Monitoring hydraulic fracturing
AssigneeEcolab USA Inc.
InventorsTimothy S. Keizer, Jason R. Burney
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This disclosure relates to systems, methods, and devices useful for monitoring and controlling water to be used, for example, in oil and natural gas production and hydraulic fracturing processes. An on-line unit for measuring, controlling, and optimizing the quality of water being used during the hydrocarbon production or hydraulic fracturing processes is also disclosed. Optimizing and controlling can include measuring one or more properties associated with the production water to be sure that the one or more properties are within an acceptable range and, if the one or more properties are not within the acceptable range for each respective property being measured, causing a change in flow of one or more water sources and/or one or more chemicals.
Claims20
A method of monitoring and controlling one or more properties of production water comprising:
- (a) providing a storage device;
- (b) introducing production water into the storage device;
- (c) providing a monitoring and controlling unit comprising a controller and a plurality of sensors in communication with the controller, wherein each of the plurality of sensors is operable to measure a property of the production water;
- (d) providing one or more pumps, which are in communication with the controller, wherein the one or more pumps can comprise one or more chemical injection pumps and one or more production water source pumps;
- (e) inputting an acceptable range for each of the one or more properties of the production water to be measured into the controller;
- (f) providing a delivery conduit having a first end submerged in the production water and a second end connected to an inlet of the monitoring and controlling unit;
- (g) pumping a sample of production water from the storage device into the monitoring and controlling unit;
- (h) measuring one or more properties of the sample of production water with the plurality of sensors;
- (i) determining if the measured one or more properties of the sample of production water is within the acceptable range inputted into the controller in step (e);
- wherein
- (j) if the measured one or more properties is outside of the acceptable range associated with that property inputted in step (e), causing a change in an influx of a chemical into the production water from the one or more chemical injection pumps, the chemical being capable of adjusting the measured property associated with the production water in a manner to bring the measured property within the acceptable range, or causing a change in a flow rate of the one or more production water source pumps;
- and
- (k) optionally repeating steps (a) to (i) to determine if the one or more properties has been brought within the acceptable range inputted in step (e).
A system for optimizing one or more properties of production water, the system comprising:
- (a) one or more sensors operable to measure a property associated with the production water and convert the measured property into an input signal capable of being transmitted;
- (b) a transmitter associated with each of the one or more sensors operable to transmit the input signal;
- (c) a controller operable to receive the transmitted input signal, convert the received input signal into an input numerical value, analyze the input numerical value, determine if the analyzed value is within an acceptable range, generate an output numerical value based upon the analyzed value, convert the output numerical value into an output signal, and transmit the output signal;
- (d) a receiver operable to receive the output signal and cause a change in an influx rate of a chemical injected into the production water by one or more chemical injection pumps if the output numerical signal is not within the acceptable range, wherein the chemical is capable of adjusting the measured property to come within the acceptable range for that property, or cause a change in a flow rate of one or more production water source pumps.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.