Westfalia Separator Systems
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Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Centro Tecnolgico
Departamento de Engenharia Mecnica
Coordenadoria de Estgio do Curso de Engenharia Mecnica
CEP 88040-970 - Florianpolis - SC - BRASIL
www.emc.ufsc.br/estagiomecanica
[email protected]
INTERNSHIP REPORT 1/3 (one of three)
Period: 16/03/2009 to 08/05/2009
Westfalia Separator
Student: Harry Schemelzer Neto
Supervisor: Chrisitian Bruns
Counselor: Jos Carlos Pereira
Oelde Germany, 8 May, 2009.
SUMMARY
Contents
31.GEA Westfalia Separator
41.1Westfalia Separator Mineraloil Systems
52.Introduction
52.1Methodology
62.2Chronogram
73.Mechanism of separation
94.The Separator
125.The separation efficiency
136.First Project
177.Test Results and Conclusion
188.References
199.Attachments
1. GEA Westfalia Separator
The GEA Group is a global technology group with more than 250
companies in 50 countries. The company now focuses on specialty
mechanical engineering, mainly process engineering and equipment.
The emphasis lies on the two basic engineering processes: heat
exchange and mass transfer.
GEA Group technologies are applied in the food, chemical and
petrochemical industries, the energy sector, air treatment and
shipbuilding as well as the pharmaceutical and cosmetic
industries.
Since 1994 GEA Westfalia Separator belongs to the GEA Group. In
2007 the GEA Group employed around 19.500 people who generated
group sales of EUR 5.2 billion
GEA Westfalia Separator, headquartered in Oelde, Germany,
manufactures separators and decanters. These are used for the
purification of suspensions, the separation of fluid mixtures with
simultaneous removal of solids and also for the extraction of
material constituents and the concentration or removal of water
from solids.
GEA Westfalia Separator's range of business activities is
divided into four markets:
Food - applies separators and decanters primarily in the
production of beverages, dairy products and the processing of
edible oils.
Industry - specializes in the optimization of separation
technology processes in chemistry, pharmacy, biotechnology, starch
technology and the extraction of oils and fats.
Mineral oil - concerns the centrifugal treatment of mineral oils
and their derivatives. Its main applications are in the marine
sector, gas turbine and diesel engine power plants, the oilfield
industry, as well as in the maintenance of production facilities
and treatment of waste oil.
Environmental Technology - concentrates on the removal and
concentration of both municipal sewage and industrial sewage
sludge.
1.1 Westffalia Separator Systems Gmbh
Westfalia Separator Systems Gmbh has 100 years experience and
supports customers in processing and maintaining mineral oils and
related derivatives. The separators can be applied on the marine,
environmental technology, energy and oilfield industry as well as a
wide range of other industries. Considerable sums have been
invested in research and development for many decades with
excellent results and it is in this area of Westfalia Separator
that I have been doing my internship.
In the Marine sector, Westfalia separators are used for
processing heavy fuel oil and diesel oil. The separators assure
high performance of diesel engines and extend the economic life of
machines, even under extreme conditions.
In the Energy field, the separators are used for the treatment
of fuel and lube oils to assure an efficient removal of water
contamination and damaging substances from turbine and diesel
engine power plants.
In the Oilfield industry, the separators are used on onshore and
offshore installations of oil and gas production. They are used in
the following applications: processing drilling mud, de-oiling of
produced and drain water, dewatering of crude oil, cleaning and
processing of fuel oil, lube oil and hydraulic oil and separating
cat fines from oil residues.
In the industry, the separators are used for efficiently
processing all types of liquid in the production process. For
example: they handle processing of washing lyes which contain oil
and also oil recycling. Cooling lubrication emulsions and cooling
lubrication oil are also processed as inexpensively as hydraulic
oil from which dirt particles and water have to be removed as
quickly as possible. High separating efficiencies result in much
longer economic life of the tools and liquids in use.
