Hydrocarbon Filtration

Water is one of the most common contaminants in a hydrocarbon fluid system and one of the most damaging, which is why hydrocarbon removal filters are often necessary. When water contaminates a system, it can cause serious problems such as engine stall, enhanced bacterial growth, disturbed production processes, removal of additives, corrosion by etching metal, reduced conductivity and enhanced abrasive wear in hydraulic components.

For the filtration of fuels and hydrocarbon process-streams there is a wide range of filters. These filters are all dimensionally interchangeable, and both surface filters and depth filters are available. The filters offer nominal filtration and the filtration degree ranges from 0.5 micron to 75 micron. Hydrocarbon process and fuel filtration are usually employed to remove process contaminants, pipe-scale and transport contaminants, and to improve the appearance and the acceptance of the product.

Unlike process hydrocarbon removal filters, which are normally applied in single pass process streams, hydraulic and lubrication filters are treating re-circulating oils. At the same time the demands for cleanliness are much more stringent than for most process applications: hydraulic and lubrication systems operate with small amounts of liquids, high pressure and strong demands for lubrication and life time. Modern lubrication and hydraulic systems have very small component clearances. Therefore the filtration in this field is usually absolute filtration.