US 2016/0097266 A1Published application

Apparatus and method for preventing damage to a downhole pump impeller

AssigneeOrmat Technologies, Inc.

InventorNadav AMIR

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Abstract

The present invention provides a method for preventing damage to a downhole pump impeller of a downhole pump such as a geothermal downhole pump, comprising the steps of setting a rotatable part of a downhole pump to a selected depth, monitoring the depth of the rotatable part, determining that the depth of the rotatable part has significantly changed, and taking a corrective action to return the depth of the rotatable part to said selected depth in order to prevent damage to an impeller that is liable to be caused by a change in depth of the rotatable part. The present invention is also directed to a downhole pump such as a geothermal downhole pump, comprising a line shaft, an impeller engaged with the line shaft for pressurizing fluid to be extracted from a well, and monitoring apparatus for monitoring the depth of a distal end of the line shaft in order to prevent damage to the impeller that is liable to be caused by a change in depth of the distal end.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A method for maintaining a downhole pump impeller of a geothermal downhole pump in a geothermal production well, comprising the steps of

locating a line shaft of the downhole pump to a selected depth in the geothermal production well,
monitoring the depth of a lowermost distal end of said line shaft in the geothermal production well using a monitor positioned at a lowermost distal end of said line shaft in order to prevent damage to said impeller,
determining that the depth of the lowermost distal end of said line shaft has significantly changed, and
taking a corrective action to return the depth of the lowermost distal end of said line shaft to said selected depth in order to maintain and prevent damage to said impeller,
wherein the depth of the lowermost distal end of line shaft distal end is monitored by directing a beam of light emitted from a housing mounted on a outer portion of the downhole pump onto a plurality of reflective elements located on the line shaft distal end, and determining whether a receiver mounted in said outer portion receives light reflected from said one plurality of reflective elements.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/965,949Filed 11 Dec 2015
Priority: 8 Feb 2012
Published: 7 Apr 2016
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

E21B 47/008
Survey of boreholes or wells: monitoring of down-hole pump systems, e.g. for the detection of "pumped-off" conditions
E21B 43/128
Lifting well fluids: adaptation of pump systems with down-hole electric drives
F04D 13/10
For submerged use: adapted for use in mining bore holes
F04D 15/0077
Control, e.g. regulation, of pumps, pumping installations or systems: safety measures

Family

Application13/368,874Division · filed 8 Feb 2012
Application14/965,949Division
US 2013/0199776 A1Published application
US 9,212,544 B2Related patent
US 9,631,465 B2Related patent
US 2016/0097266 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.