Operation of a Centrifugal oil purifers

Preamble

The following description relies on the reader having an understanding of the

function and internal design of a modern self cleaning centrifugal purifer.

The method describes the operation of a manually controlled system.

It is accepted that the vast majority of units are automated, it is intended allow
better understanding of the automated process by doing this. The " Automation
" section will clarify this.

The unit described is a sliding bowl type, does not have on line
sludging capability with light phase requiring heating. Operating water is required
for both opening, and closing the bowl. It is accepted that in common designs
only opening water is supplied, once supplied this water leaks out until it reaches
a level determined by a weir arrangement. The water remaining beyond this weir
acts to close the bowl

Operating, displacement, seal and sludging water are delivered in

finite quantities governed by the type and size of bowl, and the supply water
pressure. Although not mentioned it should be taken for granted that water
introduced is of a set quantity

Starting and stopping

Before starting the purifier the correct sized gravity ring must be in place for the
light phase specific gravity at required delivery temperature.

Most units have a brake arrangement fitted acting on the bowl to slow
during stopping. This should be check to be disengaged.

The use of this brake is determined by manufacturers recommendations. The

brake should be seen as an emergency device to slow the bowl in the event
of some problem, typically an out of balance of the bowl caused by sludge not
being evenly removed from the bowl.

Where no preference is given it is the authors recommendation

that the brake be used. The reason for this is to allow the bowl to pass as
quickly as possible through any critical vibration harmonics.

Correct operating and sludging water supply pressure should be

checked

The light phase (oil) supply, discharge valves may be opened, the
flow control valve and back pressure valve may be set at approximate initial
settings. The three way valve is set to recirc (dump)

Remember that when the oil is introduced to the bowl the bowl is cool and so
the oil will be cooled and will tend to pass over with the heavy phase. This
action may be reduced by having the back pressure discharge valve slightly
more open than required closing as the bowl warms.
 The bowl may be started. Drive to the bowl is via a centrifugal clutch
arrangement reducing the starting current on the motor. The start up time is
determined by the slippage of this clutch which is in turn determined by the
number of pads. The oil is now being circulated though the heater. The heating
medium may be introduced to bring the oil to purifying temperature

It should be noted that for some designs the motor is non-standard being able
to carry high starting currents over a longer period. When requesting
replacements this should be noted.

Too few pads causes an overly long start up time. In addition, the
drag of the liquid as it leaves the bowl during a sludge cycle causes a
reduction in speed. For automated systems, this speed must be regained
before the oil is reintroduced otherwise carryover can occur. With some
designs correct sludging is determined by an expected rise in drive current
caused by the motor trying to bring the bowl back to speed. Too few pads
may cause problems in both these cases.

Too many pads leads to excessive force on the drive gear leading
to premature failure especially of the wheel and the electric motor.

When the bowl has reached it operating speed the bowl may be
closed by introducing closing operating water.

this may be checked by viewing the external speed indicator or by

observation of a reduction in amps as the bowl reaches its operating speed.
The best method is a combination of the two. Observe the amp reduction and
visually check the speed indicator to confirm that a fault has not occurred in
the clutch.

Once correct oil temperature is observed the purification process may

begin. Seal water is introduced to the bowl. The three way valve is operated to
supply oil to the bowl. Correct flow and back pressure should be set once full flow
is achieved. The amount of heating medium to the heater should be increased as
required

The sludge port should be viewed to ensure no leakage from bowl-

remember to close port before sludging. Check heavy phase (water) shute to
ensure no oil overflow. Check operating water shute to ensure valves have
isolated

It is unlikely that the bowl will immediately come " on-line ", this is generally
due to the bowl being cold, cooling the oil, increasing its specific gravity and
causing it to pass over the heavy phase (water) shute.

The amount of carryover may be reduced by opening the back

pressure valve. The best solution is to removed the cool oil that is in the bowl
by sludging. This may be repeated couple of times before the bowl has
reached operating temperature.

The correct function of the desludging mechanism should be checked.

