Proppant discharge system and a container for use in such a proppant discharge system
AssigneeOren Technologies, LLC
InventorsJohn Oren, Joshua Oren
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A proppant discharge system has a container with an outlet formed at a bottom thereof and a gate slidably affixed at the outlet so as to be movable between a first position covering the outlet to a second position opening the outlet, and a support structure having an actuator thereon. The container is removably positioned on the top surface of the support structure. The actuator is engageable with gate so as to move the gate from the first position to the second position. A conveyor underlies the container so as to receive proppant as discharged from the container through the outlet. The container is a ten foot ISO container.
Claims7
A process for delivering proppant to a fracturing site, the process comprising:
- providing a plurality of containers each having an interior suitable for receiving the proppant therein, each of the plurality of containers also having a pair of sidewalls, a pair of end walls, and a bottom region, the container further having an outlet positioned in the bottom region thereof and a gate adjacent the outlet of the container, and a ramp connected to each of the sidewalls and each of the end walls, each ramp of each of the plurality of containers positioned to extend to the outlet adjacent the bottom region;
- filling each of the plurality of containers with the proppant;
- moving each of the filled plurality of containers along a roadway on a separate vehicle to the fracturing site;
- positioning each of the filled plurality of containers upon a structure, the structure positioned to include a plurality of hoppers positioned below a top surface thereof, each of the filled plurality of containers positioned at an elevation directly above one or more of the plurality of hoppers of the structure;
- and
- discharging the proppant from the outlet of each of the plurality of containers into a respective one of the plurality of hoppers by actuation of the gate with an actuator so as to move the gate from a first position closing the outlet to a second position opening the outlet for each of the plurality of containers when positioned on the structure.
A process for delivering proppant to a fracturing site, the process comprising:
- filling each of a plurality of proppant containers with proppant so as to define a plurality of filled proppant containers;
- transporting each of the filled proppant containers along a roadway on a different vehicle to the fracturing site;
- placing the plurality of filled proppant containers upon a conveyor structure, each of the plurality of containers having a pair of sidewalls, a pair of end walls, and a bottom region, each container further having an outlet positioned in the bottom region thereof and a gate adjacent the outlet of each container, and a ramp connected to each of the sidewalls, each ramp positioned to extend to the outlet adjacent the bottom region of the container to form a funnel-like shape;
- discharging the proppant from the outlet of each of the plurality of containers onto the conveyor structure;
- actuating the gate with an actuator so as to move the gate from a first position closing the outlet of each container to a second position opening the outlet of each container;
- conveying the discharged proppant to a desired location at the fracturing site;
- and
- transporting a plurality of emptied proppant containers from the fracturing site so that a plurality of emptied proppant containers are positioned on each of the different vehicles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.