Problem: Maintenance personnel at the Power House of a major university in New York noticed discoloration of the Mobil SHC 32 Lube Oil in their Solar Titan 130 Gas Turbine Generator after several years of operation. This prompted them to conduct oil analysis, and the lab results revealed an elevated varnish potential number of MPC 53. If left untreated, operators were worried that varnish would eventually plate out on the metal surfaces within the lube oil system, causing elevated bearing temperatures and possible premature wear and failure.
Solution: To effectively mitigate the varnish contamination in the turbine oil, maintenance personnel decided to use a 10 GPM Varnish Removal System from Oil Filtration Systems® equipped with Granular Adsorbent Media and a High Efficiency 5-Micron Beta>1000 Filter Element to re-circulate the oil in a kidney-loop configuration, continuously removing impurities while the turbine was in operation.
Results: The starting varnish content in the oil was MPC 53. After approximately 4 weeks of run-time, the varnish potential dropped significantly to MPC 7. In addition, the particle count in the oil improved from ISO 21/19/14 to ISO 18/15/12.
Conclusion: By implementing a 10 GPM Varnish Removal System from Oil Filtration Systems®, and maintaining the lube oil of their Solar Titan 130 Gas Turbine Generator at or below the recommended varnish potential of MPC 10, maintenance personnel at the Power House of this major university did everything possible to ensure optimal reliability and performance of their Gas Turbine, while minimizing down-time and costly repairs.