Improving production of heat transfer fluid systems with solvency enhancers

Jo Ameye & Greg Livingstone

Introduces the key applications of heat transfer fluids, explores the root causes affecting their reliability, and presents Solvency Enhancement as a solution to deposit formation challenges.

Heat transfer systems (HTS) can be simple in design but complex when we think about the stress the oil undergoes. Understanding the bulk oil temperature can help estimate the thermal stress placed on the oil, however there are also higher thermal loads placed on the fluid at the interface of the piping as the oil flows are lower in this region causing accelerated oil degradation.

Supplemental pressurized oil systems, added to the system to increase the cooling capacity of the fluid, can be a further oxidative stress factor. Due to this thermal and oxidative degradation, contamination levels in the heat transfer fluid will quickly buildup and result in production and quality issues for example in the wooden plant manufacturing industry. Usually, the only solution for high contamination levels on heat transfer fluids, is the total exchange of the fluid, which is costly but not sustainable.

Solubility enhancement of fluids can be the way forward to improve and control deposit formation. These can provide a possible way to avoid maintenance issues such as pump failures, premature filter clogging etc..

With this paper we will go in more depth on the effect of solvency enhancement with heat transfer fluids as part of possible suggested maintenance actions.

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