Oil storage in IBC Containers
MACHINERY LUBRICATION INDIA|July - August 2022
Lubrication Program / Lubricant Analysis Sector: Power Generation Topic: Storage of oil in IBC-type containers (1000 liters) and its impact on the availability of generation groups Publish date: December 2021
Jorge Alarcon
Oil storage in IBC Containers

The storage of lubricants in 1000 liter deposits is quite common in the vast majority of industrial areas and is the preferred type of storage especially in power generation plants that have gas or steam Turbines, compressors and turbochargers.

The oil in these containers can be stored for a long time until it is necessary to transfer it to the generation system and in many cases this is where some problems begin.

This article addresses a couple of case studies in order to guide the end user on the necessary considerations that must be taken into account when working with this type of containers and, above all, reveals the impact it has on the availability of the power generation group.

Case 1: Stored oil

Perhaps one of the main questions when buying oil in this type of container is, how long does the oil last? Redirecting the question from a more technical aspect, the end user wants to know the time he has to store the oil without changing its properties and functional characteristics. For strictly commercial reasons, the combined cycle (2 gas turbines and one steam turbine) which we will call "CCA" had up to 18,000 liters of ISO VG 32 oil stored in IBC tanks.

Among the doubts of the plant O&M team was knowing the possibility of putting the stored oils into service. A question formulated in time can avoid many problems, as we will see in the following case. With the help of a manual pump, a sample was taken as close as possible to the central part of each tank and the results of the oil analysis were decisive in knowing its status. The following graph shows the percentage of IBC's with oils above the acceptable limits of water and solid contamination, as well as those samples with clear evidence of loss of organic additive (the one that slows down the effect of oxidation in these formulations) and signs of degradation of the base oil.

This story is from the July - August 2022 edition of MACHINERY LUBRICATION INDIA.

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This story is from the July - August 2022 edition of MACHINERY LUBRICATION INDIA.

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