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WE are using Houghton-safe 1115 hydraulic fluid in one of our systems. There is Approximately 700 gallons of oil in the reservoir. our lab results show excessively high acid numbers in the oil. this has been trending upwards over the past year. I understand that this usually means the depletion of anti oxidants and end of usable life in the oil. An engineer said they contacted a vendor who told them for $14K they can buy a filtration system to make the oil usable again.
i told them they need to just dispose of 1/2 to 3/4 of the bad oil and replace it with good oil. to get the acid numbers back to tolerable numbers again. I am still new to the game but from what i have read the vendor is just trying to make a buck? what do you all recommend? please help if you can so i can go to the boss with a better informed decision. the issue is disposing of almost 520 gallons of oil at $60 a gallon for disposal cost. which is $32K.

Thank You for any help
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First of all that disposal cost seems excessive compared to disposal in my area. I suppose high acid levels could classify the fluid as "hazardous". An increase in acid levels of 50% is a sign oxidation is occurring. Houghton Safe 1115 is a phosphate ester based fire resistant fluid with TAN ranging from 0.05 to 0.2 when new. What is your TAN from your last sample? How old is the fluid? What is the specific application? I work with a CLS by the STLE. Maybe a $14,000 filter is what you need or maybe not. But having a complimentary CLS evaluation will give you a solid report on what will fix the problem.
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