Operation of Beach-Russ Rotary Valve Vacuum Pump

used in many older vintage GE turbine systems

The Beach-Russ Rotary Valve vacuum pump is commonly used in power plants to
remove entrained hydrogen in H2 Seal Oil tanks. The pump draws a vacuum, usually
close to 30”, from the headspace of the Seal Oil tank. The unit is designed so that the
discharge of the pump exits through an oil filled tank and then to a vent to atmosphere.

The oil filled tank also serves as the lubricant supply for the bearings and rotary valves of
the pump. If there is an accumulation of moisture in the tank, the level can rise up to the
point where it is fed into the bearings and rotary valves. This will compromise
lubrication of these parts. Another scenario is that the lighter turbine oil (Seal Oil,
usually 32 ISO grade) can gradually dilute the viscosity of the oil in the tank, which is
supposed to be 100 ISO grade.

Most power plants deal with the accumulation of water by closing the overflow standpipe
(Green Arrow), and assigning a task to operators to open the tank drain (Blue Arrow)
once per shift to drain accumulated water. The problem here is that water is allowed to
accumulate and raise the level in the tank. As the water level in the bottom rises, it
reaches an area of high agitation, and the result is the formation of an emulsion. This
emulsion is a poor lubricant, and as a result, most of these pumps suffer premature
failure. It is not unknown for some plants to schedule replacement of these units during
each outage as part of their routine outage turbine maintenance program.

There is no reason for these pumps to fail at such a high frequency, and if properly
maintained, they can experience trouble-free long life of 30 years or more, based on
experience in other applications.

To avoid premature failure of this unit, the following steps must be taken:

 Adjust the vapor purge valve (Red Arrow) so that a slight vacuum can be felt.
 Open standpipe overflow (Green Arrow) so that water accumulating on the bottom of
the tank is pushed up and out the standpipe and into a bucket.
 Place a small cup under the vapor purge valve, and a placard that indicates that the
valve should not be shut. Operators may see a small leak of oil from the vapor purge
valve, and close it shut.
 Establish representative sampling for the unit. Initially, samples can be obtained by
purging any water from the tank drain (Blue Arrow) and filling bottle from this point.
The optimal sample point is obtained by drilling and tapping a hole for an oil
sampling fitting at the spot shown by the (Red Crosshairs).
 Perform frequent oil analysis to determine viscosity depletion rate due to vapors
being drawn into the tank from the Seal Oil Tank. Determine how long it typically
takes for the viscosity to drop to an unacceptable level, and establish an oil change
frequency to avoid running the pump with out-of-spec oil.

If these precautions are taken, this unit can be a very reliable vacuum pump, providing a
consistent vacuum of about 30”. This will maintain seal oil purity and aid turbine-
generator commutator ring life. The Beach-Russ website is at www.beach-russ.com