In Europe, as in other parts of the world, oil emissions from power plants are subject to increasingly stringent environmental laws. For a combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Denmark, the use of oil mist eliminators (OMEs) from Dollinger®, an SPX company, provided an effective solution.
The Escaping Oil Problem
The lube oil system for the plant’s turbines, which converts natural gas to power, vented to the atmosphere on the roof of the plant. Eliminating fugitive oil emissions was difficult because the majority of oil droplets were less than one micron in diameter. As a result, the plant was emitting a visible oil plume.
Dollinger Does the Job
Dollinger OMEs were fitted on the turbine vents at the plant. The OMEs are designed to collect 99.97% of oil droplets 0.3 micron and larger, thus removing virtually 100% of oil mist emissions. They guarantee no visible plume and limit oil carryover to less than 5ppm.
In the first five months after the OMEs were commissioned at the CHP plant, 400 liters of lube oil were recovered per turbine. The recovered oil was used in the incineration of hazardous wastes. (Other companies using the solution choose for the lube oil to be reused by the turbine in a continuous loop.)