Jenbacher Centrifugal Oil Filter
INNIO Jenbacher designs and manufactures gas engines and cogeneration modules. Jenbacher engines enable flexible, low-emission power generation by operating on a broad fuel spectrum, including pipeline natural gas, hydrogen blends, 100% hydrogen, biogas, biomethane (renewable natural gas (RNG)), landfill gas (LFG), sewage gas (digester gas), and syngas (synthesis gas), supporting grid stability and decarbonization.
INNIO Group is the parent company that owns both the Jenbacher and Waukesha gas engine brands. Both Jenbacher and Waukesha are established names in the field of industrial gas engines, focusing on applications like power generation and gas compression. While operating under the INNIO umbrella, they maintain distinct brand identities. Jenbacher’s primary operations are based in Jenbach, Austria, which also serves as INNIO’s headquarters. Waukesha’s primary operations are located in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA.
The Problem with Siloxanes
While Jenbacher engines have a broad fuel tolerance, the common requirement is the removal of silicon-containing compounds known as siloxanes. These compounds turn into abrasive silicon dioxide (silica) during combustion. Silica deposits can accumulate in the combustion chamber, on valves, spark plugs, and turbochargers, leading to increased engine wear, reduced efficiency, and potential downtime. Inadequate removal of contaminants like siloxanes will inevitably lead to accelerated deposit formation, increased abrasive wear, lube oil degradation, and potential catalyst failure, resulting in higher lifecycle costs and reduced availability.
The Role of Lubricating Oil
The lubricating oil within a Jenbacher gas engine performs multiple critical functions, but is subject to oil degradation and contamination over its operational life. Solid contaminant management within the lube oil ensures engine reliability and longevity. The engine lube oil provides lubrication, cooling, sealing, cleaning, and corrosion protection. The Jenbacher gas engine inevitably leads to oil degradation through oxidation, nitration, thermal breakdown, additive depletion, and contamination. Routine lube oil analysis is critical for monitoring the engine oil condition.
Why Jenbacher Prohibits Oil Sweetening
Jenbacher does not recommend oil sweetening (continuous oil refreshing) or partial oil changes. When oil sweetening, part of the lube oil is removed several times during an oil interval, and fresh lube oil is added. During a partial lube oil change, a large amount of the lube oil is drained during an oil interval, and fresh lube oil is added. Both oil sweetening and partial oil changes are procedures used to artificially maintain the lube oil at a desired aging condition or delay the lube oil change until a desired time. Both procedures are technically feasible for keeping the oil at the desired aging condition, but they are not allowed for Jenbacher engines.
The Damage from Solid Contaminants
The abrasive wear of solid contaminants circulating within the lube oil has numerous detrimental effects on the Jenbacher engine and the lube oil itself. This primary damage mechanism is caused by hard particles like dirt (silica, alumina), certain wear metals, and silica from siloxane combustion. When these solid particles enter the narrow clearances between moving parts, they act like sandpaper, scratching, gouging, and cutting the surfaces.
Particles similar in size to the lube oil film thickness tend to cause the most severe damage, as they bridge the gap and directly interact with both surfaces. This abrasion not only removes material from critical components, leading to increased tolerances, loss of efficiency, and eventual failure, but it also generates more wear particles, creating a damaging chain reaction of wear.
When Soot Becomes a Bigger Problem
While individual soot particles are very small, their effects become significant at higher concentrations. As dispersants deplete, soot particles agglomerate into larger clusters. These agglomerates significantly increase the oil’s viscosity (thickening). Agglomerated soot particles become abrasive, directly causing engine wear. Due to dispersant failure, soot agglomerates tend to deposit on engine surfaces, forming sludge (soft deposits) and varnish (harder, baked-on deposits). These deposits can restrict narrow oil passages, plug oil filters, impede heat transfer, and interfere with engine component movement. Freshly generated metallic wear particles, particularly copper and iron, are chemically active and act as catalysts that significantly accelerate the rate of oil oxidation.
Why Full-Flow Filters Aren’t Enough
Given the detrimental effects of solid contaminants within the Jenbacher lube oil, effective removal strategies are essential for maintaining lube oil quality, protecting engine components, and achieving optimal operational life and cost-effectiveness. Better oil filtration is the answer. A full-flow oil filtration system provides immediate protection by removing larger contaminant particles that could cause rapid, catastrophic damage. Typical full-flow oil filters effectively remove particles larger than 30-40 microns. They are not effective at removing fine abrasive particles (<10 microns) or soot particles (often sub-micron) that contribute significantly to long-term wear and oil degradation.
The Case for Bypass Filtration
Bypass filtration is designed to overcome the limitations of full-flow oil filters by removing fine contaminants. Designed to clean only 10% of the total oil flow from the main lubricating system, bypass filters effectively remove fine abrasive particles, soot agglomerates, and other solid contaminants that readily pass through the primary full-flow oil filter. Bypass filtration significantly improves the overall engine oil cleanliness by continuously removing fine wear particles, dirt, dust, silica, sand, sludge, engine wear metals, and soot.
