Here's a page for a 'hats off' to one of our sponsors, Solberg Manufacturing. This is not simply a 'plug' for a sponsor, but a bona fide thank you for their contribution to sustainability, as well as their support of this website.

In midst of current efforts toward finding new sustainable means and improving pre-existing means of power generation, turbines are becoming more and more popular and common devices in their capacity of making the generation of power possible.

Whether it's a large gas turbine or a hi-flux solar furnace, the pressure of steam rotates some gears in one direction while other gears in the gear box of the turbine rotate in the opposite direction to actually generate the power. Of course, oil is needed to keep these rapidly rotating gears lubricated but still, due to friction, the gears produce quite a bit of heat. The heat expands the lubricating oil and some of it constantly turns to vapor. The oil vapor in turn tends to rise and exit the gear box through an exhaust pipe, releasing the pressure which has developed.

To understand the scope of the amount of oil used, take an offshore oil production platform off the coast of Norway. This particular platform previously used a basic exhaust filter and emitted 863 mg/m3 of oil mist. After installation of an oil mist eliminator made by Solberg Manufacturing Inc. the level of oil mist emission dropped to 2.9 mg/m3. This is an elimination of over 99.5% of the previous oil mist emitted, translating into roughly two gallons of oil per day being removed from the atmosphere. Since most of this emission previously ended up in the ocean at this North Sea platform, the savings is a real elimination source of pollution invisible to most of us. And of course, the reduction of oil mist translates into less oil used in the application, or conservation of a rapidly depleting non-renewable resource.

Oil mist emissions are a characteristic of all high speed gear boxes. Hence this reduction can be achieved in all large turbines currently being used for power generation including steam, gas, and hydro. The savings with wind generation are not as dramatic since the gears do not move as fast.