PS-FP7 TURBOILSEN - Development of a robust and low cost in-line infrared spectroscopic sensor for monitoring of the oil condition in industrial gas turbines (11 HU 5010 3MVG)

A Hungarian research centre invites gas turbine operators and maintenance SMEs to the FP7 Research for the Benefit of SME program. The aim is to develop an industrial grade IR sensor for the in-line monitoring of the thermal deterioration of the lubricating oil. SMEs will have significant role in supporting the RTD partners in determining system specifications, validating and testing the results as well as in dissemination to a wider audience. SMEs will own the IP rights for exploitation.

Need addressed by the Project:
The lubricating oil in industrial gas turbines has a twofold function, lubrication and cooling, thus it is exposed to very high temperatures leading to an accelerated thermal degeneration of the oil. Industrial gas turbines operate with an oil fill of several hundred litres, thus the costs of an oil change are high.
For this reason there are intense efforts to extend the oils change intervals and to reduce these costs. However, form all the approaches only some oil cleaning methods could be commercially established. Even these methods are only applied while monitoring the oil quality in parallel. Due to the high value of these machines, only laboratory oil analysis is currently accepted as trusted method for monitoring of the oil quality, because the available on-line oil sensors do not provide any direct correlation to the laboratory methods.
However, a laboratory oil analysis, even though it is the most accurate method, has two major drawbacks: it takes a long time and it provides only punctual information about the oil quality. The operator needs to take and to send an oil sample to the laboratory (two or three days) where it is analysed (in about one week). Thus the results are almost two weeks old at the time the operator receives them. Furthermore laboratory analysis is associated with significant costs, enforcing a compromise in the frequency of analysis intervals. Thus the operator has to decide mostly based on ("out dated") predictions when to change the oil. For this reasons, the operators tend to change the oil, just to be on the safe side, up to 3-4 month earlier than necessary, depending on the analysis intervals.
There is a still unsolved need for a means of online monitoring providing the same accuracy as laboratory analysis. Having reliable, in-time and continuous data about the oil condition would allow to safely extend oil change intervals to a reasonable limit, resulting in significant economic and ecologic advantages.
Proposed Approach:
A standard and reliable laboratory method for monitoring thermal oxidative deterioration of lubricating oils is FTIR spectroscopy (fast furrier transform infrared spectroscopy). According to the applicable standard, oxidation index value, representative for the thermal oxidative aging of the oil, is evaluated from single selected spectral lines (narrow wavelength ranges). Previous research results have shown that very good correlations can be achieved to the standard values by using simple low-cost IR sensors with fixed narrowband IR filters selecting the required spectral areas individually.
The aim of the proposed project is to develop based on these results an industrial grade IR sensor for the in-line monitoring of the thermal deterioration of the lubricating oil. A special innovative design would enable to directly mount the sensor in to the main oil circulation of the machine.
The proposed novel IR sensor has following advantages: direct correlation to the laboratory parameters, continuous monitoring, always providing results about actual status of the oil, enables the significant reduction of the safety margin to the end of the useful oil life, leading to extended oil change intervals, thus resulting in significant cost savings for the operator, while ensuring the safety of the machine.
Based on the proposed principle a multi-parameter sensor can be developed, as are similar standard methods for the detection of other oil condition parameters, like nitration index, water contamination, additive depletion.
Benefit for Project Partners
The direct beneficiaries of the proposed project would be industrial sensor manufacturer and distributor SMEs. In 2009, there were more then 45 000 active gas turbine installations as potential customers. The proposed sensor could be adapted and marketed also for other industrial applications were thermal oxidative degradation is the main aging mechanism of the lubricating oil, e.g. compressors representing a similar sized market.
Indirect beneficiaries would be gas turbine operator and maintenance companies. As the end-users of such sensors, they would benefit from expected cost savings in oil maintenance, as well as the additional safety provided by the continuous monitoring of the oil condition.

Technical Specifications / Specific technical requirements:
Call type, programme: FP7 "Research for the Benefit of SMEs"
Call identifier: FP7-SME-2012
Deadline: December 2012
Proposal development stage: 40%, 2 partners missing
Requested EU funding: approx. 1 million euros
Percentage of EU funding: approx. 70%
Main task: support the development, determination of systems specifications, testing and validation

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