Looking for breakthrough ideas for innovation challenges? Try Patsnap Eureka!

System and method for extracting petroleum and generating electricity using natural gas or local petroleum

a technology of natural gas or local petroleum and extraction method, which is applied in the field of extraction of hydrocarbons, can solve the problems of difficult and costly construction of cosub>2 /sub>pipelines, affecting and affecting the use of wells, etc., and achieves the effect of increasing the efficiency of portable reformers

Inactive Publication Date: 2015-02-05
PIONEER ENERGY
View PDF7 Cites 1 Cited by
  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating energy. One embodiment includes a portable reformer with a catalyst bed to improve its efficiency. This means that the portable reformer can increase the amount of energy it generates by using a catalyst to enhance its reaction. Overall, this invention allows for the creation of a more efficient and effective portable energy generation system.

Problems solved by technology

Currently there are tens of thousands of depleted oil and natural gas wells around the world, which collectively possess significant amounts of petroleum resources that cannot currently be extracted using conventional extraction techniques.
Despite the potential advantages of CO2 in enhanced oil recovery, its use has been hampered by several factors.
Unfortunately, such CO2 pipelines are difficult and costly to construct.
Additionally, many oil sites are out of reach from such natural and industrial sources of CO2.
However, electric power plants, which burn natural gas to generate electricity, produce large quantities of CO2 waste product.
Using present technologies, it is often not economically feasible to utilize the CO2 from such power plants for oil recovery because they are not within close reach of oil fields.
Thus, the cost of sequestering CO2 in the ground is often not economically feasible.
Traditionally, hydrogen has been costly to produce and its use has not been justified from an economic standpoint.
Furthermore, natural gas is often readily available at a site of an oil field, and in some cases the natural gas is considered a waste product that is “flared.” Simultaneously, crude petroleum is often available at a site of an oil field for a significantly lower cost than its price to a consumer because crude petroleum has not been processed or transported to a consumer, which are expensive steps.

Method used

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
View more

Image

Smart Image Click on the blue labels to locate them in the text.
Viewing Examples
Smart Image
  • System and method for extracting petroleum and generating electricity using natural gas or local petroleum
  • System and method for extracting petroleum and generating electricity using natural gas or local petroleum
  • System and method for extracting petroleum and generating electricity using natural gas or local petroleum

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

embodiment 600

[0153]In an alternative embodiment 600 of the present invention, depicted in FIG. 6, a portable fluidized-bed reformer module 601 is used to generate driver gas for injection into the ground of an oil well. In the fluidized-bed reformer module 601, most particles remain in the reaction chamber, but finer particles are entrained with the exhaust gas. That is, compared to the fixed-bed reformer module 501 of FIG. 5, greater amounts of fine particles are entrained in the higher velocity exhaust gas (relative to the exhaust gas generated in the fixed-bed reformer module) and must be removed prior to compression of the driver gas. The coarsest of the entrained particles are removed from the gas stream and can be recycled to the reactor or discharged as residue. The remaining finest particles are removed by filtration.

[0154]FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system utilizing the fluidized-bed reformer module 601. Delivered coal 602 with a feed particle size of less than approximately ¼-in...

embodiment 1200

[0228]FIG. 12 illustrates another example of an embodiment 1200 of the present invention for extracting oil from an oil well and for generating electricity. This example is illustrative only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Fuel 1202 and water 1204 are fed into reformer module 1206. The fuel and water may also be pre-mixed and fed into reformer 1206 as a single stream. Oxygen, or another oxidizing agent, are fed into reformer 1206 via another line (not shown). Generated driver gas, which may include CO2, H2, as well as other gases, is fed into gas separator 1208, which separates a portion of the hydrogen gas from the other driver gases. A portion of the separated hydrogen gas is fed into power generator 1210, which could be a gas turbine, to generate electricity. A portion of the electricity is fed into the electric grid 1212. A portion of the electricity may also be used on-site, to provide power to various modules, such as the compressor 1214.

[0229...

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

PUM

No PUM Login to View More

Abstract

One embodiment is a method for extracting oil from a near-depleted oil well. A portable natural gas, methane, or petroleum reformer is brought to a site of the oil well. A quantity of natural gas, methane, or a portion of the locally produced petroleum and a quantity of water is fed into the reformer. The natural gas, methane, or petroleum is reacted with the water in the reformer to generate a driver gas containing a mixture of hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide gas. The driver gas is compressed to a pressure appropriate for the oil well, the driver gas is injected into the oil well, and the oil is recovered from the near-depleted oil well. In one embodiment, sulfur is first removed from the natural gas or crude petroleum. Another embodiment is a method for generating electricity without greenhouse gas emissions. The driver gas is separated into a substantially hydrogen stream and a substantially carbon dioxide stream prior to injecting the driver gas into the oil well, and the hydrogen stream is used to generate electricity.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority from co-pending provisional U.S. Application Ser. No. 60 / 940,450 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXTRACTING PETROLEUM AND GENERATING ELECTRICITY USING NATURAL GAS OR LOCAL PETROLEUM” to Robert Zubrin et al., filed on May 29, 2007, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to extracting hydrocarbons, such as petroleum and natural gas, and to generating electricity without greenhouse gas emissions by using natural gas or locally produced petroleum. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable and modular system / apparatus that may be taken to a location of an oil field, and especially a “depleted” oil well, and used to extract oil and / or generate electricity using natural gas or a portion of the locally produced petroleum.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Currently there are tens of thousands of depleted oil and natural gas w...

Claims

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

Application Information

Patent Timeline
no application Login to View More
Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): E21B43/16E21B43/25
CPCE21B43/16E21B43/255E21B43/164C10G1/04E21B43/34Y02C20/40Y02P30/00
Inventor ZUBRIN, ROBERT M.BERGGREN, MARK H.BRUINSMA, DOUWE
Owner PIONEER ENERGY
Who we serve
  • R&D Engineer
  • R&D Manager
  • IP Professional
Why Patsnap Eureka
  • Industry Leading Data Capabilities
  • Powerful AI technology
  • Patent DNA Extraction
Social media
Patsnap Eureka Blog
Learn More
PatSnap group products

Browse by: Latest US Patents, China's latest patents, Technical Efficacy Thesaurus, Application Domain, Technology Topic, Popular Technical Reports.

© 2024 PatSnap. All rights reserved.Legal|Privacy policy|Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement|Sitemap|About US| Contact US: help@patsnap.com