Page 66: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2005)

66 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

PureVent Helps to Keep

Emissions Clean

Alfa Laval earlier this year debuted

PureVent, an air separator developed in cooperation with Wärtsilä, which cleans the gas vented from the engine crankcase. Alfa Laval's latest innovation is PureVent, a disc-stack air separator for use in marine and power plant appli- cations. Developed in cooperation with

Wärtsilä, it is designed to further reduce engine emissions by removing oil and particles from crankcase gas.

The crankcase compartment is located between the cylinders and the oil sump and houses the engine crankshaft. The gas that collects there is an inevitable by-product of all internal combustion engines.

Crankcase gas comprises blow-by gases and soot from the engine's com- bustion chamber which mix with oil mist from the lubricating oil. If this gas were allowed to build up in the crankcase compartment, it would result in considerable pressure and cause seals and gaskets to leak. For this reason, it must be properly vented from the engine.

The gas represents an environmental concern. Whereas exhaust gas from the engine is typically well dispersed before it settles, crankcase gas is much less diluted and may create local areas of high oil concentration. The oil mist can soil a ship's decks and nearby surround- ings, as well as forming a sticky or slip- pery layer in areas near the ventilation outlet. "Crankcase gas is an important issue, especially for those working with and around diesel engines," said Peter

Carlberg, General Manager of Alfa

Laval Marine and Diesel. "We see cleaning it as an important step in fur- ther reducing engine emissions."

Despite successes with land vehicles, there has not been a good high-capacity cleaning solution for crankcase gas in large marine and power plant applica- tions.

Engine builders have evaluated the different technologies for some time, but weaknesses in efficiency and relia- bility, as well as excessive costs, have kept them from being widely imple- mented. Wärtsilä has invested a great deal of time into evaluating the perform- ance of filter solutions in particular.

Per Löfholm, Senior development engineer, Plant technologies, Power

Plant technology at Wärtsilä explains the difficulty of finding an acceptable balance. "As a leading engine supplier,

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Alfa Laval's latest innovation is PureVent.

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