INNOVATIVE COALESCENCE MEDIA AND WATER REMOVAL APPLICATIONS IN FUELS AND OILS

Transcription

1 INNOVATIVE COALESCENCE MEDIA AND WATER REMOVAL APPLICATIONS IN FUELS AND OILS Ruijun Chen 1 and Thomas Ramsey 2 1 Kaydon Filtration Corp. LaGrange, GA 30240, USA 2 Purafil, Inc, Doraville, GA 30340, USA ABSTRACT The requirement of removal of water contamination is particularly stringent with lube oils and diesel fuels, since the presence of even small amount of water contamination in them can cause numerous problems, such as thermal oxidation stabilities, lubricity, filterability, and equipment service life. To effectively and efficiently separate water contamination dispersions from lube oils and diesel fuels, two new coalescer elements designed based on a patented filter media SFM in Figure A are studied in this paper. Specifically, at first, a two-mode coalescence mechanism occurring in the above filter media is proposed. Secondarily, conceptual design of two new coalescer elements based on the above filter media is presented. Thirdly, two laboratory test stands justifying water removal performance of the above two new coalescer elements are addressed. Fourthly, water droplet motion on downstream surface of one new coalescer element is analyzed. Finally, experimental results of preliminary water removal tests with lube oils and diesel fuels are represented. These experimental results demonstrate amazing performances of those two new coalescer elements in separating water contamination dispersion from lube oils and diesel fuels. For example, within one single flow pass through one new coalescer element and then one commercial separator element at up to 10GPM flow rates, total water concentration in 75 0 F, ISO32 turbine lube oil stream can be reduced from up to 5% at system upstream to 40 ppm or less at system downstream as shown in Figure B. Figure A Patented Filter Media SFM Figure B Separation Performance per ISO32 Oil KEYWORDS Coalescer, Coalescence Filter, Separation, Fuel-Water Separation, Filtration Mechanism, Filter Media, Fibrous Media, Nonwoven Filter Media 1 Contact Information: Dr. Ruijun Chen, Kaydon Filtration Corp., 1571 Lukken Ind. Dr. W., LaGrange, GA 30240, USA; Phone: (706) x6270; Fax (706) ; rchen@kaydon.com

2 1. Introduction Lube oils and diesel fuels typically perform the following lubrication functions (1-5). Lube oils lubricate bearings and gears, cool lubricated parts, act as a hydraulic fluid for governor and valves as well as safety devices, and do as a sealant for gas seals such as hydrogen shaft seals in generators or gas seals on compressors. Diesel fuels mainly lubricate fuel pump and injector. Each of these lubrication functions requires that lube oils and diesel fuels have several physical and chemical properties suitable as effective lubricants. Contaminant water dispersion in lube oils and diesel fuels can have adverse effects on those suitable lubrication properties of both lube oils and diesel fuels. With few exceptions, chemical and physical stability of both lube oils and diesel fuels are threatened by even the slightest amount of water. Water can promote a host of chemical reactions with compounds and atomic species including oil and fuel additives, base oil stock and suspended contaminants. In combination with oxygen, heat, and metal catalysts, water is known to promote the oxidation and the formation of free radicals and peroxide compounds. Oxidation inhibitors are sacrificed by both neutralizing peroxides and breaking oxidation chain reactions to form stable compounds. Other oxidation inhibitors are known to form hydrogen sulfide and sulfonic acids when reacting with water. In other hands, water will affect the lubricant ability of providing a proper lubricating film, resulting in premature failure and excessive wear of sliding and rolling surfaces, such as in gears, fuel injector, and rolling element bears. Corrosion, cavitation, and premature oxidation and filter plugging of both lube oils and diesel fuels are other symptoms of water contamination. So removal of water contamination from lube oils and diesel fuels is a particularly stringent requirement. The maximum water contamination level in lube oils and diesel fuels is very strictly limited in the most of worldwide quality standards about lube oils and diesel fuels. For example, with respect to the maximum water contamination level in lube oils, Standards ASTM D a and ISO recommend a maximum water level in mineral turbine oil less than 0.02 wt%. Standard DIN does that less than wt%. GE Standard GEK107395A and ALSTOM Standard HTGD90117: require a maximum water contamination level in mineral lubrication oil of gas and steam turbines less than 0.02 wt%. Siemens Standard TLV901304: does that less than 0.01 wt%. With respect to the maximum water contamination in diesel fuels, Standard ASTM D975 recommends a maximum water contamination level in petrodiesel fuels to be less than 0.05 vol%. The European Standard EN590 calls that for less than 0.02 wt%. The most common water removal techniques are gravity settling, centrifugal separation, vacuum dehydration, polymer absorption, and coalescence filtration. Among them, coalescence filtration technique is the most cost-effective solution for separation of both free and emulsified water dispersions from mineral lube oils and diesel fuels. Although events of water dispersion coalescence occurring inside fibrous filter media are not adequately understood, Hazlet s three-step mechanism about water dispersion

