Lube and Hydraulic Oil Purifiers with Integrated Oil Dehydrators: What They Are and Why You Need Them

Manage Many Contaminants with One Machine

Industrial oil purifiers with integrated oil dehydrators are essential for maintaining the quality and service life of industrial lube and hydraulic oils. They remove contaminants such as water, gases, dirt, metallic particles, and other solids. This helps improve the oil's performance while reducing wear and tear and the cost of equipment ownership.

What is an oil purifier?

An oil purifier is a device or process that removes unwanted contaminants from industrial lube and hydraulic oils.  It is widely recognized that these “oil purifiers” remove water, gases, and solid contaminants. Other common names for an oil purifier are “oil dehydration unit,” “oil purification and dehydration unit,” and “oil dehydrator.” 

How do they work?

These systems work by passing the oil through a dehydration and filtration process. The oil dehydration process usually consists of a heater and a vacuum chamber. Both heat and vacuum improve the efficiency but must be limited to avoid damaging the oil.  The vacuum dehydrator removes free and dissolved water and gasses exhausting them to the atmosphere through the vacuum pump. The filters remove particles, such as dirt, scale, and metal shavings.. 

These systems are typically connected to an oil reservoir in a kidney loop circuit.  The oil is recirculated through the oil purifier continuously until the desired water concentration and ISO cleanliness level (measure of particulate content) is reached.

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Do I Need an Oil Purifier

Oil purifiers with integrated oil dehydrators are essential for improving industrial oils' quality and service life. Contaminants in oil can cause several problems.  Following are some examples:

• Reduced performance: Contaminants in lube oil can interfere with the oil's ability to lubricate. This can result in excessive friction and heat, reducing machine efficiency and productivity.
• Increased wear: Water contamination can cause corrosion and reduced hydrodynamic film thickness, leading to component wear and premature machine failure.
• Hydraulic control issues: Air bubbles increase the compressibility of hydraulic fluids.  This will eventually result in sluggish or unresponsive control within a hydraulic system.  Lack of control presents process and safety issues that can be very costly.

Benefits of Using an Oil Purifier

Following the issues mentioned above, there are several benefits to using an oil purifier with an integrated oil dehydrator, including:

• Improved equipment performance: Oil purifiers can help improve equipment performance by removing contaminants that can interfere with lubrication and protection.
• Improved machine reliability and productivity: Oil purifiers with dehydrators can help reduce machine failures and lengthen service intervals by removing contaminants that erode and corrode critical components.
• Reduce the cost of replacing oil: Oil purifiers can help extend the oil service life by removing contaminants that break it down.

Industries Using Oil Purifiers with Integrated Oil Dehydrators

• Power generation and distribution
• Petrochemical processing
• Metalworking
• Food processing
• Pulp & paper
• Mining

If you use industrial oils in your operation, you should consider using an oil purifier to protect equipment, processes, and profits.  Let Powerflow Fluid Systems help you choose an oil purifier that meets your needs.