The ability to detect oil in water is important in many industrial processes involving cooling water or heat exchangers. For example, electric generating stations often use natural sources of water such as lakes and rivers to cool generator lube oil systems. The lube oil is cooled in a heat exchanger system where the lube oil and cooling water are in isolated systems.
|
Under adverse conditions, leaks of lube oil into the cooling water may occur and in turn be release into the environment. optek has designed systems to detect very low ppm levels of lube oil in water to warn plant operators of seal leakage or other failures.
|
 |
Trace Lube Oil in Cooling Water Benefits |
- Immediate Detection of Seal Leakage or Failure
- Protection From Accidental Environmental Emissions
- Reduced Manual Sampling and Lab Analysis
- Equipment Protection – Avoid Leakage Damage
- Lower Maintenance Costs
|
| Cooling Water Feed/Return |
If varying background turbidity is prevalent due to varying conditions of the lake or river water quality, optek recommends a TF16 scattered light tutbidimeter on the inlet and outlet headers of the cooling water system. If there is no lube oil leak, the instruments will maintain identical outputs whether the water source is clear or turbid. However, in case of lube oil leaks an elevated signal will be obtained from the instrument installed in the cooling water return.
|
| Cooling Water Return Header |
An optek TF16 is also mounted in the main line or side stream of the cooling water return to detect trace oil in the return water.
|
| Lube Oil Cooler Water Return |
To identify lube oil leakage at an individual lube oil cooler, a monitor should be installed on the cooling water return lines of each lube oil cooler. Under process conditions, all instruments maintain the same output signal whether the cooling water is very clear or very turbid. When one of the lube oil coolers experiences a leak or seal failure, it’s associated in-line monitor will provide a drastically higher turbidity signal than the other lube oil cooler monitors, thereby identifying the lube oil cooler that is leaking.
|
| Trace Lube Oil in Cooling Water Summary |
Important industrial cooling applications can benefit greatly from using TF16 turbidity measurements to detect free oil and suspended solids. Real time monitoring and control with optek tubidimeters can help you avoid machine failures and damage caused by leakage. optek sensors can also assist in reducing outage time and avoid any fall-off in energy production.
|
optek sensors are suitable for direct installation in high pressure, high temperature, and hazardous area locations. Low installation cost, plus low maintenance costs makes optek the right choice for safe and profitable applications.
|
