Oil treatment is an important component of operating and servicing power transformers. Operation of these devices makes the oil function at elevated temperatures, in contact with oxidants and become contaminated over time. This results in the oil’s cooling and insulation properties to degrade significantly, which can be corrected by special equipment and treatment technologies.
Zeolite Processing of Oil
Adsorption processing method is the simplest and most efficient process of transformer oil drying. The oil passes through special adsorbent substances, which trap the water from the oil in the sorbent.
The main requirements to the sorbent are:
– high adsorption capacity;
– highly selective adsorption;
– must not influence the hydrocarbon composition of the processed oil;
– high water containment capacity;
– ability for multiple restoration and use.
Zeolite fully satisfies all of the above requirements. Due to its structure, the process of capturing and releasing water are relatively simple. Crystals of zeolite consist of small cavities, connected by channels. The percentage of pores in the volume of the sorbent can reach 28-56% of the total volume.
The main component of a zeolite transformer oil processing unit are adsorbent columns. It also contains filters that trap particulate matter. One of the filters is installed at the unit’s outlet. It is necessary to capture zeolite granules if the support mesh integrity becomes compromised.
GlobeCore has developed compact and mobile zeolite oil processing units. These units can remove free and part of solved water from the oil, as well as particulate matter and soot with the capacity of up to 4 m3/hour. Any oil with viscosity below 70 cSt at 50ºС can be processed.
Special equipment is applied to restore saturated zeolite and dry fresh zeolite. Processing of fresh zeolite may take as long as 8-9 hours. The process of restoring saturate zeolite can take significantly longer. For more information on processing oil with zeolite, visit globecore.com.
