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I am watching "Deadliest Catch" as I type this.. The Northwestern just had to stop fishing and return to port because their centrifuge motor failed.

What does a crab boat need a centrifuge for? Seperating water from lube oil? Cleaning hydraulic oil? What?

Frank,
Many of the engines on large vessels I worked on had refiners, purifiners, centrifuges or what ever you want to call them for oil and fuel to seperate particulates.

Bruce...

Thanks for the info! I assumed it was important because they didn't want to run any longer than necessary without repairing it.

Bruce:

What you said makes more sense that what I thought I heard "You don't want water mixing with your fuel, and if this thing isn't running, it isn't seperating water from the fuel."

Can a centrifuge do that?

Tom

TailhookTom wrote:Can a centrifuge do that?

Absolutely!... Commercial vessels will have centrifugal "purifiers" and "clarifiers"... Separate ones for the oil and for the fuel... These centrifuges can separate both liquids (e.g. water and diesel) and solids (e.g. micro sized carbon particles) from liquids... Alfa Laval is the gold standard... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Laval and http://local.alfalaval.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx

Like Nav said it will also do water/fuel which can be a problem on commercial vessels and vessels running in extreme cold weather.

Thanks Navatech and Bruce -- I learned something new!

Tom

Tom,
This is a pic of a 168' yacht I worked on years back on the fuel management system. The boat had 3 - 3000hp Duetz engine and to get all 3 I had to take two pics. They are not spliced exactly but in the lower right you'll see the white pancake looking device. That's a Laval centrifuge.

You have to remember what the fuel they use goes through. Transport in older barges, storage in older tanks, all at extreme alternating temperatures and high humidity. Water will get entrained in diesel when it is constantly shaken up by 30 foot waves and that is a really bad thing for those expensive pumps and injectors!