 Sludging
Change three way valve to recirculation (dump). Reduce heating
medium to heater if required
Introduce displacement water. This removes the oil from the bowl
preventing wastage
Open bowl open operating water
Observe amps ( increase), check sludge port ( see discharge). Close
sludge port. There is normally an audible indication that the bowl
has opened
Operate bowl closing water
Once amps has returned to normal running the bowl can be
assumed closed, again there is generally an audible indication of
this
Bring unit back on line

Once the unit has been proved on line and operating correctly the
alarms and shutdowns should be tested. Where the units overflow to a sludge
tank the correct operation of the alarm should be checked.

The testing of the alarms and shut downs is paramount. Once completed,
especially for main engine lube oil purifiers, a note should be made in the
engineroom log book

It is common to find dedicated sludge tanks for the purifiers. The

level in which is kept artificially high and just off the high level alarm. In this
way the tank acts as a back up alarm for the purifier.

Automation
The vast majority of units will be fully automated for UMS enginerooms. Sludging
will involve pressing a single button. A controller will then cycle through the
operating, displacement and seal water valves as well as operate the three way
valve. The heater will have an independent controller although a zero output
signal may be generated by the purifier controller during the sludge period.

Detection of correct desludging may be by drive motor current, as

discussed, flap arrangement which is struck by the discharge from the open bowl
or by measuring the discharge pressure which falls to or below zero pressure
during the sludge cycle.
 Centrifugal Purifiers/Clarifiers
Purifiers and Clarifiers differ only in that clarifiers are not set up to remove water.
Their design are similar to the point that most purifiers found on board can be
converted to use as a clarifier with simple alteration of the gravity disc

If an oily water mix is placed into a tank then speration of the two
parts will begin with the lighter element rising to the top. The rate the seperation
occurs is governed by several factors including the difference in specific gravities
and the force of gravity acting upon it.
For mixes placed into a settling tank there is little that can be done about the
gravity but the difference in the specific gravities can be increased by heating.
This because water density changes at a much reduced rate when compared to
oil. The limiting factor to this is that the water cannot be heated above 100'C for
obvious reasons.

A wide shallow tank will increase the rate of clarification over a tall
thin tank

Principles of operation

When a volume of light oil is placed into a tank contain a weir and a
quantity of water the fluids will tend to arrange themselves as shown above. The
height of the water in the weir rises to a point governed by the volume ( and
thereby relative height) and specific gravity of the light oil.

Knowing this it is possible to form a rudimentary purification system.

As a oil/water mix is fed into the tank seperation begins with heavy particulates
falling to the base of the tank along with water which joins the other water excess
overflowing the heavy phase weir. Hopefully clear oil passes over the light phase
weir. The problem arises that to ensure their is suffcient time to allow for
full(seperation of the oily mix the flow would have to be very small relative to the
size of the tank.

Principle of seperation in centrifuge containing

angled plate stack
 Fluid moving between two plates has a velocity greatest at mid point
and minimum approaching the plates.
a particle entering into the plates will tend to be pushed upwards by the fluid
flow. All the time centrifugal foce tends to retard the horizontal component of the
movement causing the partical to approach the underside of the top disc. As it
approaches the fluid flow velocity reduces. The centrifugal force eventually
overcomes the force acting on the partical due to fluid movement and th epartical
starts to move towards the oute rim. The centrifugal force acting on a particle is
proportional to its mass therefore a small particle will tend to move further under
the influence of fluid flow. Indeed a particle small enough will be carried through
the plates and out with the discharge. In this way it can be seen that reducing the
flow rate to a purifier will tend to increase the quality of the output.

