High pressure pump with separate clean and dirty fluid circuits

Abstract

Implementations described herein relate to apparatus and methods for using a membrane pump to establish fracking pressure. Apparatus described herein includes, in place of mechanical pumps such as piston and impeller pumps, one or more membrane pumps are employed in a fluid circuit to increase the pressure of the fracking fluid. In operation of this system, a clean fluid circuit is used to pressurize clean fluid, transfer that pressure into the dirty fluid, and then return the clean fluid to a storage, and a dirty fluid circuit flows the dirty fluid from a storage, to the membrane pump to be pressurized, and then into a well bore to pressurize a formation penetrated by the well bore.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 63 / 162,863, filed Mar. 18, 2021 and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 63 / 125,535, filed Dec. 15, 2020, each of which are herein incorporated by reference.BACKGROUNDField[0002]Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to apparatus and methods of pressurizing fluid having abrasive solids therein. More particularly, the present invention relates to the pumping of fluids having abrasive solids therein using a pressure transfer technique to pressurize the solids containing fluid across a membrane.Description of the Related Art[0003]Fracking is a known technique to recover hydrocarbons such as oil and gas from formations where the formation architecture will otherwise not allow commercially feasible recovery of the hydrocarbons. During fracking, fluid having a proppant carried therein, for example sand or an engineered solid, is compressed to ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a system for pressurizing a fluid used in fracking operations. The system includes a source of dirty fluid, a source of clean fluid, and a pump. The system also includes valves to control the flow of the fluids. By using this system, the fluid used in fracking operations can be effectively pressurized without contamination.

Problems solved by technology

Fracking is a known technique to recover hydrocarbons such as oil and gas from formations where the formation architecture will otherwise not allow commercially feasible recovery of the hydrocarbons.

The pressurized fluid cause cracking or fracturing of the formation, and the proppant becomes wedged in the cracks, maintaining the cracks to space apart the formation when the fluid under pressure is removed.

One issue encountered during fracking is the cost of the maintenance, and replacement of, the mechanical pumps used to pressurize the fracking fluid.

However, the lifetime of these components is very short because of the excessive wear thereof caused by the erosion of the surfaces thereof by the proppant in the fracking fluid.

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