Heat exchange compressor
AssigneeABI Technology, Inc.
InventorCharles Chester Irwin, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and process for simultaneously compressing liquids and gases and exchanging the heat of compression with fluids which may be the same liquids and gasses compressed. An apparatus and process for heating maintenance fluids using heat generated when the lift gas is compressed. The compressor may be used for recovering oil and gas from a subterranean formation wherein the production rate is controlled by the gas pressure at the well head, resulting in very slow strokes or pulses and bubbles of lift gas 500 feet long or longer. It may also be used for well maintenance using cooled injection gas from the well and heated fluids, which also may come from the well and be mixed with the well gas during compression, may be conducted without interrupting production.
Claims60
The process of using a compressor capable of pumping liquid/gas mixtures to produce compressed gas and heated liquid from said fluid mixtures comprising:
- the introduction of said fluid mixture into said compressor,
- the compression of gasses in said mixture to said compressed gasses,
- the transfer of at least a portion of the heat of compression to liquids in said mixture with the simultaneous heating of said liquids to heated liquids and cooling of said compressed gasses to cooled gasses,
- the removal of said cooled gasses and heated liquids from said compressor, and
- the separation of said cooled gasses and heated liquids.
A heat exchange compressor for pumping inlet fluids, which may be inlet liquids, inlet gasses or inlet liquids mixed with inlet gasses, with multiple compressing stages capable of pumping said liquids and compressing said gasses wherein the inlet pressure of said gasses controls the stroke frequency of said compressor and the rate of compression of said gasses by varying stroke length.
A heat exchange compressor for pumping inlet fluids, which may be inlet liquids, inlet gasses or inlet liquids mixed with inlet gasses, with multiple compressing stages capable of pumping said liquids and compressing said gasses wherein the inlet pressure of said gasses further controls said compressor by interrupting compression without interrupting the flow of hydraulic fluid.
A heat exchange compressor for pumping inlet fluids, which may be inlet liquids, inlet gasses or inlet liquids mixed with inlet gasses, with multiple compressing stages capable of pumping said liquids and compressing said gasses with a power supply and a compressing means that includes
- a hydraulic fluid pumping means in fluid communication with a hydraulic fluid reservoir,
- an inlet compression cylinder with an inlet valve, an outlet valve, and an end plate with openings for said valves,
- an inlet monitoring means for monitoring the pressure of inlet gasses in said inlet fluids,
- an outlet compression cylinder with an inlet valve, an outlet valve, and an end plate with openings for said valves,
- an outlet monitoring means for controlling release of compressed fluids from said outlet compression cylinder,
- at least one pair of serially-connected compression cylinders comprising a higher pressure compression cylinder, which may be said outlet compression cylinder, and a lower pressure compression cylinder, which may be said inlet compression cylinder,
- a compression chamber and a ram chamber in each of said compression cylinders,
- a free-floating shaft and piston in each of said ram chambers for pumping fluids, which may be gasses, liquids or both,
- an inter-chamber fluid communication means between said compression chambers of said serially-connected compression cylinders,
- an inter-chamber valving means for controlling said inter-chamber fluid communication means,
- a ram control means with
- a ram monitoring means for monitoring hydraulic pressure in said ram chambers and
- a ram switching means for controlling the flow of hydraulic fluid to said compression cylinders, and
- a heat exchange means in thermal communication with said compression means wherein the heat of compression generated during compression heats liquids, which may be internal liquids, external liquids, or both, to produce heated liquids.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.