Using Mobil™ DTE 932 GT oil, a New Jersey cogeneration power plant achieved its extended overhaul-to-overhaul goals of more than 57,000 hours for two GE Frame 7EA gas turbines without any varnish. As the plant neared its change out cycle, the maintenance team wanted to find a way to reduce time and costs associated with the process.
Previously, the plant had been using a system cleaner to treat used oil at a 7% treat rate and let it circulate for 48-72 hours. The used oil was then drained before adding a flush oil to remove any residual system cleaner. Finally, the flush oil was drained, the system cleaned, and new oil added. In total, this process took approximately 108 hours per turbine.
The Mobil™ Engineering Team and its Integrated Services (ILS) partner, RIG, recommended using on oil soluble cleaner in lieu of the previous system cleaner to prepare the turbines for the oil change. The team recommended that the plant add a Solvancer®-based technology that was fully compatible with Mobil turbine oils, at a 5% treat rate, to the in-service oil one month prior to oil change and to continue operating the system under normal operating conditions during this time. At change out, the turbines were low point drained, reservoirs cleaned, and final filled at 16/14/12 particle count with Mobil DTE 932 GT oil.
Using Mobil’s bundled services simplified the change-out process. Leveraging a Solvancer-based technology developed by Fluitec® helped reduced time and cost to serve enabling the cogeneration operator to realize considerable efficiencies including reducing their maintenance hours by 72% (more than 3 days per turbine), reducing waste by 2,400 gallons, and generating more than $100k* in cost efficiencies while maximizing productivity.
In addition to reducing oil change out time by more than 70% and reducing waste oil by more than 25%, using the Solvancer-based technology helped deliver more than $100,000* in estimated cost savings.