3 coalescence process is widely accepted. Performance of this droplet coalescence process is highly dependent on the characteristic properties of both coalescence media (e.g., wettability of filter media surface, and size distributions of both filter media pore and media fiber diameter) and water contamination dispersions (e.g., water droplet face velocity and interfacial tensions). Traditional nonwoven coalescence media is hydrophobic barrier media, such as nonwoven silicone treated cellulose, and other successful coalescence media are nonwoven fibrous media with mixed hydrophilic and hydrophobic fibers and nonwoven glass fiber media with intermediate hydrophilicity (5-11). The presence of water contamination in lube oils and diesel fuels treated with various additives mainly disarms conventional fibrous coalescence media in two ways. 1) Water contamination dispersion is difficult to attach on coalescence media to commerce effective coalescence process, specifically in viscous lube oils. 2) The presence of additives in lube oils and diesel fuels can remarkably reduce interfacial tensions among water droplets and other contacting phases, such as fuels, oils and fibrous coalescence media. Those reductions of interfacial tensions result in less effective attachments of water contamination dispersions on conventional fibrous coalescence media and therefore less efficient and effective coalescence process. To solve those challenging coalescence filtration problems, a US-patented coalescence media SFM has been developed and two new coalescer elements based on the above coalescence media are studied in this paper. Specifically, the first is to introduce two-mode coalescence mechanism of the patented filter media SFM. The second is to address conceptual design of two new coalescer elements applied for water removal applications in diesel fuels and lube oils, respectively. The third is to briefly introduce two laboratory test stands for justifying water removal capabilities of the above two new coalescer elements. The fourth is to analyze water droplet motion on downstream surface of one new coalescer element in case of No 2 petrodiesel fuel. The fifth is to experimentally study water removal performances of the above two new coalescer elements in case of No 2 petrodiesel fuel and ISO32 turbine lube oil. 2. Two-Mode Coalescence Mechanism of US-Patented Filter Media SFM Patented coalescence media SFM has been developed to effectively and efficiently clean even heavy water contaminations in diesel fuels and lube oils (12). As sketched in Figure 1, coalescence media SFM consists of two different types of fibrous filter media restrained together by two support layers of wire mesh screens. One at flow upstream is at least one layer of nonwoven fibrous filter media with partially hydrophilic fiber surfaces. And another at flow downstream is at least one sheet of precisely woven monofilament fabrics with highly hydrophilic fiber surfaces. More specifically, the sheets of precisely woven monofilament fabrics are preferably completely wet by contaminant water dispersions if no oil/fuel flow passes through those monofilament fabric sheets. All layers of both nonwoven and precisely woven filter media are restrained together between two support layers of wire mesh screens to maintain those fibrous media

