Does anyone mix water in their oils as part of the cleaning process?

[Devilish]

Recently I was explaining to an ex navy guy my idea for an high volume centrifuge. He asked if I was using water in the cleaning process. It seems that when the fuel is being cleaned by the centrifuge on a ship that water is mixed to catch particles then is drained by a valve with the cleaned oil going out a drain in the center area. What I am thinking is to mix the water and oil then put in a large tote then let settle for a while before centrifuging.

I'm wondering if there's a level of mixing that is beyond the point of settling. For our uses is this a waste of time or worth the effort. Maybe this could increase our cleaning efficiency and lower tailpipe particulates. Anybody got any experience of thoughts on this?

 

[wmoguy]

Interesting thought. Never tried it myself. Disposing of the black water doesn't sound fun to me.

 

[Devilish]

I've been thinking about this a little bit. I'm wondering if metals and other stuff can be loosened fron the oil suspension using this method. Could be most effective way of capturing sub micron particles. Soot is oily so I don't think there will be "black water". Don't forget, water is cheap.

 

[wmoguy]

Water is cheap. But for me disposing of oily water is not so easy. Maybe it is in your area?

I have a half dozen high power magnets in my centrifuge barrel that do a dandy job of collecting metal particles. A couple thousand gallons later and I still haven't needed to clean off the magnets.

 

[FordGuy100]

I would suspect most metals supended in the oil are non metallic. Brass, aluminum, etc, tin, etc.

 

[Brad S.]

As far as the water goes, could one leave it out in the sunlight & heat, evaporate it off.

 

[Devilish]

The military and commercial shippers use centrifuge water systems to clean their fuels and oils. The water is used to remove metals and other hard deposits. The metals arent all ferrous. This includes copper, brass, and aluminum. Obviously we don't use surplus ship centrifuges because of size, power requirements, and needs. The types of centrifuge we use to our clean fuels is called a clarifier. This means they are used mostly to remove solids and a small amount of water.
The fuels we attempt to clean have impurities and the exact composition and levels are unknown to us. This can include metals, carbons, dirt, acids, alcohols, and glycols. Methods used to clean our fuels bring the levels of impurities low enough to be used without damaging our engines. IDI engines with mechanical injection systems are far more tolerant of impurities as compared to computer managed direct injection engines. There is an increase in tailpipe emissions from wmo, watf, whyd, wvo, and others compared to road diesel and svo.
I have commercial paint shaking machines. These machines are big enough to shake a 6 gallon bucket. This winter I am thinking of mixing oil and water then allowing time to separate. I don't know how efficient this would be in the overall scheme of cleaning. The results I'm hoping for is lower emissions, lower egt's and ease of cleaning. One concern for me is the amount of mixing I do. If I mix too long do I emulsify the oil and water to a point it can't separate from. What ratio of water to oil do I use. Brad is right about evaporating water as a method of disposal. The waste water could also be reused after settling. Since oil and water are polar opposites, can clean water be drained out of the middle of a barrel of water for uncontaminated water disposal?