Oil mist eliminator(Oil mist separating system)
Oil mist mist?
Lubricating oil used for cooling or protection of high-speed rotating machines will generate airborne oily smoke due to collision or shearing during operation or under environmental conditions of high temperature and high pressure. The airborne oily smoke is called oil mist and its generation is unavoidable. Oil mist includes minimal oil particles of 0.03 to 10 microns and appears as light blue smoke due to the refraction of light. Today, there is a strong demand for environmental purification and protection, and development of procedures for handling oil mist is a serious challenge. Oil mist may cause the working environment to be degraded by oil adhered everywhere and, if handled inappropriately, it may cause serious accidents due to explosion.
■Principle of oil mist separation
Oil carried by the separation process is separated with an oil mist cartridge. This cartridge, containing a highly lipophilic medium, has been designed to maximize oil elimination while minimizing the differential pressure.
Oil droplet forming and separation
１． The cartridge made of oil separating media with precise multilayered structure is designed to pass polluted air and the highly lipophilic media will reliably capture oil droplets.
２． Because the media are relatively thick, they easily contact with oil droplets even if the clearance between fibers is greater than the oil droplet size.
３． An oil droplet adhered to fibers will coalesce with other droplets that are continuously separated, and grow into a bigger oil droplet.
４． Eventually, when the gravity exceeds the suction force between the oil droplet and fiber or the air flow rate, the oil droplet will be separated from the fiber and drained or accumulated as free oil in the container.
Cartridge saturation and balancing
During operation, the cartridge will reach the saturated or balanced state, where the volume of oil separated from air matches that drained. The saturated state is the normal operation state that allows the separating function to continue until the cartridge is clogged with granular pollutant separated by the machine from the oil mist.
