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

o 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
o 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
o 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
o 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.

o Back Pressure shutdown- this measures the discharge oil pressure and alarms and
initiates a shut down when below a set value
o 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
o 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
o Water in oil- This found on modern designs which have a detection probe mounted
in the oil discharge
o High temperature alarm and shut down
o 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

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.