4 layers in touch with each other even under hydrodynamic interactions of through oil/fuel flow. Two-mode coalescence mechanism is proposed to systematically describe coalescence process of water contamination dispersion inside the patented filter media SFM. At the first mode, the fibrous nonwoven media captures contaminant water dispersions in a through oil/fuel flow, and then the collected water droplets coalesce into primary water droplets with sizes larger than the minimum opening size of the precisely woven monofilament fabrics while they migrate through the fibrous nonwoven media. At the second mode, the migrated primary droplets attach on sheets of the precisely woven monofilament fabrics at downstream in a generally uniform droplet pattern. Highly hydrophilic fiber surfaces of the precisely-woven monofilament fabrics drive those generally-patterned droplets to merge adjacent ones together into relatively large secondary droplets. Meanwhile, hydrodynamic interactions of the through oil/fuel flow drives primary water droplets onto the precisely-woven fabrics to furthermore merge with those attached secondary droplets. Those attached secondary water droplets continue to grow in sizes by droplet mergence to such an extent capable to be released from their attachment sites by the hydrodynamic interactions. In general, coalescence performance of the filter media SFM is highly dependent on characteristic properties of the precisely woven monofilament fabrics. For example, higher fiber hydrophilicity and smaller mesh open of the precisely-woven monofilament fabrics result in larger secondary droplets when released from the filter media SFM at downstream. Figure 1 Sketch of US-Patented Coalescence Media SFM

5 3. New Coalescer Element Design Conceptual design of two new coalescer elements is discussed in this section. Among them, one new coalescer element sketched in Figure 2 is noted as oil coalescer element in this paper. It is designed to study oil-water separation capability of patented filter media SFM and is made of two pleat media blocks, noted as inner and outer pleat media blocks. Each of the above two pleat media blocks is made of the patented coalescence media SFM with multiple layers of partially hydrophilic, nonwoven filter media and one sheet of highly hydrophilic, precisely woven monofilament fabric. The inner pleat media block is designed to perform both preliminary water dispersion coalescence and solid particle filtration, and the outer one is design to do primary water droplet coalescence. Two metal perforated tubes, noted as inner jacket and outer jacket in the figure, support those two pleat media blocks, respectively, to prevent them overdeformed due to hydrodynamic interactions of a through oil flow. All described element components are integrated with two endcaps together by epoxy glue. The main profile dimensions of this coalescer element are 6-inch outer element diameter and 44-inch total element length. The nominal oil flow direction is from the inside to the outside. The specific flow rate of the outer pleat media block is equal to 0.9 GPM/FT 2 based on 20 GPM through oil flow rate, where specific flow rate is defined as the ratio of through oil flow rate to flow-exposed media surface area on one media layer. Figure 2 Sketch of Oil Coalescer Element

6 Another new coalescer element in Figure 3 is noted as fuel coalescer element in this paper. It is designed to study fuel-water separation capability of innovative coalescence media SFM. As sketched in the figure, pleat media block is made of the patented coalescence media SFM with multiple layers of partially hydrophilic, nonwoven filter media and two sheets of highly hydrophilic, precisely woven monofilament fabric. Its specific flow rate is designed to be 2.6 GPM/FT 2 based on 10GPM through fuel flow rate. The above pleat media block is restrained between two metal perforated tubes, noted as outer support jacket and inner center tube in the figure, to prevent that overdeformed due to hydrodynamic interactions of a through fuel flow. All described element components and two endcaps as well as two gaskets are integrated together by epoxy glue. The major profile dimensions of this coalescer element are 4.25-inch outer element diameter and 12-inch total element length. The nominal direction of the through fuel flow is from the inside to the outside. Figure 3 Sketch of Fuel Coalescer Element 4. Two Laboratory Test Stands Separation capability studies of both oil and fuel coalescer elements are performed by a series of water removal tests per laboratory test stands sketched in Figures 4 and 5, respectively. Laboratory oil test stand in Figure 4 is used to study oil-water separation performance of oil coalescer element with ISO32 turbine lube oil. Clean tap water stream at a predetermined flow rate is continuously injected into ISO32 turbine lube oil flow coming from the oil reservoir, and both lube oil flow and clean injection water stream are well mixed together by the oil gear pump rotating at a predetermined speed. After heated to a predetermined oil temperature, the oil-water blend flow passes through oil coalescer element in the inner-to-outer direction, located inside the oil test stand vessel with clear polycarbonate side wall. Water contamination dispersion is coalesced inside oil coalescer element into enlarged water droplets, released from element

