Dense fluids for ballasts
AssigneeMagellan & Barents, S.L.
InventorCiriaco P Bustamante
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed are dense fluids for use in offshore applications, such as wind turbine platforms, oil and gas platforms, gravity anchors, catenary weights as well as other gravity-based structures. The dense fluid can be mixed with low-density fluid and high-density solid particles to form an intermediate dense fluid. The intermediate dense fluid is mixed with intermediate-density solid particles having the same density as the intermediate dense fluid to form a dense fluid with the desired target density. The dense fluid can be produced cost-effectively by selecting intermediate-density particles which are plentiful and can be obtained cheaply.
Claims19
A semisubmersible platform comprising:
- at least elongated hollow columns,
- a floating frame for bracing the hollow columns together to form a polygon, and
- dense fluid (DF) contained in the hollow columns, wherein the DF comprises a flowable stable DF having target density DT, wherein DF is defined as
- DF=(P1)d1+(P2)d2+(P3)d3,
- where
- d1=low density fluid having density D1,
- d2=intermediate-density solid particles having density D2,
- d3=high-density solid particles having density D3,
- P1=volume percentage of d1,
- P2=volume percentage of d2,
- P3=volume percentage of d3, and
- wherein
- D1<D2<D3, and
- DT is less than D3, and
- the dense fluid is configured to cause the columns to float, wherein
- the hollow columns containing the dense fluid, which are braced together, form a floating unit of the semisubmersible platform, and
- a volume of the hollow columns using dense fluid as ballast is smaller compared to hollow columns using seawater as ballast.
A method of generating electricity comprising:
- installing an offshore wind turbine platform on a body of water, wherein the wind turbine platform comprises
- a floating unit which includes
- at least elongated hollow columns,
- a floating frame for bracing the hollow columns together to form a polygon, and
- dense fluid (DF) contained in the hollow columns, the DF comprises a flowable stable DF having target density DT, wherein DF is defined as
- DF=(P1)d1+(P2)d2+(P3)d3,
- where
- d1=low density fluid having density D1,
- d2=intermediate-density solid particles having density D2,
- d3=high-density solid particles having density D3,
- P1=volume percentage of d1,
- P2=volume percentage of d2,
- P3=volume percentage of d3, and
- wherein
- D1<D2<D3, and
- DT is less than D3, and
- the dense fluid is configured to cause the columns to float, and
- wherein a volume of the hollow columns using dense fluid as ballast is smaller compared to hollow columns using seawater as ballast;
- a wind turbine unit disposed on the floating unit, wherein the wind turbine unit is configured to generate electricity using wind power to turn a rotor assembly of the wind turbine unit;
- and
- transmitting the electricity generated by the wind turbine unit to an onshore substation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.