In the fields of application on environmental technology, the
separators are used in municipalities and industry in the treatment
of drinking water, the dewatering and thickening of sewage sludge
and the recovery of valuable materials from production streams as a
contribution to resource-minimized pro
2. Introduction
The first report presented here refers to the work done from 16
March up to 08 May at Westfalia Separator under the tuition of
Christian Bruns. The internship started with a trainee program to
have an overview of the applications and how the separators
work.
To become acquainted with the application of the separator my
trainee program started in Hamburg and I accompanied the technical
assistance team on board, in this case, a purifier of a lube oil
where a vibration control in this separator was installed. That was
a good opportunity to see, in practice, one of the products of
Westfalia Separator System of the marine sector.
In Oelde, at the headquarters of the company, I was introduced
to the business units of mineral oil in the offices of the marine,
energy and oilfield applications. At the business unit I have
contact with the applications of the products made at the system
sector and also how the factory structure is organized.
To acquire knowledge on how the separators work and of the
internal parts I stayed on the factory floor for a while to
accompany the assembly of the separator and the test benches. After
this first trainee program I got acquainted with how the products
work and with the application.
My report begins with the description of the product, what I
learned in the training program and then the introduction of my
first project.
My first project consists in doing efficiency tests with a
microscope method called counting-chamber and sending the results
to another company that does these efficiency tests with an
electronic method with laser and comparing the results to see the
differences between both.
2.1 Methodology
The internship started with the contact of the application of
the separators and how a separator works, the mechanism of
separation and the parts of the separation, the bowl and the frame.
Than start into the first projects that is preview 2 or 3 during
the internship.
2.2 Schedule
Date
Program
Contact Person
16.03
Organizational measures (personnel support, work dwelling,
etc.)
Module bases of the centrifugal separation technology
Trip to Hamburg
Bury/ Schulze/ Heydel
Siegeler/ Gebhardt
Siegeler/ Heydel
17.03 20.03
Basics Mineral Oil Separators (at Training Center - Hamburg)
1 Day Basics, 3 Days Service
Mauersberger/ Grunert
23.03 03.04
Assembly and final test of separators
2,5 Days - Bowl Assembly
2,5 Days - Frame Assembly
1 Week - Test benches
Freitag/ Hunkenschrer
Kottenstede
Kleigrewe/ Hentrup/ Beck
06.04 08.04
Acquaintance with Business units:
1 Day - BU Marine
BU Energy
1 Day - BU Oilfield
BU Fluids and Waters
1 Day - BU 4400 Order Processing Department
Poprawa
Stckl
Perschke
Weweler
Simon/ Lohmeier/ Fibbe
09.04 - 08.05
First Project
Christian Bruns
3. Mechanism of separation
The Process
Separators are being used to clean liquids, more specifically,
liquid mixtures. Our field of application is to treat mainly Heavy
Fuel Oil, Diesel oil and Luboil as well as Bilge water.
Beside solid particles the water must be removed from the oil or
the oil from the water.
In a centrifugal Separator different densities are being used to
discharge the liquids and solids from each other by centrifugal
force in a fast rotating bowl
The Sedimentation
In a stationary settling tank liquids of different densities
along with the solids will form a deposit above each other after a
certain settling time. This is known as Sedimentation. Because the
densities of the solids are higher compared to water the solids
will sink much faster to the tank bottom. The liquid with the
lowest density will float on top after a while.
Big and heavy particles will settle down quite fast to the tank
bottom. This will happen even faster as well as higher the
difference in density between oil, water and the solid
particles.
G-force
In a separator the sedimentation will take place much faster due
to the high bowl speed. The unit of measurement of the
centrifugation acceleration the "times g-force" is being used.
The maximum g-force of a bowl depends on the diameter of the
bowl and the bowl speed and is limited mainly by the bowl material
(stainless steel) itself. The separator type OSD6 is the one with
the highest bowl speed (n = 12.000 1/min). The maximum g-force is
about 20.000 times force of gravity.
x
= Centrifugal acceleration
n = bowl speed [1/min]
r = bowl radius [m]
Sedimentation surface area, path
The sedimentation becomes more effective with a higher
clarification surface area and a smaller sedimentation path. The
design of the settling tank 1 is much better compared to tank 2
with regard to the clarification efficiency.
