Method of enhancing hydration of viscosifiers using controlled mechanically induced cavitation
AssigneeHydro Dynamics, Inc.
InventorsDouglas G. Mancosky, Daniel A. Armstead
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Abstract
A method of hydrating a dry powdered viscosifier such as a powdered polymer is disclosed. The method includes mixing the powdered viscosifier with a solvent such as water to form a mixture; moving the mixture through a cavitation zone; inducing energetic shock waves and pressure fluctuations in the mixture by mechanically inducing cavitation events within the mixture, the shock waves and pressure fluctuations untangling, separating, and straightening polymer molecule chains and distributing the chains throughout the mixture, and extracting the resulting hydrated viscosifier from the cavitation zone.
Claims18
A method of enhancing hydration of a powdered viscosifier comprising the steps of:
- (a) introducing a viscosifier containing non-hydrated powdered particles into a flow of a solvent or hydrating fluid to produce a mixture;
- (b) feeding the mixture into a controlled cavitation reactor, wherein the mixture flows from sides of a rotor of the controlled cavitation reactor through a cavitation zone defined between an outer peripheral surface of the rotor and a wall of a housing of the controlled cavitation reactor, and into the rotor through a plurality of bores formed in the rotor
- (c) as the rotor of the controlled cavitation reactor is rotated, generating cavitation events within the mixture in a low shear environment within the controlled cavitation reactor;
- (d) controlling a rotor rotation rate as the mixture flows through the cavitation zone to control the cavitation events for generating shock waves that result in cavitation induced pressure variations that propagate through the mixture as the mixture flows through the cavitation zone to substantially separate and disperse the non-hydrated powdered particles of the viscosifier within the mixture and increase surface area contact between the solvent or hydrating fluid and the non-hydrated powdered particles of the viscosifier;
- (e) as a result of step (d), forcing solvent molecules into and out of the powder particles to separate, untangle, hydrate, and straighten viscosifier molecule chains contained within the non-hydrated powdered particles of the viscosifier to thereby form substantially uniform hydrated viscosifier molecule chains without causing covalent bond breakage or polymer chain scission;
- (f) distributing the hydrated viscosifier molecule chains substantially homogeneously throughout the mixture;
- and
- (g) collecting a resulting mixture.
A method of hydrating a viscosifier:
- feeding a flow of a solvent or hydrating fluid through a first port of a controlled cavitation reactor;
- introducing the viscosifier comprising non-hydrated powdered particles through a second port of the controlled cavitation reactor and into the flow of the solvent or hydrating fluid, wherein the solvent and non-hydrated powdered particles of the viscosifier are mixed, thereby forming a mixture;
- directing the mixture into a cavitation zone of the controlled cavitation reactor defined between a peripheral surface of a rotor and a side wall of a housing of the controlled cavitation reactor;
- operating the controlled cavitation reactor including controlling a rotor rotation rate thereof so as to generate, in a low shear environment, cavitation events within the mixture;
- wherein generating the cavitation events comprises forming cavitation bubbles within the mixture to create shock waves that result in cavitation induced pressure variations that propagate through the mixture upon collapse of the cavitation bubbles;
- wherein the cavitation events force solvent or hydrating fluid molecules into and out of the powder particles sufficient to thereby separate, untangle, hydrate, and straighten viscosifier molecule chains contained within the non-hydrated powdered particles of the viscosifier to form hydrated viscosifier molecule chains without causing covalent bond breakage or polymer chain scission;
- and
- collecting a resulting mixture from the controlled cavitation reactor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.