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Centrifugal Purifiers
Centrifugal Purifiers
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.
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.
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
Desludge event
For the bowl shown above a typical sequence of events would be< p class =
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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
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
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.
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.
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
Damage
Shown is typical damage to the sealing face of a sliding bowl. This
has been caused by either poor assembly or by hard material being trapped aft
the bowl closes. Unfortuately it is more likely to be the former.
Failure is detected by loss of sealing water as seen down the sludge shute. In
addition there will be carryover to the heavy phase and loss of discharge pressure
as the seal is exhausted.