7 downstream surface. Large water droplets among released ones are settled out of oil phase to the water accumulation sump by gravity whence bulk water there is manually drained out. Water-clean oil flow further passes through separation mesh screen of separator element K3100 in the outer-to-inner direction before returning back to the oil reservoir. Any remaining water droplets, which are too small to be settled down by gravity but too large to pass through pores of the separation mesh screen, attach on that. Those attached water droplets continue to grow in sizes by coalescing themselves with the remaining water droplets from the in-coming through oil flow until gravity releases those enlarged droplets from the separation mesh screen and settles them out of oil phase down to the water accumulation reservoir. The water-clean oil flow is sampled at system downstream at a 30-minute rate while test condition parameters, such as element differential pressure and oil temperature, are stable. Total water contents of those samples are measured with Karl Fisher Coulometer METTLER TOLEDO DL32 per water analysis procedure (13). Water content at system upstream is estimated per flow rate of clean water stream and oil-water blend flow rate through oil coalescer element. Test condition parameters displayed by various gauges in the laboratory oil test stands are recorded during separation tests. Figure 4 Sketch of a Laboratory Oil Test Stand

8 The laboratory fuel test stand in Figure 5 is used to study fuel-water separation performance of fuel coalescer element in case of No 2 petrodiesel fuel. As sketched in Figure 5, clean tap water stream at a predetermined flow rate is continuously injected into No 2 petrodiesel fuel flow coming from fuel reservoir. Both fuel flow and clean injection water stream are well mixed by the fuel gear pump rotating at a predetermined speed. The fuel-water blend flow then passes through fuel coalescer element in the inner-to-outer direction, which is located in the fuel test stand vessel with clear cylindrical side wall. Water contamination dispersion is coalesced inside fuel coalescer element into enlarged water droplets, which are released from fuel coalescer element at downstream. Released water droplets are settled out of fuel phase to the water accumulation sump by gravity whence bulk water there is manually drained out. Before returning back to the fuel reservoir, water-clean fuel flow is sampled at downstream of fuel coalescer element per a 30-minute rate while differential pressure over fuel coalescer element and fuel temperatures at the through fuel-water blend flow are stable. Total water contents of those fuel samples are measured with Karl Fisher Coulometer METTLER TOLEDO DL32 per water analysis procedure (13). Water content at upstream of fuel coalescer element is estimated per flow rate of clean water stream and fuel-water blend flow through fuel coalescer element. Test condition parameters displayed by various gauges in the laboratory fuel test stand are recorded during water removal tests. Figure 5 Sketch of a Laboratory Fuel Test Stand

9 5. Water Droplet Motion on Downstream Surface of Fuel Coalescer Element Water droplet motion on downstream surface of fuel coalescer element is studied with video camera Sony Handycam DCR-SX65. To directly observe water droplet motion on element downstream surface, fuel coalescer element is specially fabricated with no outer jacket to support pleat media block, and furthermore the through fuel-water blend flow is reduced to 1.2GPM flow rate to prevent pleat media block over-deformed during experiments. Specifically, 0.3GPM clean water flow is injected into 0.9GPM, No 2 petrodiesel fuel stream at upstream of the fuel gear pump. Total water contents at element upstream and element downstream are 25% and 110 ppm, respectively. As shown in Figure 5, this special fuel coalescer element is located inside the test stand vessel with clear polycarbonate side wall, through which motion of released water droplets is recorded by the video camera. Together with time interval between two sequential pictures, a series of photo pictures are presented in Figure 6 to present trajectory of one water droplet on the element downstream surface, which is noted by one white color circle in the figure. This noted water droplet continuously displaces neighboring fuel boundary layers away from their attachment sites and reflows on the highly hydrophilic, precisely woven fabric surface to grow in sizes until it is released. The major reflowing motion of the circled droplet is in the direction of gravity. When the noted water droplet is released, its droplet diameter is estimated to be about 0.35 inches, and its average speed moving on the precisely-woven fabric surface in the gravity direction is about 0.3 inches per second. Figure 6 Water Droplet Motion on Downstream Surface of Fuel Coalescer Element

