Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 390. CO2 Oil Management (Part 1): Lubrication Basics, Oil Selection, Testing, and Troubleshooting with Alessandro Silva of Bitzer

Transcript

Episode 390. CO2 Oil Management (Part 1): Lubrication Basics, Oil Selection, Testing, and Troubleshooting with Alessandro Silva of Bitzer · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker: Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. So excited you're here. I have a special two part episode that I did with my good friend, Alessandro Silva from Bitzer. What technicians need to know about CO2 Oil management System? This was a huge webinar. We had hundreds and hundreds of people sign up for this.
• 0:03
  Alessandro: Alright, let's start with the compressors for CO2 applications.
• 0:06
  To control compressor capacity. We also here in us, we manufacture pressure vessels flashy gas tank liquid receivers suction accumulators, oil reservoirs. And we also have a showering tube gas cooler ejector. So ejectors are also available for CO2 applications, especially for high-end low pressure lift applications.
• 0:09
  Our compressors doesn't require our CO2 compressor doesn't require any internal, I mean, oil cooler. So, but the, one of the oil function is to cool the, the moving parts and sound attenuation is another function of the oil.
• 0:12
  I still always recommend using a high pressure hose. High pressure gauges want to be always safe. Can you use low subcritical, CO2 gauges for sure, but I always recommend use high pressure gauges, especially when you're new and learning this stuff. So have the right tools.
• 0:15
  Alessandro: So, let's review the oil, the lubricant oils. So I put it together here, the, the original, the bitter regional Oils. Oils. So our recommendation is use our original oils as much as possible and never mix up different oils together.
• 0:18
  And here we have the, the overview of the technical data for bitter lubricant oils. So I put it the, these three oils together and you can see here the flashpoint poor point. You can see the density, matic viscosity, specific heat capacity, thermal connectivity.
• 0:21
  80 5K also covers a wide range of application. That's the reason we recommended this oil for transcript, CO2 booster system with the low temp and median temp stage. And the BSG 68 is more for high temp application. So you see here huge gap for low temp, median temp, but it, it is completely missable for high temp applications.
• 0:24
  Recommend if all these parameters exceed the, the recommendation values. You have to change the oil immediately. For example, where particles above 50 PPM, you have to change the oil water content, especially for the BSC 60 K and 80 5K above one 50 ppm. Just to know that if you grab a, a brand new oil can, the PPM of course is lower than that.
• 0:27
  So we put this sticker on every single compressor with the oil type. So the same oil level we, we recommended here between a quarter to three quarter at the sightglass. We expected these sightglass from the oil level controller as well. So this is very important.
• 0:30
  Trevor: And we'll also put this all in the description of the YouTube and send it out so you guys don't have to, if you're worried about writing it down and that training, bitzer.pv.com, I use that in my CO2 trainings all the time because it's a great.
• 0:33
  This is just to break the capillary effect. Otherwise, if you have dish pipe hitting the, the bottom of the head, every debris inside the, the suction header will be dragged to the, to. To the compressor. So before weld or brace the, the ends of the suction head, head, we recommended to put like a road with this distance.
• 0:36
  This differential pressure valve it is rated for 1.4 bar 20 PSCI. So 20 PSCI is the oil reservoir pressure that is gonna be above the suction head. That is the compressor suction pressure. Okay. If it, it your CO2, this differential pressure valve, it should be around 3.4 to, it's a little bit more, I, I think I put in the next slides.
• 0:39
  So another option we have with the CO2 cascade system is combine it, median, temp pump it. So we have a CO2 pump here and dx for low temp. So, and doing this, we only keep the high temp stage refrigerant charge in the motor room. So we reduce even more. And also we can have as an alternative ammonia and for industrial application and hydrocarbon.
• 0:42
  Speaker: What did you think about that? That was such a great session. I learned a ton from Alessandro in that episode. I thought it was really great. Looking forward to part two. So if you enjoyed this, don't forget to share it with some friends. If you learn something, leave a review. If you check the video on YouTube, leave a comment there.