Basic centrifuge
 The basic centrifuge differs than that described above most obviously
by sitting on its side. In reality it takes the form of a round bowl a cross section of
which will show something like that seen above. Gravity is replaced by centripetal
force as the bowl is spun at high revolutions thereby creating very high g-forces.
A disc stack is incorporated to encourage a laminar flow increaseing improving
the seperation effect. Dirty oil is introduced via a centreline oil feed dip tube. The
oil is led to distribution holes which are refected in the disc stack but not the dam

The following factors are of importance when understanding the function of the
purifier
Increasing the sg of the oil will tend to push the interface outlet and
cause overflow from the heavy phase outlet untill the equilibrium is
restored. Should the interface be moved so far as to breach the dam
oil will be issued from the heavy phase outlet and an alarm will
sound.The ideal position for the interface is to lie over the
distribution holes
Reducing the sg of the oil will tend to bring the interface towards the
axis, this reduces the force of speration on the oil mix and reduces
the efficacy of the unit possibly leading to contaminants and water
carryover with the light phase outlet
the "gravity" disc are changeable on virtually all purifers. Their
centre bore is governed by the sg of the oil being centrifuged. The
largest bore should be used without risking overflow
The flow rate of a purifer should be set to optimise removal of whole
system impurities. The lower the oil feed the greater the time for
impurity removal and the more efficient the purification. The higher
the rate the greater the amount of system oil is treated per unit of
time. For a system such as main engine oil where contaminants are
continuously being added to the system. As a rule of thumb the total
volume of the system should pass through the purifer three times
every 24 hours, this rate may be vary depending on operational
parameters. A similar calculation has to be made with fuel oil to
ensure removal of water and sludges which may accummulate over
time.

Choosing Gravity Disc

 The graph shown above is one typical of one found in a purifer
instruction book for selecting appropriate gravity disc size. Shown on the diagram
is an example of an oil of sg 0.93 at 0'C. The sg at 15'C for use with this graph is
found by projecting along a horizontal line to 15'C. This step would be omitted if
the sg at 15'C was already known. A line is then drawn parallel to the pre-drawn
sloping lines. Where the drawn sloping line cuts the appropriate oil supply
temperature isothermal then This becomes the selection point for the disc. This is
found simply by ascertaining which size band the point lies in.

Self cleaning centrifuge

 The majority of purifers found on board are of the self cleaning type
intat they are able to open the bowl to discharge any accummulated sludge. Apart
from the sliding bowl the main difference is the centripetal pump over the simple
design. In this a fixed centrigual style impeller is mounted in the light phase
outlet drawing the oil and discharging it at pressure sufficient to deliver it to the
receiving tank. A discharge valve is fitted which is adjusted to give a constant
back pressure in the bowl. The adjustment of this back pressure tends to move
the position of the interface but more importantly increases the oil in the light
phase delivery chamber increaseing the immersion depth of the lip of the pump.
This reduces possiblility of air being entrained and removes foaming.. In the
event of bowl failure back pressure will fall, this may be detected by a pressure
switch initiaing a shut down

Desludge event

For the bowl shown above a typical sequence of events would be< p class =
"noindent">
1. Bowl online
2. sludge cycle timer activates and bowl comes off line (heater may be
disconnected at this time
3. Oil feed stopped
4. Oil still in bowl displaced by addition of a quantity of displacement water
5. Bowl open control water passed to bowl via distributor, bowl opens
6. Bowl open water discharged via a small orifice
7. Bowl closes
8. Seal water added
9. Oil feed commenced, timer started to give set time for back pressure to
build up for oil disharge
10. heater reconnected

Typical alarms and shut downs

The following gives a general list of alarms only some of which may be fitted.
 Back Pressure shutdown- this measures the discharge oil pressure
and alarms and initiates a shut down when below a set value
Heavy phase overflow. Oil has a much higher visccosity than water.
The heavy phase outlet is led to asmall catchment tank containg a
float. The outlet from the tank is restricted in such a way that water
flows freely but oil tends to back up. This initiates an alarm and shut
down
Bowl not open- This may be dome in several ways, typically by a
lever switch operated by the discharged sludge hitting a striker
plate. A nouther method is by measuring the motor current, when the
bowl opens the bowl speed is dragged down due to friction effects
of the dischargeing sludge and water. The motor current rises until
full speed is reestablished. This is detected by a current sensing
relay
Water in oil- This found on modern designs which have a detection
probe mounted in the oil discharge
High temperature alarm and shut down
Low control/seal water pressure. Where control water is supplied via
a fixed small header tanks a float switch may be fitted.

Other Designs

Sharples constant sludging

Heres one to send a shiver down the spine of anybody of my age.

