ENTRAINED GAS IN LUBRICATION OIL

BioKem Oil Services has specialist equipment that will remove 100% of entrained gas from lubricating and hydraulic oil.

BioKem has the equipment and the know-how to perform on-site oil filtration, dehydration and removal of entrained gases from your lubrication oil.  Entrained gas is not just problematic from simple air bubble generation, but can also ‘dilute’ or lower the mineral oil viscosity of the oil.

Is the presence of entrained gases affecting your lubrication circuit?

If the lubricating oil comes into contact with gas at an elevated temperature and pressure then gas entrainment may occur.  ‘Entrainment’ or ‘fluid aeration’ can cause numerous problems in hydraulic and lubrication oil systems including: unacceptable noise, poor component response due to spongy behaviour of aerated fluids, cavitation damage and severe fluid degradation.  If bubbles are present in the fluid in the reservoir, they may be sucked into the pump, where the bubbles’ volume will increase, due to pressure decrease along the suction line, and then compress again when a region of higher pressure is encountered. This compression is nearly adiabatic (the bubble gets hot, but does not materially increase the temperature of the surrounding fluid), resulting in tremendous localized temperatures at the gas-liquid interface. This may cause thermal cracking and sludge/varnish formation. In compressors, various process gasses, including soluble hydrocarbons like methane, butane, propane, petro-chemical processing sour gases, etc., are soluble in mineral oils and effectively cause ‘dilution’ or a lowering of the mineral oil viscosity reducing lubricant efficacy.

Cambridge Viscosity President Robert Kasameyer says that "when the compressor is running, the lubrication oil is hot and the entrained gas remains in gaseous phase. When the compressor is down, the lubrication oil cools and some of this gas can become liquid, which causes the lube oil viscosity to drop. Then, when the equipment is re-started but before it heats up, the equipment is operating with inadequate lubrication, which can be a disaster! If it makes it through this stage, the light hydrocarbons will again become gaseous, separating out of the lube oil, and the lube oil will regain its proper viscosity. But the damage will already be done."

The key thing to know is that once oil has been absorbed into the gas flow, it will not be collected by the oil separator.

Bubble removal devices can be used to mechanically remove bubbles from fluids however this is not a 100% effective method and foaming can occur.  Removal of entrained gas with a vacuum dehydrator provides for 100% removal of entrained gases and advantages such as the possibility of smaller reservoir size and lower overall system cost. 

BioKem VDOPS achieving ISO 10/8/7

The installation of an in-service, kidney loop, BioKem Oil Services vacuum dehydrator (VDOPS) will ensure that 100% of entrained gas and 90% of dissolved gas is removed and that the oil is free from not only gas, but is very dry and clean.  Our VDOPS systems are equipped with high efficiency pleated Microglass filter elements rated Beta(c)1000 per ISO 16889 to quickly and reliably achieve very low particle counts to meet or exceed an ISO 16/14/11 cleanliness level.

BioKem VDOPS 190l/min vacuum dehydrator

SGSpost filter Lab Test of 5,000l lube oil tank showing a moisture level of 8ppm!