Robert Hughes & Wayne Buckland - Fluitec International & CTG Lubrication Services - Why are Gas Turbine Varnish related events on the rise?

©2012 Fluitec International. All rights reserved.©2012 Fluitec International. All rights reserved.

Why are Gas Turbine

Varnish related events

on the rise?

FLUITEC & CTG

GTUF 2015 - Sydney


Outline

• Who we are

• How to detect varnish with oil analysis

• Your 4 technologies to address varnish

• Australian case studies

• Latest developments – Oil Solubility Enhancer for in-

service varnish removal


Who we are

CTG Lubrication Services specializes in providing environmentally friendly lubricant condition monitoring and renewal services. They are Fluitec’s agent in Australia and New-Zealand

Fluitec, based in NJ, USA provides customers in over 60 countries leading edge technologies and knowledge to realize optimum reliability and productivity of their lubricating assets. Fluitec has developed several technologies to monitor and maintain lubricants. One of their flagship condition monitoring products, the RULER™ (ASTM D6971), is a patented technology to determine the remaining useful life of lubricants. They have also developed the industry's leading, patent-pending lubricant varnish mitigation technology called ESP (Electrophysical Separation Process) and Boost.


How to detect varnish with oil analysis

Oil to machinery is like blood in the body.

• What if you could continuously monitor your blood to know when

a health problem would arise?

• What if you could condition your blood to add years onto your

life?





Varnish is:

• a thin orange, brown or black film deposit occurring on

the interior of lubricant systems

• a contaminant composed typically of high molecular

weight, oil degradation by-products which have limited oil

solubility

• difficult to remove by wiping



The three most common causes of varnish are:

1. Oxidation: chemical breakdown of the oil that occurs in the presence of oxygen

2. Thermal Degradation: a similar process that occurs without oxygen present

3. Foreign contaminants

Both oil degradation processes are accelerated by:

• Heat

• metal catalysts such as copper, zinc and iron

• presence of water

• presence of organic acids

• contaminants



…. once the saturation point is reached, the by-products have such a high molecular weight, they can no longer be held in solution and drop-out initially in the cooler spots in the lube system

Metal surfaces typically are dipolar and hence attract polar molecules from the relatively non-polar lubricants

Pressure is another important factor that will make it easier for soft contaminants to drop-out



Varnish/ oxidation by-products can impact on equipment

operation in a number of ways:

• Acts to speed up the rate at which the oil degrades

(reduces oil service life)

• May form deposits which can reduce clearances in

spools, bearings

• Corrosive attack on metallurgy from acidic species

• Promote wear to reduce bearing life

• Attracts wear particles & airborne contaminants

© 2011 Fluitec International. All rights reserved.



Ruler

• Measures the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of oil

• Portable device (works everywhere: on-site, in labs, etc.)

• ASTM Standards D6810, D6971, D7527

MPC Color

• Measures the potential for varnish problems

• ASTM D7843

Reveal Patch Test Kit

• Coupled with the MPC Color to perform

• Membrane Patch Colorimetry Testing





RULER, MPC




©2012 Fluitec International. All rights reserved.

Subhead will go here…Subhead will go here…

Subhead will go here…











Your 4 technologies to address varnish

Depth Media Filters

Electrostatic Oil Cleaners

Charged Agglomeration

Chemical Filtration

Technologies that can remove soft contaminants under the right conditions.


Depth Media Filtration

Pros Cons

1. Simple and economical to operate

2. High dirt holding capacity and efficiently filters to as low as 3mm.

3. Adsorbs soft contaminants

4. Adsorbs moisture

1. Only removes soluble soft contaminants that are in suspension. For varnish removal, ideally suited for reservoirs operating <40C.


Electrostatic Oil Cleaning

Pros Cons

1. Efficiently removes all suspended contaminants down to 0.01mm in size.

2. Successfully removes inorganic, insoluble degradation products (i.e. depleted ZnDDP)

3. Removes soot-type carbonaceous particles


2. Sensitive to water and other conductive contaminants/fluids

3. Complex controls can be sensitive

4. May remove additives in the oil - rapid oxidation


Charged Agglomeration

Pros Cons

1. Efficiently removes all suspended contaminantsincluding sub-micron particles

2. Product does not “trip off” in the presence of moisture

3. Through agglomeration, allows conventional micro-fiberglass filters to remove soft contaminants


2. Does not work in conductive or moist fluids


Chemical Filtration (ESP)

Pros Cons

1. Removes soft contaminants that are both in suspension and in solution

2. Has a wide range of temperature effectiveness from 10oC – 90oC.

3. Simple design allows for easy operation

4. It doesn’t remove additives

1. Only removes organic soft contaminants. Has no impact on other hard contaminants or inorganic soft contaminants.


How the ESP works


Why we customize our ESP Media


Cleaning Phases with ESP


Australian Case Studies

• Large combined cycle

• Adelaide, Australia

• Alstom gas turbine

• Oil reservoir: 28,000 liters

• Sticky valves and varnish reported on bearings

• Initial MPC level (critical)




• Gas plant, Australia

• Solar Centaur 50 (GT)

• Oil reservoir: 3,000 liters

• Initial MPC level (abnormal)

• ESP136 (Atex) commissioned in October 2013

Page 26. ©2014 Fluitec. All Rights Reserved.CONFIDENTIAL. INTERNAL USE ONLY.

Oil Solubility Enhancer


Steps to a Clean Lube System:

1. Add Boost VR to your oil 3-6

months before an outage.

2. Connect an ESP System to

remove the contaminants.

3. During the Outage, dump

and replace the oil.




Today’s Turbine Oils have very low solubility, as measured by Aniline Point.


Boost Turbine Oil

Used Filter Submerged in Oil After 5 Minutes



Restore System Cleanliness

• Improving the oil’s solubility, re-dissolves degradation products back into the oil.

• ESP removes the contaminants from the oil.




• Boost VR is a specialized synthetic base oil (API GV)• Fully compatible with your turbine oil




• Unlike other cleaning agents, Boost VR enhances your oil’s deposit control

• Improves MPC values• Doesn’t adversely impact other oil properties

(demulsibility, foam, rust, seal compatibility, etc.)





• Offshore platform, Australia

• Gas Turbine

• Oil reservoir: 500 liters

• Initial MPC level (monitor)

• ESP136 commissioned in June 2014


Thank you

FLUITEC & CTG

GTUF 2015 - Sydney

Engineering

Robert Hughes & Wayne Buckland - Fluitec International & CTG Lubrication Services - Why are Gas Turbine Varnish related events on the rise?