This consisted essentially of a standard non desludging bowl into which were
drilled small holes on the circumference fitted with nozzles. Seal water was
pumped continuously from a small catchment tank mounted adjacent to the
purifer into the bowl where it passed though to be ejected through the jets. It
then drained to the catchment tank. Dirty oil would float to the surface where it
would overflow though a surface mounted skimmer to the sludge tank.
Theoretically the bowl could run for considerable periods without cleaning. The
reality was one to two weeks, bowl cleaning included patiently trying to clear the
small bore nozzles. I remember loading bunkers which were brick red, it
contained lots of sand. The purifer was permenantly overflowing to an extent we
had to use the second purifier to run on the sludge tank. Bowl cleans were every
day with the other engineers playing the 'it best if one person concentrates on
them' card. The worst aspect was the Chief Engineer who used to lie in wait for
me when I was called out during the night. On sneaking back to for some sleep
he would drag me into to his cabin ( which was next to mine) for a thank you
drink- this inevitably lasted untill 8 am

Modern trends
The most obvious trend is that towars online sludging. In this during normal
operation a small quanity of extra seal water is added and the bowl opened for an
extremently short period of time thus removing the need to interupt the process.

Control and Operating water

Water must be supplied at a fixed pressure to ensure that the quantity supplied to
the purifer is constant for the set parameters. The water normally comes from the
vessels hot water system or is independently heated to reduce thermal shocking
and to prevent cooling of the hot oil
 Drive

Considerable torque would be required to direct drive the bowl upto

speed using an appropriately sized electric motor. In addition very high loading
would occur on the gear train, to prevent scuffing due to oil film breakdown would
require large mating areas therby large gear trains which would again increase
the starting load.
A centrifugal clutch arrangement is fitted which has between 2 and 6 ferrodo lined
brake pads. These are designed to slip during the start up period and also to a
much lesser extent during the speed up period after de-sludge. Purifer
manufacturers will usually quote a maximum and MINIMUM start up time. As the
pads wear it may be necessary to remove and restore the mating surface to keep
the start up time correct. As a last measure the number of pads should be altered

The electric motor may be of special design allowing for a long period of slight
overload during the start up period.
The gear train is generally a single stage worm and wheel arrangement with the
wheel being made of a softer material. Lubrication is normally splash only, the
viscosity of the oil is essential to prevent wear as the form of lubrication is mainly
boundary therefore the wear is governed by the viscosity and additives contained
within the oil.
When wear occurs it will be scuffing and relative movement between the mating
faces polishes out any pitting. As wear worsens galling occurs destroying the
running surface. This damage is reflected in both elements therefore both should
be changed.

As well as overload other causes of premature failure are poor design

( step forward westfalia), poor material choice, poor lube oil choice, too long a
de-sludge period relative to supplied oil quality, out of balance bowl, failing
bearing set in particular the vertical shaft upper resilient bearing arrangement
The use of planned maintenance is essential particularly with respect to bearing
changes. It is strongly recommended to monitor condition using vibration analysis

Bowl Cleaning
Should be carried out at regular intervals not exceeding manufacturers
recommendations. Every care should be taken not to score the surfaces of the
bowl especially the sliding surfaces for de-sludging types. The disc stack is
generally numbered and should be built up as per this system as the stack is a
balanced unit.

Water washing
This was a techniques employed some time ago to improve purification of lube oil
and to remove acids. It involved continuously adding a small quantity of water at
oil temperature to the oil inlet which would pass through and overflow. This is
much out of favour as it tends to remove the essential oil additives in particualr
detergents. An alternative is to inject steam which improves the removal of
colloidal carbon by causing it to coagulate

Typical Circuit

Shown is a typical circuit for a lube oil system although it can equally
be applied to a fuel system. Control is achieved by the three way valve which
eitherdiverst oil to recirculate or sends it to the purifer.

Oil flow rate is controlled by the oil control valve situated before the
positive displacement delivery pump which is driven off the purifier horizontal
shaft via a weak link arrangement
Back pressure from the purifer is controlled at oultet via the back pressure control
valve