effective in removing "free" water. However, the oil we are using usually does not "let go" of the water (water is all entrained) up to 700 - 1000 ppm.

So, to remove entrained water, we will need a device (such as a vacuum dehydrator) to seperate and remove the water from the oil. I was just curious to see if anyone out there knew of technology other than vacuum dehydration to remove entrained water from oil.

Yes, you are correct in saying that finding the source of the contamination would be the best fix. However, We are talking about a lubrication system that could have numerous sources of ingression since there are about 60 bearings and gearboxes in which the oil is circulating through. We are trying to deal with each specific ingression source as we uncover them, however, we'd like to mitigate our risk against the current ingressions we encounter until we can eliminate all sources of ingression (if it is even possible).

R. Urbinelli

I do not have direct experience of this but i have heard of certain sponges available which are very useful in separating water from Lub oil.They just dip the sponge ( they call it MOP) andremove it after sometime.The sponge absorbs all the water and keeps oil separate.

AG

AG,
Very interesting, what you speak of about a "sponge" that removes water from oil. If you have any other information or people I can contact to find out more about this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

R. Urbinelli

Many years ago a material was offered for water separation that was very hygroscopic. You may not believe this, but it was applied also in sanitary napkins and diapers. It had the remarkable characteristic of absorbing water into the matrix, and you couldn't squeeze it out. Contact filter people about this. DuPont may give you a lead, because it was a polymer, I think.

Thanks Plasgears for the info.

Maybe this will lead me to some useful resources.

Anyone else with more detailed leads, please let me know who to contact.

Thanks

R. Urbinelli

Air stripping technology is the only technique that I am aware of that will remove the 3 phases of water: free, emulsified, and dissolved. It is less expensive to purchase and to operate than centrifuges and vacuum dehydration. Not only that, it is more reliable because it has no moving parts in the dehydration part. Besides, there are models available that will degas the oil.

Pall can give you a standard filter cartridge that picks up water and contaminants.

Texaco,
If you can give me more information on who manufactures or distributes equipment which utilizes "air stripping" for
water removal, I would appreciate it. Thanks for the feedback.

Check or call Keith Macaluso at 832-264-8538.

You might look at synthetic oils - generally they separate water out much quicker.

Keep the wheels on the ground
Bob
showshine@aol.com

You can try a Paraffinic base oil instead of a synthetic if you think seals will be a problem.
We have run centrifugal air compressor for long periods with a paraffinic based turbine oil and a Racor filter with automatic drain.