Extending ESP Run Life By Reducing Shutdowns and Improving Restarts Using Novel Pump Protection Technology

Meeting the production demand in today's market without sacrificing performance of the artificial lift method is critical. Aggressive flowback procedures lead to solids production and unplanned electric submersible pump (ESP) shutdowns because of solids overload. A novel pump protection system has been designed, tested, and installed in the field. The system enhances the ESP life, improves restarts, and reduces downhole vibrations and unplanned shutdown by controlling the solids flowback and sending solids-buildup pressure signals. A comparative study on three ESP wells in the Delaware basin (US) demonstrated the efficacy of the system. The system comprises of an intake sand control screen and valve assembly. The novel stainless steel wool screen acts as a three dimensional (3D) filter capable of filtering out particles of 15 to 600 μm, and the valve assembly activated by differential pressure across the screen creates a secondary flow path to allow cyclic cleanup of the screen. Stainless steel wool screen with variable pore sizes is used as the sand control media for its high efficiency in preventing the flow of most of the solid particles. When the solids build up on the screen surface, the valve assembly opens upon reaching a preset differential pressure to enable flow past the screens and into the ESP and allows sands deposited on the screen surface to fall off. The pump protection assembly was tested at surface and installed in three wells along with downhole ESP gauges measuring pressure, temperature and vibrations after pulling out existing ESP completions. Qualification testing confirmed the opening of the valve assembly after solids buildup on the stainless steel wool screen. It also validated that the deposited sand fell-off from the screen surface after flow diverted through the valve assembly and pressure differential across screen dropped. In the field installations, the run life of the ESPs improved by an average of 35%, with comparable production volumes and slow drawdowns. In addition, the number of ESP shutdowns related to sand and solids was reduced by as much as 75%, improving longevity of electrical components. The success rate of ESP startups after planned and unplanned shutdowns also improved by 22%. The increase in inlet pressure captured via the downhole gauges when the valve assembly opened indicated the sand control prevention and mitigation system was bridged, and ESP replacement should be scheduled to minimize deferred production from a solids-induced ESP failure and to minimize surface solids management costs. The vibration signal data obtained from downhole sensors confirmed the reliability of the system. Overall, results demonstrate that the system designed is successful at increasing ESP run life without detriment to well production performance. The new, field-proven pump protection system along with its components and the completion design substantially increase life of ESP by reducing the number of shutdowns related to sand overload, reducing shutdowns, reducing overall vibrations, increasing the probability of successful start after shut-in, and increasing the performance reliability during fracturing of a neighboring well. Consequently, more wells that are looking to increase the ESP life can now benefit from this technology and increase output.

Different low-cost materials to prevent the alteration induced by formic acid on unstable glasses

The most frequent cause of glass degradation is environmental moisture, which is adsorbed on its surface forming a hydration layer that induces the rupture of the glass network. This pathology is accelerated by the accumulation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), like formic acid. Although there is extensive knowledge about their impact, concentrations inside display cases are difficult to reduce efficiently. This study presents the assessment of different materials to reduce the concentration of formic acid to mitigate the degradation produced in unstable glasses. With this objective, copper threads, steel wool, silica gel, and activated carbon were chosen as low-cost materials with good adsorption or reactivity to the VOCs, exposing them in desiccators to an environment of 100% RH and 10 ppm of formic acid. Given that silica gel obtained the best results, its optimization as a sorbent material was evaluated by maintaining, regenerating, or renewing it when exposed next to the same glass. The tests carried out concluded that the hygroscopic capacity of the glasses exposed with silica gel decreased and, therefore, a lower degradation is observed on its surface. In addition, regenerating and renewing weekly the silica gel improved the results.

Storage and Upgrading of Biogas by Physicochemical Purification in a Sudano-Sahelian Context

The global energy trends are currently dominated by a massive use of fossil non-renewable energy sources which are progressively depleting. In this way, the production of second-generation biogas production from organic wastes by the dark fermentation process offers, therefore, an attractive solution to diversify the present energy mix. The development of biogas production units has led to an increase in the quantity of biomethane, but it contains impurities. A biomethane purification and storage system was developed in this work to improve the quality of this biofuel. Solutions were first developed to capture carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, water, and volatile organic compounds found in the initial biogas. These solutions were based on a system of purification made up of water absorption reactions and iron oxide, activated charcoal, and steel wool adsorption. Thus, the biomethane obtained after purification has been stored in an inflatable balloon before being compressed into a refrigerant bottle of R134a. The treatment system was used to release a biogas with 95 % biomethane and a law heating value (LHV) of 54 MJ/kg after purification. It also emerges that purification of 2 m3 of biogas requires 0.15 m3 of water at 20oC to produce 1.4 m3 of biomethane. This biomethane can meet an energy demand of 1624 Wh or 0.2 m3 of daily biomethane requirements. The system as a whole can allow customers with a biodigester to produce their own energy (cooking or electric) while reducing the production of green-house gases in the atmosphere.