10 6. Water Removal Performances of Oil Coalescer Element Water removal performance of oil coalescer element is investigated based on a series of oil-water separation tests per laboratory oil test stand in Figure 4. ISO32 turbine lube oil (e.g., Chevron GST ISO32) is used in all those separation tests. Oil temperature, oilwater blend flow rate, and water contamination level are three test parameters. At the first set of water removal performance tests, oil temperature of through oil-water blend flow is maintained to be constant temperature F, and oil-water blend flow rate through oil coalescer element is set to be 10GPM, 15GPM, or 20GPM. Water content level at system upstream maintains to be 5283 ppm. That is, 200CCM water injection flow per 10GPM oil-water blend stream, 300CCM water injection flow per 15GPM oilwater blend stream, or 400CCM water injection flow per 20GPM oil-water blend stream. Water-clean oil flow at system downstream is sampled for a two-hour test period at a 30-minute rate while test condition parameters, such as oil temperature and element differential pressure, are stable. Total water contents in those oil samples are measured with Karl Fisher Coulometer Mettler Toledo DL32 and corresponding measurement results are listed in table one. Experimental results in the table demonstrate that, within one single flow pass through oil coalescer element and then separator element K3100, 5280 ppm water content at system upstream is reduced to 80.5 ppm at system downstream with respect to 20GPM through flow rate and furthermore to 70.5 ppm at system downstream with respect to 10GPM through flow rate. In general, it is observed from test data in the table that through oil-water blend flow rate has adverse impact on droplet coalescence performance of oil coalescer element. That is, larger through oilwater blend flow rate generally results in higher water content at system downstream. Table One. Impact of through Oil-Water Blend Flow on Water Removal Performance Water Injection Flow Rate per Through Oil Water Blend Flow Rate Total Water Content at System Outlet (ppm) (GPM) (GPM) (GPM) 80.5 At the second set of water removal performance tests, oil-water blend flow through oil coalescer element is maintained at constant flow level 10GPM, but temperature of the oil-water blend flow is changed among the following three temperature levels, that is, 75 0 F, 95 0 F and F. At each oil temperature level, clean tap water stream at either 45CCM or 30GPH flow rates is injected into the lube flow at upstream of the oil gear pump. That is, water contamination levels at system upstream are maintained at either 0.12% (exactly 1189ppm) or 5%. Water-clean oil flow is sampled at system downstream for a two-hour test period at a 30-minute rate while test conditions are stable. Total water contents in those oil samples are measured with the same Karl Fisher

11 Coulometer, and corresponding measurement results are listed in table two. Experimental results in the table demonstrate that, within one single flow pass through oil coalescer element and separator element K3100, 1189 ppm water content at system upstream is reduced to 79.5 ppm at system downstream at F oil temperature and furthermore to 17.3 ppm at system downstream at 75 0 F oil temperature. Those experimental results in the table also show that, within one single flow pass through oil coalescer element and separator element K3100, 5% water contamination at system upstream is reduced to 85.2 ppm at system downstream at F oil temperature and furthermore to 29.1 ppm at system downstream at 75 0 F oil temperature. In general, it is observed from test data in the table that both water contamination level at system upstream and oil temperature at through oil-water blend flow have adverse impact on droplet coalescence performance of oil coalescer element. That is, larger water contamination level and higher oil temperature generally result in higher water content level at system downstream. More specifically, at the same level of water contamination at system upstream, lower oil temperature results in lower water content at system downstream. At the same level of oil temperature, higher water contamination at system upstream results in higher water content at system downstream. It deserve a special mention that, as temperature of ISO32 turbine lube oil is decreased from F to 75 0 F, its viscosity increases about 5 times and its dissolved water content reduces about 4 time. Oil coalescer element studied in this paper delivers one practical coalescencebased solution to clean heavy water contamination dispersion from very viscous lube oils. With one single flow pass, heavy water contamination dispersion is reduced to a high water-clean level comparable with that of a commercial vacuum dehydration system. Table Two. Oil Temperature Impact on Water Removal Performance Water Injection Flow Rate (Water Contamination System Inlet) Water System Outlet (ppm) per Oil Temperature ( 0 F) 45 CCM (1189 ppm) 17.3 / / / GPH (5%) 29.1 / / / 120 At the third set of water removal performance tests, oil-water blend flow through oil coalescer element is maintained at constant flow rate 10GPM, but temperature of the oil-water blend flow are maintained at either 75 0 F or F. At each oil temperature level, clean tap water stream at a predetermined flow rate is injected into the lube oil flow at upstream of the oil gear pump, and water-clean oil flow is sampled at system downstream at a 30-minute rate while test conditions are stable. Total water contents in those oil samples are measured with the same Karl Fisher Coulometer. Total water content in system upstream is estimated per flow rate of clean water injection stream and oil-water blend flow rate through oil coalescer element. Those measurement results

