Drag reducing agents

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11199296-B2
Application number	US-201916717544-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2019
Priority date	Jun 14, 2019
Publication date	Dec 14, 2021
Grant date	Dec 14, 2021

Abstract

A drag reducing agent has a core comprising a polyolefin; and a temporary container encapsulating the core. The temporary container contains a container material, which includes an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, a polyvinylpyrrolidone, an ethylene vinylpyrrolidone copolymer, a vinylpyrrolidone vinyl acetate copolymer, a polyvinyl acetate, a polyvinyl alcohol, a polyethylene oxide, a polyethylene glycol, polyvinylidene chloride, a polysaccharide or its derivative, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing. A largest dimension of the drag reducing agent is greater than about 1,000 microns.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A drag reducing agent comprising:
a core comprising a polyolefin; and
a temporary container encapsulating the core, the temporary container comprising a container material, which includes an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, a polyvinylpyrrolidone, an ethylene vinylpyrrolidone copolymer, a vinylpyrrolidone vinyl acetate copolymer, polyvinylidene chloride, a polysaccharide or its derivative, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing;
wherein a largest dimension of the drag reducing agent is greater than about 1,000 microns.

2. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the core further comprises a deactivated polymerization catalyst.

3. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the largest dimension of the drag reducing agent is greater than about 0.5 centimeter.

4. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the largest dimension of the drag reducing agent is greater than about 1 centimeter to about 30 centimeters.

5. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the temporary container has two or more layers, and at least one layer comprises the container material.

6. The drag reducing agent of claim 5 , wherein each of the two or more layers independently comprises the container material.

7. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the temporary container has an inner surface and an opposing outer surface, and a coating is disposed on at least one of the inner and outer surfaces of the temporary container, the coating comprising a wax, a silicone, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing.

8. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the temporary container has a thickness of about 1 to about 1,000 microns.

9. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the temporary container fully encapsulates the core.

10. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the polyolefin is a copolymer of an olefin and a monomer comprising at least one of styrene, vinyl acetate, a vinylalkylene carboxylic ester, or an oligomer of the vinylalkylene carboxylic ester.

11. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the polyolefin is present in an amount of about 80 wt % to about 99.99 wt %, based on the total weight of the drag reducing agent.

12. A composition comprising the drag reducing agent of claim 1 .

13. The composition of claim 12 , wherein the composition further comprises water.

14. A process of manufacturing a drag reducing agent, the process comprising:
injecting a catalyst and a drag reducing agent forming component comprising (i) at least one olefin monomer, or (ii) at least one olefin oligomer, or a combination of (i) and (ii) into a temporary container comprising a container material, which includes an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, a polyvinylpyrrolidone, an ethylene vinylpyrrolidone copolymer, a vinylpyrrolidone vinyl acetate copolymer, polyvinylidene chloride, a polysaccharide or its derivative, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing;
sealing the temporary container;
allowing the drag reducing additive forming component to polymerize in the sealed temporary container to form a core comprising a polyolefin; and
deactivating the catalyst in the temporary container while the temporary container is sealed,
wherein a largest dimension of the drag reducing agent is greater than about 1,000 microns.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein deactivating the catalyst comprises allowing a deactivating agent to diffuse into the temporary container to deactivate the catalyst, the deactivating agent comprising water, an alcohol, hydrogen sulfide, oxygen, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein deactivating the catalyst comprises allowing water to diffuse into the temporary container.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising making an aperture on the temporary container to allow water or oxygen to diffuse into the temporary container.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the largest dimension of the drag reducing agent is more than about 0.5 centimeter.

19. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the temporary container has a thickness of about 1 micron to about 100 microns.

20. The drag reducing agent of claim 1 , wherein the temporary container has a thickness of about 10 microns to about 100 microns.

Assignees

• Zou Jian
• Jurek David J
• Vittur Brandon M
• Bravo Anthony D
• Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations Llc

Inventors

• Zou Jian
• Jurek David J
• Vittur Brandon M
• Bravo Anthony D

Classifications

• C09K8/035

  Organic additives · CPC title

• C10M2201/02

  Water · CPC title

• C10N2070/00

  Specific manufacturing methods for lubricant compositions · CPC title

• C10M101/025

  waxes · CPC title

• C10M169/02

  Mixtures of base-materials and thickeners · CPC title