Method and apparatus for measuring and controlling the flow of fluids from coal seam gas wells
OwnerCham Ocondiinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a coal seam gas well, variable speed submersible pumps are used to remove the water from the well bore in order to release the methane gas absorbed in the coal bed and in the water. To optimize gas production, the liquid must be removed at an optimum rate, while still maintaining a certain minimum fluid level within the bore. To achieve this optimum control of the pump, analytical data of liquid flow rate, liquid level trend within the bore, and operating data of the submersible pump is used to control the liquid pump speed and the on-off timing of the liquid pump. High-resolution trending and event-log data provide artificial intelligence control to improve recovery of liquids from a coal seam gas well reservoir, and to reduce the operating cost.
Claims18
Methods for measuring the volume and rate of a coal seam gas well flow from a coal seam gas well head by electrical means to eliminate gas volume measurement errors associated with intermittent or erratic gas flow conditions in a system using a liquid meter in operative communication with the coal seam gas well site, a differential pressure transducer, a temperature transducer, and a static pressure line transducer associated with the gas well head, including the steps of:
- providing a first electric component system having an input portion and in operative communication with a gas well site, said component system having calibration data, gas flow parameters, and control configurations.
- transmitting analog electric data signals as a function of time from at least the differential pressure transducer, the temperature transducer, and the static pressure line transducer to said input portion of said first electric component system;
- transmitting digital electric event data signals as a function of time to an input portion of said first electric component system;
- transmitting electrical digital pulse signals generated by said liquid meter to said first component system;
- transmitting analog electrical signals of torque, speed, and digital events of the pump operating status generated by said liquid meter to said first component system and to a data logging manager for storage;
- transmitting said digital electric event data and pulse signals to a data logging manager for storage;
- and then
- presenting said analog electric data to said data logging manager and said digital electric event data from said signals for display and analysis of well characteristics and events from said signals, including volume and rate of gas well flow and liquid flow from a coal seam gas well head to which it is in operative communication.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.