12 at both system downstream and system upstream and their 2 nd order polynomial trend lines are presented in Figure 7, Experimental test results in the figure demonstrate that, within one single flow pass through oil coalescer element and then separator element K3100 at flow rate 10GPM, up to 5% water content at system upstream is reduced to 86.2 ppm or less at system downstream at oil temperature F and furthermore to 39.0 ppm or less at downstream at oil temperature 75 0 F. In general, it is observed in the figure that both oil temperature at the through oil-water blend flow and water contamination level at system upstream have adverse impacts on droplet coalescence performance of oil coalescer element. That is, higher oil temperature and higher water contamination level generally result in higher water content level at system downstream. More specifically, at the same level of oil temperature, higher water contamination at system upstream results in higher water content at system downstream. At the same level of water contamination, lower oil temperature results in lower water content at system downstream. Figure 7 Water Removal Performances per 10GPM, ISO32 Turbine Lube Oil Flow 7. Water Removal Performances of Fuel Coalescer Element Water removal performance of fuel coalescer elements is studied based on a series of fuel-water separation tests per laboratory fuel test stand in Figure 5 (14). Clean tap water stream at a predetermined flow rate is injected into No 2 petrodiesel fuel flow at upstream of the fuel gear pump rotating at a predetermined speed. Water-clean fuel flow at element downstream is sampled at a 30-minute rate while differential pressure over the fuel coalescer element is stable. Total water contents in those fuel samples are measured with the same Karl Fisher Coulometer. Water content at element upstream is calculated based on the rate ratio of injected water stream to through fuel-

13 water blend flow. Those measurement results at both downstream and upstream and their 2 nd order polynomial trend lines with R 2 values are presented in Figure 8. Experimental test results in the figure demonstrate that, within one single flow pass through fuel coalescer element, total water content in 4.8GPM fuel-water blend flow is reduced from 10.4% at upstream to 198 ppm at downstream and that in 10GPM fuelwater blend fuel flow is reduced from 1.7% at upstream to 240 ppm at downstream. Summarily, it is observed in the figure that both fuel-water blend flow rate through fuel coalescer element and water contamination level at element upstream have adverse impacts on water removal performance of fuel coalescer element. That is, larger fuelwater blend flow rate and higher water contamination level generally result in lower water removal performances. Finally, it deserves a special mention that all fuel-water separation tests noted in the figure are performed without the help of separator element. In other words, water droplets released from fuel coalescer element are large enough to be effectively settled out of No 2 petrodiesel fuel phase down to the water accumulation sump by gravity. Figure 8 Separation Performance of Fuel Coalescer Element per No 2 Petrodiesel Fuel 8. Conclusions This paper is mainly directed to introduce conceptual design of both fuel and oil coalescer elements and their related water removal performances in case of No 2 diesel

