Telescoping Slant Well Filter Pack for Subsea Aquifer Clogging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Slant well systems used for desalination face challenges with clogging due to fine-grained materials, limiting their effectiveness in supplying water from near-shore or subsea aquifers, and require a method to minimize salinity variations and prevent costly pre-treatment in desalination processes.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a telescoping slant well system with an engineered artificial filter pack and a dual-packer shroud assembly, which stabilizes subsea aquifer materials, prevents clogging, and allows for selective salinity control by varying the angle and depth of water intake, reducing the need for pre-treatment and ensuring a sustainable water supply.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of stationary object
If slant well systems are used to supply water from near-shore or subsea aquifers, then water supply sustainability is improved, but well screen slots become clogged with fine-grained materials
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an artificial filter pack as an intermediary layer between the well screen and the aquifer materials. This filter pack acts as a mediator that allows water to pass through while blocking fine-grained materials, thus preventing clogging of the well screen slots while maintaining long-term water supply sustainability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs porous artificial filter pack materials with controlled pore sizes that are larger than water molecules but smaller than fine-grained aquifer particles. This porous structure enables selective passage of water while retaining suspended solids, resolving the contradiction between sustained water supply and prevention of screen clogging
2Object-affected harmful factors
If slant wells are constructed at low angles below horizontal, then impacts to inland fresh water sources are minimized, but construction difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs directional drilling technology that allows dynamic adjustment of well trajectory during construction. The drilling system can be steered to achieve precise low angles below horizontal, minimizing interference with inland freshwater sources while maintaining construction feasibility through real-time trajectory control
Solution Approach 2:
The patent varies the drilling angle parameter to optimize the balance between protecting inland freshwater sources and maintaining construction ease. By constructing wells at specific low angles (e.g., 5-15 degrees below horizontal), the system minimizes freshwater impacts while keeping construction within reasonable difficulty limits
3Ease of operation
If traditional open water desalination plant intakes are used, then water intake is simple, but entrainment and impingement impacts to marine life occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the water intake function from the traditional open water surface location and relocates it to subsurface aquifers through slant wells. This separation removes the intake system from direct interaction with marine life in the water column, eliminating entrainment and impingement impacts while maintaining operational simplicity through underground piping
4Manufacturing precision
If reverse osmosis pretreatment is applied, then water quality is improved, but costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary filtration action in situ within the subsurface aquifer itself, using the natural geologic filter pack and artificial filter materials to pre-clean the water before it reaches the well screen. This preliminary action by the aquifer environment reduces or eliminates the need for costly reverse osmosis pretreatment at the plant, while still achieving adequate water quality
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a long-term, sustainable water supply with minimized salinity variations and reduced turbidity, eliminating the need for costly pre-treatment and maintaining system efficiency by preventing clogging and optimizing water quality for desalination.
Implementation Method 1
The slant wells induce recharge of the aquifer system through the floor of the ocean, sea, or inland lake due to the hydraulic head difference between the slant well pumping level and the level of the ocean, sea, or lake
Data Source
AI summary
A system for supplying water to a desalination plant from a subsurface feedwater supply using one or more slant or horizontally directionally drilled (“HDD”) wells, and for concentrate disposal (e.g., injection of brine). A method for constructing a slant or HDD well feedwater supply system for supplying water from a subsurface feedwater supply or to inject concentrate into a subsea aquifer.