Do Centrifuges Remove Oil Additives ?

Date: Tuesday, July 07, 2026

Stop Saying Centrifuges Destroy Oil

I keep hearing it:

“Centrifuges strip additives” – “They damage oil chemistry” – “You’ll have to replenish the additive package”

Let’s look at the evidence instead of repeating the myth.

If centrifuges really removed the additive package, why have major OEMs been fitting them for decades?

  • Caterpillar Inc. offers centrifuges as an engine option
  • Yanmar fits them as standard on many engines
  • MTU Friedrichschafen offers them as an option
  • Scania has used standalone centrifugal oil filters for years
  • Cummins incorporates centrifugal filtration into its Centinel system

Some OEMs even extend recommended oil drain intervals when centrifugal cleaning is used

Would these manufacturers knowingly endorse a system, that destroys oil chemistry?

I don’t think so…

What 30+ Years of Field Data Shows

Contamination captured inside the centrifuge rotor

Over the past three decades we’ve monitored engines with oil capacities exceeding 4,000 litres, fitted with three centrifuges per engine. After more than 45,000 operating hours on the same oil:

  • Seven key additive elements continued to trend normally
  • No significant additive depletion
  • No collapse of the additive package
  • No evidence that the centrifuges were stripping additives

We’ve also monitored Caterpillar 793 differentials operating for five years without an oil change, maintained solely through centrifugal cleaning.

Same Oil… Still in Service

Let’s Talk Physics – Not Opinions

A centrifuge separates materials according to their effective density and their ability to exist as separate particles or droplets.

Oil has a density of approximately 0.87 g/mL, while most wear debris, dirt and other contaminants are significantly denser. When the rotor spins at around 6,000 rpm, generating thousands of Gs, those contaminants migrate to the rotor wall where they remain trapped.

Modern lubricant additives don’t behave like contamination. They are chemically dissolved in the oil or formulated to remain stably dispersed as part of the lubricant. They don’t exist as free particles waiting to be spun out.

If they did, we’d have much bigger problems.

  • They would separate during storage
  • Every drum would require vigorous mixing before use
  • Fresh oil would deliver inconsistent additive concentrations from the very first litre

That simply doesn’t happen !

The One Exception

Some lubricants contain solid molybdenum compounds. These materials are denser than the oil and can settle during storage, which is why manufacturers often recommend agitation before use.

In these specific formulations, centrifugal separation may remove some of the solid particles. That’s a characteristic of the lubricant formulation—not a flaw in centrifugal filtration.

So Where Does the Myth Come From ?

In my experience, it usually comes from:

  • Misinterpreted oil analysis reports.
  • Outdated assumptions.
  • Confusion between removing contaminants and removing additives.
  • Resistance to changing traditional filtration practices

Or perhaps…

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

The Bottom Line

Thirty years of oil analysis has shown me one thing consistently:
Centrifuges remove contamination.
They do not remove the additive package.
They do not destroy oil chemistry.

And if they did, the world’s leading engine manufacturers wouldn’t be fitting them.

If you have genuine field data that says otherwise, I’d love to see it.

Let’s raise the standard of discussion in lubrication management by letting evidence—not myths—drive the conversation.

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Category: centrifuge,centrifuge filter,centrifuge filtration,centrifuge oil cleaning,centrifuge separation,centrifuges