A steel mill was experiencing rolling mill bearing reliability issues and high oil consumption as a result of daily decanting accumulated water from the bottom of the reservoir. The oil was very cloudy and losing its demulsibility (ability to shed water)
The contamination challenge was to reduce and maintain the water level from 29,000 ppm (2.9%) water in the oil to a suitable level that would eliminate the need to decant accumulated water.
The mill also wanted to drastically reduce rolling mill oil consumption which was ~72,000 gallons / 270,000 liters per year at $8 a price of per gallon. The mill was also losing roller bearings with high frequency at a cost of $30,000 per bearing.
In addition to the oil consumption, downtime and bearing replacement costs the decanted water and oil mixture was drained into a sealed retention pond from which the oil had to be periodically removed.
The VUD was installed and within one shift the water level dropped from 29,000 ppm to 17,735 ppm and after two weeks the water level was holding steady and measured at 383 ppm.
The oil no longer had the cloudy appearance of chocolate milk or mud and the mill had stopped the daily routine of decanting accumulated free water and oil mixture from the bottom of the reservoir and into the pond. The operators also noticed that the oil had stopped leaking around roll stand gearbox labyrinth seals.
With the elimination of roll stand leaks, topping off to compensate for leaks and decanting initial estimates showed a 25,000 gallon / 93,750 liter (35%) reduction in annual oil consumption with a cost savings of ~$201,600. Major oil consumption has now been narrowed to oil lost in roll stand changes. Retention pond oil recovery efforts have also been greatly reduced.
What HY-PRO provided:
- Steel Mill Lube Oil
- Vacuum Dehydration
- Water Removal