14 fuel and ISO32 turbine lube oil. Many unique features make oil coalescer element capable to clean heavy water contaminations from ISO32 turbine lube oil to a high water-clean level comparable with that of a commercial vacuum dehydration system. Water droplet motion on element downstream surface and water removal performances of both new coalescer elements are extensively studied. From those investigations of new coalescer elements and water removal performances, it can be concluded that: 1. Attached secondary water droplets reflow on downstream surface of fuel coalescer element and continue to grow in sizes until released from their attachment sites. Strong fiber wettability of the precisely woven fabrics improves large droplet attachment on the patented coalescence media SFM at downstream so that released water droplets are so large as to be effectively settled out of No 2 petrodiesel fuel by gravity without the help of separator element 2. Within one single flow pass through oil coalescer element and then separator element K3100, up to 5% water contamination in ISO32 turbine lube oil flows at up to 10GPM flow rates can be effectively cleaned to a water content level less than 86 ppm at oil temperature F, and even less than 30 ppm at oil temperature 75 0 F 3. Within one single flow pass through oil coalescer element and then separator element K3100, up to 0.12% water contamination in ISO32 turbine lube oil flows at up to 10GPM flow rates can be effectively cleaned to a water content level less than 80 ppm at oil temperature F, and even less than 18 ppm at oil temperature 75 0 F 4. Up to 0.5% water contamination in F, ISO 32 turbine lube oil flow can be effectively cleaned to a water content level less than 81 ppm within one single flow pass through oil coalescer element and then separator element K3100 at up to 20GPM flow rates. The same water contamination can be further reduced to a water content level less than 71 ppm within one single flow pass through the above two filter elements at up to 10GPM flow rates 5. Up to 10% water contamination dispersions in No. 2 petrodiesel fuel stream at up to 4.8GPM flow rates can be effectively cleaned to a water content level less than 200 ppm within one single pass through fuel coalescer element at room temperature. Furthermore, up to 1.7% water contaminations in No 2 petrodiesel fuel steam at up to 10GPM flow rates can be effectively cleaned to a water content level less than 240 ppm within one single flow pass through fuel coalescer element 6. Water-clean levels at system downstream are compatible with those of vacuum dehydration systems when 75 0 F, ISO32 turbine oil flow passes through oil coalescer element and then separation element K3100 at up to 10GPM flow

15 rates. But water removal efficiency of the current coalescence-based solution is much higher than that of vacuum dehydration one 9. References 1. George E. Totten, Steven R. Westbrook, and Rajesh J. Shah, Fuels and Lubricants Handbook: Technology, Properties, Performance, and Testing (ASTM Manual Series: MNL37WCD), ASTM International, June B.D. Batts and Z. Fathoni, "A Review of Fuel Stability with Particular Emphasis on Diesel Fuel", Energy and Fuel, 5, 2-21, (1991) 3. D. Wilfong, et. al., Emerging Challenges of Fuel Filtration, Filtration, 10, 2, , (2010) 4. R. L. Brown, Jr., and T. H. Wines, Improve Suspended Water Removal from Fuels, Hydrocarbon Processing, 72, 12, 95-99, (1993) 5. I. Ferrer and C. Yang, Fluoropolymer Fine Fiber, US Patent No. 2009/ A1, (2009) 6. Y. Li, et al., Coalescer for Hydrocarbons Containing Surfactant, US Patent No B1, (2002) 7. P. A. Reiman, Method of Forming a Fiber Glass Water Coalescing Media and Article Thereof, US Patent No , (1964) 8. C. Stanfel and F. Cousart, Coalescence Media for Separation of Water- Hydrocarbon Emulsions, US Patent No. 2009/ A1, (2009) 9. G. Chase and P. Kulkarni, Mixed Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic Fiber Media for Liquid-Liquid Coalescence, US Patent No. 2010/ A1, (2010) 10. Matt Parker, III; Michael D. Blom; Roger K. Miller, Method and Means for Dewatering Lubricating Oils, US Patent No , (1990) 11. K. Moorthy, et. al., Effect of Wettability on Liquid-Liquid Coalescence, AFS Conference, Ann Harbor, (September 2005) 12. R. Chen and W. Martin, "Apparatus and Method for Removing Contaminants from Industrial Fluids", US Patent Publication No. US2011/ A1, (2011) 13. Kaydon Quality Procedure 56 - Karl Fisher Water Analysis, R. Chen and J. Jose, Water Removal Performance Report of FCP Fuel Filtration System, Kaydon Filtration Engineering Report, 2010