Mobil SHC™ 846 Ultra helps extend lubricant life time and reduces maintenance costs*

Situation

For a number of years, Celanese NV Belgium had been struggling with varnish on some of their turbines. On one of the Siemens SST 060 steam turbines, the varnish was so bad that it caused malfunction of the control valves which affected turbine availability. In addition, an e-blower had to take over capacity, costing roughly 1,000 €/day in electricity. Even after an oil change, the remaining varnish acted as a catalyst and oil degradation occured even faster. Over an 18 month period, 2,000 litres of oil were changed on two turbines, causing increased downtime, higher purchase costs, waste disposal issues and lost man hours.

Following a detailed investigation and plant survey, ExxonMobil and the Belgian Authorised Distributor Ingelbeen-Soete recommended Celanese NV Belgium to switch the lubricant to Mobil SHC™ 846 Ultra and to initiate an oil change process on site involving cleaning, flushing and filtration to remove the varnish deposits. Combining a well-balanced formulation that uses high-performance base stocks and advanced technology additives, the new generation turbine oil Mobil SHC 846 Ultra offers an excellent wear and equipment protection against the formation of sludge and varnish.

The transition to Mobil SHC 846 Ultra combined with a well documented oil change process resulted in the following potential annual savings:

• employee-equipment interaction reduced by 24 hours for the lubriant change, helping to reduce potential for injury
• amount of waste lubricant generated for disposal reduced by 1,500 litres due to increased Oil Drain Interval (ODI)
• production potential increased by €72,000 due to increased equipment availability