Bowl: the disk stack
The disk stack is acting like a very high number of flat shallow
settling tanks above each other. There are spacers on top of each
disk acting as distance pieces. Because of the short sedimentation
path a disk stack separators is very efficient. The dirty oil will
enter the disk stack from the outer diameter. The clean oil is
being discharged in the center.
The solids will be collected on the upper wall of each
inter-space and slide down to the sludge holding space of the bowl.
Because of that, the bottom surface must not be scratched nor
suffer on scaling as this will result in reduced efficiency. The
bottom sides of disks are super finish polished by factory.
4. The Separator
Separators are, beside the product which is being treated,
subdivided in the design of the drive and the bowl:
1. Flat belt drive or gear drive
2. Self-cleaning or non-self cleaning (solid wall bowl)
Gear
A centrifuge needs a gear because the bowl speed is much higher
than the motor speed. A gear drive consists of a bronze worm wheel
and worm spindle. The worm wheel drives the spindle. Because of
that the tooth load is rather high.
The horizontal gear parts are the following: clutch, horizontal
shaft, worm wheel, shaft bearings as well as gaskets and shaft
sealing rings. The feed pump is sometimes connected at the pump
drive end of separator
The design of a flat belt drive is not too sophisticated
.Because there is no horizontal shaft a belt driven separator
requires always an external feed pump unit.
The self-cleaning Separator
Onboard of todays seagoing vessels almost only self-cleaning
separators are installed. The entire process will be monitored and
observed by an quite sophisticated control cabinet and timing
unit.
The solids (sludge) collected in the sludge holding space of
bowl will be discharged in regular intervals. When doing so the
separation process will be interrupted for the cleaning cycle. The
sludge discharge ports in the bowl bottom will be opened at full
bowl speed.
The solid wall bowl
The design of solid wall bowl is easy to understand compared to
a self-cleaning bowl.
Even the process is easy to control and the control unit is not
too sophisticated. On the other hand for the manual cleaning a lot
of manpower and time is necessary.
During the manual cleaning the separator needs to be stopped.
Solid wall bowl separators are mainly being used for smaller
vessels running on Diesel Oil. The amount of solids in Diesel Oil
is not too high.
5. The separation efficiency
The separation efficiency of a Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) separator
depends besides on the general condition of the separator skid upon
the:
- Density, micron size and shape of the solid particles
- Viscosity and density of the oil
- Temperature
- Clarification surface area of bowl disk stack
- G-force of the bowl
- Flow rate
Flow rate and optimum capacity.
Its is know that separation efficiency is a function of the
centrifuges flow rate , the higher the flow rate, the more
particles are left in the oil and therefore the lowest separation
efficiency. The curve below shows the efficiency as a function of
the flow rate: the efficiency remain quite constant until dropping
at a certain flow rate, these flow rate is called as optimum
capacity. The flow rate is usually constant on the highest
viscosity.
.
6. First Project
In general, marine diesel burn residual fuel oils, the quality
of the fuel oils varies widely, depending on the grade and
processing of the fuel. Some may contain higher levels of
contaminants, such as water and abrasive solids, than others.
Catalytic fines and engine performance
Catalytic fines are small particles of spent catalyst, that
remain in the fuel after employing catalytic cracking processes to
refine crude oil into more valuable fractions , leaving residual
fuel oil as a bottom phase, enriched in contaminants.
These particles vary size anywhere from submicron to tenths of
microns, and can cause abrasive wear and damage to the engine, that
can lead to potentially unsafe operating condition. That is why the
level of catalytic fines must be reduced as much as possible by the
fuel cleaning system.
ISO 8217 and CIMAC fuel recommendation specify that the content
of catalytic fines may not exceed a maximum of 80 ppm, a maximum
cat fine content of 15 ppm is accepted before injection into engine
that required minimum separation efficiency of 81 %.
