The filter water separators are specially designed for the removal of free and emulsified water from (aviation) gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, gas oil and other light hydrocarbon products. A two stage filter separator should be used where the highest degree of water removal is required. It also serves as a filter for rust particles and muck from the products, thus delivering a clean, dry fuel into the discharge line. It does so by coalescing the fine droplets of water found in the emulsified state and separating these from the product stream. The process of coalescing is accomplished by flowing the continuous phase of the product through a coalescer media, which has an infinite number of irregular passages of very small diameters. By impingement the emulsion is broken into minute particles of water and as these particles progress through the entire depth of the media, they are coalesced into droplet size.
Due to the extremely small diameter of the irregular continuous passages of the coalescing media, an accessory function of this media becomes one of filtering solid particles.
As the product stream flows to the separator outlet, the droplets of water which leave the coalescing media are removed by two methods. One is by utilising the common force of gravity and the coalesced droplets are deposited into the water sump. Furthermore the product stream flows through a separator stage. The separator is provided with a hydrophobic membrane to repel the very fine droplets of water. This second stage media used for repelling droplets of water, also functions as a very efficient back-up or secondary filter element, thereby giving double protection against the transfer of solid contaminant through the separator/filter unit.
This article comes from hydro-carbon edit released
