Hydrophobic Coalescing Media: The Key to Removing Water from Hydrocarbons

 Hydrophobic Coalescing Media: The Key to Removing Water from Hydrocarbons

In the world of liquid-liquid separation, specificity is power. When your goal is to remove water from hydrocarbon streams (fuel, oil, solvents), generic filter media falls short. The engineered solution lies in Hydrophobic Coalescing Media – a material designed with a fundamental property: it repels water while attracting oil.

The Science of “Water-Fearing” Media
“Hydrophobic” (from Greek: hydro = water, phobos = fear) describes a surface that resists wetting by water. In coalescing media, this is achieved through:

• Material Choice: Inherently hydrophobic polymers like polypropylene or PTFE.

• Surface Treatment: Chemical treatment of glass fibers to make them oleophilic (oil-attracting) and hydrophobic.

How It Works in a Coalescer:

1. A wet oil stream enters the cartridge containing hydrophobic media.

2. The oil easily wets and passes through the media’s fibrous matrix.

3. Dispersed water droplets, which are repelled by the media fibers, are forced to collide and travel along the fiber surfaces.

4. These collisions cause the tiny droplets to merge (coalesce) into larger, heavier drops.

5. Once large enough, the water droplets break free from the media and fall by gravity to a collection sump, leaving behind dried, clean oil.

Advantages of Lefilter’s Hydrophobic Media:

• Superior Water Removal Efficiency: Achieves ultra-low ppm levels of water in the outlet stream.

• High Saturation Point: Can hold a significant amount of separated water before performance declines, allowing for longer service cycles.

• Chemical Resistance: Excellent compatibility with a wide range of hydrocarbons, acids, and bases.

• Prevents Media Blinding: By repelling water, the media structure remains open for oil flow, maintaining a lower pressure drop.

Critical Applications:

• Fuel Polishing: Removing water from diesel, biodiesel, avjet, and stored gasoline.

• Transformer Oil Reclamation: Dehydrating insulating oil.

• Lube Oil & Hydraulic Oil Conditioning: Protecting machinery from water-induced corrosion and wear.

• Process Solvent Drying: In chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing.