TurboTime Podcast: Air Filtration with Camfil

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Joshua Kohn, the R&D Manager of Power Systems at Camfil, talks about the effects of poorly designed air filters on modern-day turbines and compressors. He also discusses their impact on various processes and capabilities—such as sealing, water handling, and pressure drops—how they work preventatively to reduce or avoid equipment downtime, and the various advantages and disadvantages of static versus pulse filters.

Kohn said that when most people think about air filters, they think of them as a way to stop particles in the outside air from entering the turbine or compressor. “But it's also important that air filters are well-sealed and water-tight,” he said. “After all, a lot of gas turbines don't just run in dry laboratory conditions inside buildings, but turbines are being run all over the world—coastal sites, dusty environments, etc. And a lot of these outdoor turbines are exposed to water on a regular basis, so it's really important that gas turbine air intake filters are well-sealed and that they're able to stop particles in both a dry and also a wet form.”

Kohn also discussed the new ISO standard that was released last year, ISO 29461-2:2022—it focused on answering this question, “looking into how to measure the sealing and the water handling performance of different filters, since it's so important … that you don't just stop a lot of particles when the air filter is running dry and then as soon as you have a heavy rainstorm, the filter gets soaking wet and all the particles caught in the filter leach through onto the downstream side of the filter and go into the turbine, which lead to all sorts of problems,” Kohn said.