The Right Fit for Jenbacher Gensets: Centrifugal Oil Filter Solution
Jenbacher refers to their secondary oil filtration system as a centrifugal oil filter or centrifugal bypass filter. This system operates on the principle of centrifugal force to remove fine particulate contaminants from the engine’s lubricating oil. The centrifugal oil filter is designed to work in conjunction with the primary full-flow filter, providing enhanced oil cleanliness and extending maintenance intervals. In this setup, a portion of the engine’s oil is diverted through the centrifugal filter, where it is spun at high speeds. The centrifugal force separates contaminants from the oil, depositing them onto the inner walls of the centrifuge bowl. The cleaned oil is then returned to the engine’s oil sump.
Jenbacher Centrifugal Oil Filter Solutions
If engine reliability is paramount, keep your Jenbacher gas engines running longer, cleaner, and more reliably with an IOW Group centrifugal oil filter. Centrifugal oil filters offer a different approach to lube oil purification. They rely on density differences rather than physical filtration media. The IOW Group centrifugal oil filters are highly effective at removing fine solid particles, including those in the sub-micron range, provided the particles are denser than the lube oil. IOW Group centrifuge filters help you stay ahead of your asset’s life-cycle operations.
Adding an IOW Group centrifugal oil filter will improve your oil cleanliness levels, which is key to longer-lasting parts and more reliable plant performance, paired with cost efficiencies. This process effectively removes particles that are smaller than those captured by the primary filter, thereby improving overall engine protection.
Protect Your Engine with IOW Group Bypass Filters
By maintaining oil cleanliness, you preserve the oil’s lubricating and protective properties, minimize engine component wear, prevent deposit formation, and potentially extend the useful life of the lube oil. IOW Group’s centrifugal oil filters will improve the removal of solid fine contaminants, extend oil and filter life, and reduce engine wear, all of which have proven to enhance performance and reliability successfully. IOW Group offline filters are the market’s most efficient centrifugal oil filters. They are superior in separation efficiency and technology.
A Jenbacher centrifugal oil filter from IOW Group will improve oil particulate levels. Unlike conventional filters, they capture the most damaging sub-micron particles before they can circulate and cause harm. This leads to fewer unplanned shutdowns and significantly lowers maintenance costs. The result is a cleaner engine, longer service intervals, and better operational ROI.
Reliable Oil Filtration for Jenbacher Engines
Better lube oil filtration for Jenbacher engines
Jenbacher J320 Gas Engine
This landfill facility operates Jenbacher J320 biogas engines for power generation. This Jenbacher biogas eninge is using ADDINOL Gas Engine Oil MG 40-Extra Plus. This customer changes their primary oil filters and lube oil every 1,110 hours.
Maximize engine uptime!
Looking to improve oil cleanliness levels, this customer chose the IOW MP600 centrifuge filter for its robustness and filtration reliability. The IOW Group centrifuge filter is highly effective at capturing and removing dense wear metals, soot, dirt, sludge, silica, and other solid particles. A kidney loop system was set up with the IOW MP600 centrifugal oil filter, pressurized drain system (PDS), and a designated feed pump.
Superior Centrifugal Oil Cleaners for Jenbacher Engines
Jenbacher J620GS Gas Engine
This customer is running Jenbacher J620GS natural gas engines. This Jenbacher J620GS engine uses Mobil Pegasus 1005 Premium Gas Engine Oil. The lube oil sump size is 670 liters (176 gallons). Based on lube oil analysis, this engine has high particle contamination. To improve lube oil analysis, this customer installed the high-efficiency oil filtration engine centrifuge from IOW Group. The IOW Group centrifugal filters are engineered for continuous oil filtration.
Fix the problem with better oil filtration!
This customer installed the IOW MP600 centrifugal oil filter for better engine protection and increased reliability. At 48 PSI lube oil pressure, the CentriClean SCU-0002 centrifuge monitor displayed 3,210 RPMs (centrifuge bowl RPMs).
The Jenbacher centrifugal oil filter from IOW Group is the market leader in centrifuge filter technology and separation efficiency. The IOW Group centrifugal oil filters are the only centrifuge filters to utilize bowl disc technology, have a distributor impeller, have a fully sealed rotor, and use remote monitoring.
Jenbacher Centrifugal Oil Filter – Reduce Waste, Reuse More
What are the benefits of upgrading your Jenbacher oil filtration system?
Upgrading your Jenbacher oil filtration system with an IOW Group centrifugal oil filter will extend service intervals, lower maintenance costs, increase engine reliability, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The IOW Group centrifugal oil filters enhance oil filtration efficiency.
Separator Spares & Equipment, LLC is an authorized IOW Group Partner. Separator Spares & Equipment stocks IOW Group centrifuges, pumps, and spare parts in Houma, Louisiana. To learn more about IOW Group, visit IOWGroup.com. Contact us today for pricing and availability for a Jenbacher centrifugal oil filter for your engine and facility. Better lube oil filtration for your Jenbacher engines is the answer to increased engine reliability and higher efficiency.
The Jenbacher centrifugal oil filter from IOW Group is a cost-effective, high-performance oil filtration upgrade that protects engine longevity, reduces lifecycle costs, and improves operational reliability.
Contact us for your Jenbacher centrifugal oil filters!