Thermal process for treating hydrocarbon-contaminated drill cuttings
AssigneeQ'Max Solutions Inc.
InventorsKazimierz S. Szymocha, Barry E. McIntyre
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Abstract
Hydrocarbon contaminants in drill cuttings generated in an oil drilling operation are removed by mixing the drill cuttings with an agglomerant to produce a pre-treatment mixture; heating to vaporize the hydrocarbon contaminants under a condition in which vapor entrainable particles of the drill cuttings are agglomerated by the agglomerant, and caking of drill cuttings is inhibited; drill cuttings having a reduced content of the contaminant are removed, and vaporized hydrocarbons having a reduced content of vapor entrainable particles are recovered. In this way, the particulate content of vapors escaping from the drill cuttings is reduced.
Claims45
A process for treating drill cuttings contaminated with at least one hydrocarbon, comprising the steps of:
- (f) providing hydrocarbon-contaminated drill cuttings with a first particle size distribution having a first median diameter;
- (g) mixing the hydrocarbon-contaminated drill cuttings with an agglomerant to produce a pre-treatment mixture;
- (c) establishing a pre-treatment total liquid content in the pre-treatment mixture in a range from about 5 wt. % to about 20 wt. %, based on the total weight of the pre-treatment mixture;
- (d) agitating and heating the pre-treatment mixture at a temperature sufficient to vaporize substantially all of the hydrocarbon while agglomerating vapor entrainable particles of the drill cuttings to form agglomerates;
- and
- (e) recovering treated drill cuttings with a second particle size distribution having a second median diameter greater than the first median diameter, the treated drill cuttings having a residual hydrocarbon content of less than or equal to about 3 wt. %, based on the total weight of the treated drill cuttings.
A process for removing hydrocarbon contaminant from drill cuttings generated in an oil drilling operation, comprising:
- v) mixing drill cuttings containing a hydrocarbon contaminant with an agglomerant to produce a pre-treatment mixture;
- vi) heating the pre-treatment mixture at a temperature effective to vaporize the hydrocarbon contaminant of the drill cuttings, under a condition in which vapor entrainable particles of the drill cuttings are agglomerated by the agglomerant, and caking of drill cuttings is inhibited;
- vii) recovering drill cuttings having a reduced content of the contaminant, and
- viii) recovering vaporized hydrocarbons having a reduced content of vapor entrainable particles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.