Conditioning gas for a pipeline
AssigneeSapphire Technologies, Inc.
InventorsJeffrey Earl, Archie Andonian, Jeremy Liu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Flow from a gas well is conditioned prior to a production pipeline. A flow line is coupled to a gas well to receive the gas and coupled to a production pipeline to direct the received gas away from the production site, the flow line residing at a production site and comprising an electric power generation system. The electric power generation system has a turbine generator. The inlet nozzle and turbine wheel of the turbine generator is configured to reduce the pressure and temperature of the received gas to conditions associated with the production pipeline.
Claims16
A system for conditioning flow from a gas well prior to a production pipeline, comprising:
- an inlet flow line coupled to a wellhead of the gas well to receive gas produced from the gas well;
- a flow line coupled to the inlet flow line to receive the gas and coupled to the production pipeline to direct the received gas away from a production site, the flow line residing at the production site and comprising an electric power generation system,
- the electric power generation system comprising:
- a turbine wheel configured to receive the gas and rotate in response to expansion of the gas flowing into an inlet of the turbine wheel and out of an outlet of the turbine wheel,
- a nozzle configured to direct gas into the inlet of the turbine wheel,
- an electric rotor coupled to the turbine wheel and configured to rotate with the turbine wheel, and
- a stationary electric stator, the electric rotor and electric stator defining an electric generator configured to generate current upon rotation of the electric rotor within the electric stator, and
- the turbine wheel configured to have an isentropic efficiency of 80% or lower at the fluid conditions of the received gas when both (i) reducing a pressure of the received gas, at an inlet to the production pipeline downstream of the outlet of the turbine wheel, to at least a specified maximum pressure associated with the pipeline and (ii) reducing a temperature of the received gas, at the inlet to the production pipeline, to no lower than a specified minimum temperature associated with the pipeline.
A method of conditioning a flow from a gas well for a production pipeline, comprising:
- receiving flow from the gas well at a flow line, the flow line comprising an electric power generation system residing on a production site of the well and comprising:
- a turbine wheel configured to receive the gas and rotate in response to expansion of the gas flowing into an inlet of the turbine wheel and out of an outlet of the turbine wheel,
- a nozzle configured to direct gas to the inlet of the turbine wheel,
- an electric rotor coupled to the turbine wheel and configured to rotate with the turbine wheel, and
- a stationary electric stator, the electric rotor and electric stator defining an electric generator configured to generate current upon rotation of the electric rotor within the electric stator;
- flowing a portion of the flow from the gas well through the flow line and the electric power generation system, with the turbine operating at an isentropic efficiency of 80% or lower;
- and
- (i) reducing a pressure of the gas at an inlet to the production pipeline to at least a specified maximum pressure associated with the production pipeline and (ii) reducing a temperature of the gas at the inlet to the production pipeline to no lower than a specified minimum temperature associated with the production pipeline.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.