Application
A piston pump that processes 25% dewatered sludge feed to the incinerator at a wastewater treatment facility.

Situation Overview
A wastewater treatment facility was having problems with particulate and water contaminating the hydraulic reservoir on their piston pump which is used to process 25% dewatered sludge feed to the incinerator. An oil analysis report showed >5% water in the hydraulic oil as well as an ISO code of 22/19/17, these are at unacceptable levels for the piston pump to function properly.

The hydraulic oil is a year and half old, typically the facility would like to achieve 3 years of service life from the hydraulic oil prior to doing an oil change. An unscheduled oil change on the 200 gallon reservoir would cost $5000, this does not include lost production time due to the fact the piston pump would have to be shutdown during the oil change, as the facility does not have a spare pump for backup.

Solution
The wastewater treatment facility purchased a Trico portable filtration cart capable of filtering lubricating fluids up to 7500 SUS. They hope with the use of the filter cart, the reduction of water and particulate will allow them to achieve their goal of a 3 year service life from the hydraulic oil. After installing the cart, they filtered the 200 gallon reservoir approximately eight hours over a two day period. Once filtering was complete an oil sample was drawn from the hydraulic reservoir for testing.

Results
The results on the oil sample report indicated the filter cart significantly reduced the amount of contaminants within the hydraulic oil. The amount of water was reduced by 98% down to <.1% and the ISO code dropped to 18/16/12. The filter cart provides the wastewater treatment facility the opportunity to filter the hydraulic oil while the piston pump is in operation eliminating equipment downtime cost and extending lubricant life.

Piston pump with a 200 gallon
hydraulic oil reservoir at wastewater treatment facility