Maintaining Lube Oil Quality

摘要

Many pieces of power plant equipment rely on lubricating oil, where steam and combustion turbines represent the pinnacle of these requirements. Clean, dry oil is essential to maintain healthy equipment life and prevent shutdowns that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. For many applications, the typical lubricant is a mineral oil that has been highly refined. The oil base primarily consists of paraffinic hydrocarbons; for example, alkanes, with some napthenes (cycloalkanes) included. Many impurities or process conditions influence the degradation of lube oil and place stress on machinery and moving components. The life of the oil -- and the equipment it lubricates -- can be greatly extended by removing impurities before they have time to build up to catastrophic concentrations. A process that is capable of removing free water and up to 80% or 90% of dissolved water is mass transfer vacuum dehydration. Varnish formation in oil is a subject of great importance at both conventional steam plants and those with combustion turbines.