Purifier (Separator)
A Purifier (centrifugal separator) is engine-room machinery that cleans a ship's fuel oil and lubricating oil by spinning it at high speed so that heavier water and solid impurities are separated out from the lighter oil. Because marine heavy fuel oil arrives with water, sludge and catalytic fines (“cat fines”) that would damage the engine, purifying it before use is essential to reliable operation.
The purifier uses centrifugal force (thousands of times gravity) in a stack of rotating discs to throw out water and particles, discharging the cleaned oil to the engine and the separated water and sludge to the sludge tank. Lube-oil purifiers similarly keep the engine's lubricating oil clean, extending its life and protecting the machinery. Purifiers run continuously and are a routine but important part of engine-room operation and maintenance under the engine department. The sludge they produce must be managed under MARPOL. Purifiers relate closely to the fuel system, the main and auxiliary engines they protect, and sludge/bilge management. They are fundamental to keeping marine engines running reliably on heavy fuel.
Marine heavy fuel is dirty — full of water, sludge and abrasive cat fines that would wreck an engine — and the purifier is what cleans it before it burns. Reliable engines on heavy fuel depend on well-run purifiers, and the sludge they remove feeds into MARPOL waste management. It is a quiet but essential guardian of engine reliability.
What does a purifier remove from fuel?
Water, sludge and solid impurities including abrasive catalytic fines, which would otherwise damage the engine.
How does a purifier work?
By spinning the oil at high speed so centrifugal force separates the heavier water and solids from the lighter cleaned oil.