The new standard enables manufacturers to establish a certified
flow rate (CFR) for every centrifuge. Certified flow rate is
defined as the throughput rate in liters per hour at which 85% of
five-micron mono-dispersed artificial particles, which simulate
harmful catalytic fines, are removed from a synthetic fuel oil,
which simulate a high viscosity fuel oil.
The five-micron particles also help discriminate between good
separation and poor separation at those capacities recommended by
centrifuge suppliers. All centrifuges are capable of cleaning
particles that larger than 10 micron, while particles less than 2,5
micron prove too difficult to separate.
Tests
During laboratory tests the mixture of synthetic oil and plastic
particles is heated to a temperature that provides the same
viscosity as a fuel oils(380 mm/s and 700 mm/s at 50 C), when
heated to the normal separation temperature of 98C.
The samples to test is removed from the separation 30 min after
, because separation efficiency generally decreases approximately
15 to 20 minutes after start and then stabilizes into steady-state
condition.
The tests was made with microscopic counting procedure using the
THOMA-counting-chamber. The counting chamber is a precision
measuring instrument made of special optical glass. It is used to
count cells or other particles in suspensions under a
microscope.
All counting chambers have the same basic design principle
There are four longitudinal grooves in the central third of a
rectangular and thick base plate made of special optical glass.
The grooves are parallel to the short sides of the base plate
and the central third has the same size as the cover glass used
with the counting chamber. The two larger external surfaces are
unfinished and are used for marking purposes.
The central support and the two external supports are ground
smooth and polished. The surface of the central support is deeper
than that of the two external supports. The counting nets are
engraved in the central support (chamber base).
If a cover glass is placed on the external supports, a capillary
gap is produced between the underside of this cover glass and the
central support of the counting chamber.
Counting field
Counting assumes precise knowledge of the limit lines of the
counting chambers used.
With the microscope
Test particles
Mono-dispersed plastic 5 m particles;
Density: 1050 kg/m
Test oil
Automotive basic lube oil of type PAO 6
Density: 820 kg/m at 20 C
Viscosity Cinematic
at 100 C 5,8 mm/s
at 40 C 30,2 mm/s
Calculation
Formula
With the concentration for inlet and outlet sample calculate the
separation efficiency.
Separation Efficiency
= 100 (1 Cout/Cin),
where is separation efficiency in %,
Cout is number of the test specific particles in cleaned test
oil,
Cin is number of the test specific particles in test oil before
separator.
7. Test Results and Conclusion
The tests were made with samples from 2006. They needed to be
homogenized in an ultrasound machine to be tested. The results
reached between 80 and 91 percent. These will be automatic particle
counting method to compare the results.
In the electronic tests the particles are identified only by
size and the number. The concentration will be calculated only with
the 5 micron particles. Therefore, dust or other particles may
cause counting errors.
These CFR tests are a helpful tool to compare different
separator types provided that they have been tested according to
the standard and are designed according to general design
requirements regarding heavy fuel oil separation.
In this first period I learned a lot about separators, their
applications, the mechanisms of separation, the internal parts and
the possible mistakes on testing benches and during assembly.
With the knowledge acquired during this training period and with
the knowledge acquired at UFSC I believe I will be able to develop
any project given to me in the company and also improve my
performance in this test and thus, reach more precise results.
8. References
[1] Westfalia Basic Trainee. Competence Level 1 , Multimedia
Westfalia presentation 2008.
[2] Certified Flow Rate (CFR) PowerPoint presentation. 2007 by
Cristian Bruns.
[3] Marine diesel engines,catalytic fines and a new standard to
ensure operation. Written by Alfa Laval, BP Marine and MAN B&W
Diesel
[4] www.westfalia-separator.com
[5] www.geagroup.com
9. Attachments
CFR test OSD 18
TA Certificate
Flow Rate table
EMBED Equation.3
Internship Report- Harry Schmelzer Neto
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