Spectro Scientific, one of the world’s largest suppliers of oil, fuel, and processed water analysis instrumentation and software, has been awarded a US patent for a company-developed method to measure water contamination in turbine and other industrial oils. The patent is Method of measuring water contamination in turbine and other industrial oils, patent no. US9500638.

The measurement method, in which a small sample of industrial oil is homogenized and analyzed using infrared spectroscopy, is employed using Spectro’s FluidScan portable oil analyzer. The latest version of FluidScan software can detect total water presence as low as 300 ppm in turbine oils. The method provides an alternative to laboratory tests such as Karl Fischer titration when fast, simple, and reagent-free analysis is needed.

In addition to measuring water contamination, the FluidScan analyzer provides immediate, reagentless measurement of acid number (AN), base number (BN), oxidation, glycol, and other parameters. Its flip-top oil cell enables chemical-free analysis and cleanup, using only one drop of oil. The analyzer’s on-site analysis capability, speed and convenience eliminate the wait associated with outsourcing laboratory analyses.

Spectro senior applications chemist Randi Price is the inventor. Spectro President and CEO Brian Mitchell said, “This patent award recognizes the efforts of Dr Price and the Spectro product development team, and reinforces Spectro’s role as a world leader in fluid analysis technology. It will benefit our customers with faster and better on-site water in oil measurement.”