Highly porous lubricant conditioning and remediation media

Abstract

The present invention is a solid lubricant treatment medium, usually but not always in bead form, suitable to be brought into contact with lubricants to remediate and to condition them. A key feature of the medium, typically a polymeric resin, is the presence of relatively very large pores, which are able to capture and remove fine lubricant contaminants and breakdown products (such as small phosphate ester varnish, soot, coke, dissolved metal or other small semi-soluble or insoluble particles). Resins and adsorbents of the prior art have proven unable to remove fine contaminants like phosphate ester varnish that have a deleterious impact on industrial equipment performance and reliability. The mean pore size diameter of the medium is between about 8,000 Å and 100,000 Å and, more preferably, in the range of about 20,000 Å to about 80,000 Å.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.