On enhancing the mechanical behavior of ultra-high performance concrete through multi-scale fiber reinforcement

Steel fibers are typically used in ultra-high performance concretes (UHPC) to impart flexural ductility and increase fracture toughness. However, the mechanical properties of the steel fibers are underutilized in UHPC, as evidenced by the fact that most of the steel fibers pull out of a UHPC matrix largely undamaged during tensile or flexural tests. This research aims to improve the bond between steel fibers and a UHPC matrix by using steel wool. The underlying mechanism for fiber-matrix bond improvement is the reinforcement of the matrix tunnel, surrounding the steel fibers, by steel wool. Single fiber pullout tests were performed to quantify the effect of steel wool content in UHPC on the fiber-matrix bond. Microscopic observations of pulled-out fibers were used to investigate the fiber-matrix interface. Compared to the control UHPC mixture with no steel wool, significant improvement in the flexural behavior was observed in the UHPC mixtures with steel wool. Thus, the addition of steel wool in steel fiber-reinforced UHPC provides multi-scale reinforcement that leads to significant improvement in fiber-matrix bond and mechanical properties of UHPC.

Upaya Pemurnian Landfill Biogas Menggunakan Metode Adsroben Steel Wool

Nilai kalor yang dimiliki oleh biogas sangat mempengaruhi lamanya waktu proses pembakaran. Beberapa penelitian telah dilakukan untuk meningkatkan nilai kalor yaitu dengan menurunkan kadar zat pengotor yang terkandung bersama biogas. Dalam penelitian ini dilakukan upaya peningkatan nilai kalor biogas dengan menggunakan steel wool sebagai adsorben dengan variasi massa steel wool (500 gram dan 600 gram) dan variasi laju aliran biogas (1 lpm, 2 lpm, dan 3 lpm). Peningkatan nilai kalor biogas sebelum dan sesudah pemurnian ditentukan dengan water heating test. Hasil penelitian menunjukan peningkatan nilai kalor diperoleh pada filter dengan massa adsorben 600 gr dan laju aliran biogas 1 lpm, dimana nilai kalor meningkat sebesar 36.19%. Sedangkan filter dengan 500 gr steel wool adsroben dan laju aliran biogas 3 lpm, menghasilkan peningkatan nilai kalor terendah yaitu sebesar 4.46%. Hasil eksperimen menunjukan peningkatan nilai kalor semakin tinggi jika laju aliran biogas makin rendah melalui kolom adsorben dengan massa steel wool yang semakin tinggi.

The Effect of the Waste of Materials and Carbon Nanotube on the Concrete Incorporated with Steel Fibers

The addition of agricultural and industrial solid wastes and nanomaterials to concrete combined with steel fibers to improve the mechanical and electrical properties of concrete was investigated. This approach could be used in advanced applications in electromagnetic shielding and conductive concrete. Steel fibers were used at 2%wt. of sand and (induction furnace slag (EIF), carbon nanotube (CNT), steel wool fibers, prepared corn husks) at 0.5 and 1 wt.%. of cement. Obtained results of using 1% for both carbon nanotube and steel wool with steel fibers in the mixture 4 and 6, respectively, showed the highest rates of compressive strength. A similar result was shown when tested at 3,7 and 28 days of age and compressive strength was 47.4MPa,47.34MPa for the mixture 4 and 6 respectively. The electrical conductivity and electrical resistance of the samples were measured at the age of 7 days. The findings have also shown that adding steel wool as well as( CNT) gave the best results and the sample containing the furnace slag achieved satisfactory results as well.

Optimizing of the Cementitious Composite Matrix by Addition of Steel Wool Fibers (Chopped) Based on Physical and Mechanical Analysis

The demand for durable, resistant, and high-strength structural material has led to the use of fibers as reinforcing elements. This paper presents an investigation into the inclusion of chopped steel wool fibers (CSWFs) in cement to form a high-flexural strength cementitious composite matrix (CCM). CSWFs were used as the primary reinforcement in CCM at increments of 0.5 wt%, from 0.5–6 wt%, with ratios of cement to sand of 1:1.5 and water to cement of 0.45. The inclusion of CSWFs resulted in an excellent optimization of the physicomechanical properties of the CCM, such as its density (2.302 g/cm3), compressive strength (61.452 MPa), and maximum flexural strength (10.64 MPa), all of which exceeded the performances of other reinforcement elements reported in the literature.

Thermal Investigations of Double Pass Solar Air Heater with Two Types of Porous Media of Different Thermal Conductivity

This study describes an experimental investigation of the thermal efficiency of stainless steel mesh and steel wool as a porous medium in the lower channel of a double pass solar air heater. An experimental setup was planned and developed. Various types of porous media with high thermal conductivity and with different porosities have been tested. The effects of the porosity of wire mesh, the thermal conductivity of porous media, mass flow rate, and the intensity of radiation have been studied. Experimental results show that thermal efficiency with using porous media is greater than without using porous media. When used steel wool as a porous medium, the thermal efficiency reached 79.82 percent while it can be achieved 76. The percent by using stainless mesh as porous material. The reduction in porosity increasing thermal efficiency. The thermal efficiency of multi-pass solar air collector when used steel wool as porous media is 6, 12.6 and31.7percent higher than without porous media at porosity 98.75, 97.5, and 96.25percent. While it can increase 8.1 and 28.5 percent at porosity 97.875 and 95.75 percent when using stainless steel as porous media.