Monitoring Leaks from Heat Exchanger - Paper Plant
The Situation
A Paper plant in the Eastern US uses 500 GPM filtered pond water for cooling lubricating oil in their paper line. The now warmer water is sewer to an on-site pond. Because the water is used to cool lubricating oil, the plant could not reuse the water in their pulping process for fears of possible oil contamination of the paper pulp. The plant needed to be able to reuse the water to reduce their energy and water filtration costs.
The Paper plant looked for a leak detector to quickly indicate when the lube oil coolers leak. Samples of the target oil were analyzed to determine if fluorescence could quickly measure the oil at less than 1 part per million.
The Solution
With a TD-1000C and a TD-500D Oil in Water Monitors, the customer can quickly detect a leaking heat exchanger. When no oil is present the water can be re-used in the pulping process with a reduced energy cost. The TD-1000C provides continuous on line detection of lube oil. The TD-500D is used for field analysis of water samples to determine which lube oil cooler is leaking.
Numerous technologies and products were evaluated for this application. A monitor with no moving parts, no significant effect from turbidity and able to detect the lube oil below 1ppm was determined to be the best solution.
Fast, reliable and accurate detection of lubricating oil in the water was needed.
Samples of the paper mills lubricating oil were collected and sent to the TDHI factory. From these samples it was determined that the lubricating oil could be detected below 1 part per million with minimal effect from turbidity, and with no moving parts. Other technologies like Turbidity and UV Absorption were considered, but due to the pond water source, these technologies would give false indication of oil due to the presence of solid particles and other organics in the water.
“In the paper industry, saving water and energy is key to profitability. The TD-1000C and TD-500D are allowing us to do just that” states Charles Merris, Senior Energy Project Engineer.
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