The Problem
A large fertilizer facility was experiencing high thrust bearing teperatures which eventually lead to the plant tripping twice causing an estimated six days of total plant downtime. IFM was called in as a consultant to assist with trouble shooting.
Our Solution
IFM was able to find the root cause being a build up of varnish on the bearings. Due to production, the plant could not shut the compressor train down. IFM was able to bleed and feed 50% of the oil out increasing the quality of the oil and add a propriatery varnish mitigation chemical designed to remove the varnish that had plated out on the bearings and piping walls. The varnish was then returned to the oil reservoir where it was removed by a side stream varnish filtration skid. This process took only two days and included no downtime for the compressor. The plant began showing temperature decreases within five days. When IFM was called in to assist with this project the bearings were maintaining 277F with a trip limit at 280F, four months later the system is maintaining temperatures under 200F.