HOPS 2.0 Oil Remediation

The Challenge

In hydraulic systems, more than 80% of unplanned mechanic failures are a result of contamination due to leakages through weathered or damaged parts causing unplanned downtime and costly repairs. Prior to remediation solutions, contaminated hydraulic oil is often trucked off-site to be disposed of in a used oil facility at a landfill site. This poses many threats to the environment including elevated carbon emissions from transportation but also the opportunity for harmful contamination of waterways and ecosystems. 

SEM was contacted by a client who specialises in on-site engineering support and marine associated land equipment including hydraulic, mechanical and electrical systems. SEM’s team of field engineers were drafted in on-site to conduct a two-day trial utilising our innovative HOPS 2.0 technology for the clean-up of 500 litres of hydraulic oil. 

The Solution

The HOPS 2.0 technology provides a quick and efficient solution for our client to clean-up hydraulic oil by combining two purifier technologies (vacuum and air stripping) in one. The vacuum draws contaminated oil into the purifier where the oil is heated before entering a reactor chamber. It can effectively remove 100% of free water and gases and 90-99% of dissolved water and gases from oil. 

By installing HOPS 2.0 on-site, the technology provides environmental benefit by eliminating the need for trucking contaminated oil off-site for remediation, reducing carbon emissions. The unit is small and compact yet capable of processing large volumes whilst effectively decontaminating oil, which results in less downtime and higher cost efficiency, ultimately leading to the prolonged lifetime of oil.

The Result

After initial technology set up, the heater was activated and oil was heated to 55°C, returning water to the chamber. The processing lasted for ten hours over two days and resulted in 98% separation of free water from 500 litres of hydraulic oil which exceeded all running-time expectations. The HOPS 2.0 system worked in conjunction with an additional filtration system that the client had on-site to reduce the NAS value from 12 down to 2.