Bubble enhanced downhole oil water separation
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJianmin Zhang, Raymond Patrick Murphy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Use of a bubble-generating mechanism in a production environment is described, The bubble generating mechanism may be used to facilitate the separation of a target fluid from a non-target fluid in the production environment, such as by creating a gradient of the fluids or creating separate and distinct zones of the fluids to be separated. The target fluid can then be preferentially recovered from the production environment based on the gradient or distinct zones.
Claims20
A downhole tool assembly, comprising:
- at least one pump configured to pump a target fluid from a target-fluid rich zone of a production environment, wherein the production environment contain both the target fluid and a non-target fluid;
- a bubble generator configured to inject gas bubbles into the production environment, wherein the gas bubbles are sized so as to associate with droplets of the target fluid to decrease the apparent density of the target fluid relative to the non-target fluid.
A method for separating a target fluid from water in a downhole environment, comprising:
- generating a plurality of bubbles in a mixture of a target fluid and water present in a production environment, wherein the bubbles bond with droplets of the target fluid to decrease the apparent density of the droplets;
- pumping target fluid to the surface from a first zone of the production environment having an increased concentration of the target fluid due to the decreased apparent density of the droplets.
A method for purging settled fines in a downhole environment, comprising:
- operating a first pump configured to inject water into a downhole formation to instead agitate fines within the downhole environment so as to raise at least a portion of the fines to the level of an inlet to a second pump;
- and
- operating the second pump so as to intake the agitated fines and to lift the fines form the downhole environment with a produced fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.