Oil recovery sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019369053-A1
Application number	US-201916539607-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 13, 2019
Priority date	May 31, 2018
Publication date	Dec 5, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for measuring oil/water content in oil-water mixtures, regardless of the salinity of the mixture. The oil content is measured using a dielectric sensor. It is determined whether the oil content is above or below a threshold. If the oil content is above the threshold, the oil content is reported using the measurement from the dielectric sensor. If the oil content is below the threshold, the oil content is reported using the measurement from the eddy current sensor.

First claim

1 . A system for measuring oil content of a fluid, the system comprising:
an eddy current sensor including:
(i) resonance circuit including an inductor configured to produce a magnetic field within an associated cavity, and
(ii) a standing wave ratio (SWR) analyzer configured to measure a height of a peak of a resonance frequency of the resonance circuit; and
one or more processors configured to determine oil content in the associated cavity based on the measured height.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the resonance circuit further includes a capacitor arranged in series with the inductor.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the associated cavity comprises a pipe and the inductor comprises a coil wound around the pipe.

4 . The system of claim 1 wherein the associated cavity contains oil and water and the one or more processors is configured to determine the oil content including correcting for a salinity of the water.

5 . The system of claim 4 wherein the correcting for the salinity of the water includes computing a ratio of C mixture and C water where C mixture is a conductivity of the oil and water contained in the associated cavity measured by the eddy current sensor and C water is a pure saline water conductivity.

6 . The system of claim 1 wherein the eddy current sensor is configured to measure the height of the peak of the resonance frequency of the resonance circuit at a resonance frequency of 10 MHz or higher.

7 . A system for measuring oil content of a fluid, the system comprising:
a pipe configured to contain water and oil; and an eddy current sensor configured to produce a magnetic field within the pipe; and one or more processors configured to determine oil content in the pipe based using the eddy current sensor.

8 . The system of claim 7 wherein the pipe comprises a U-trap.

9 . The system of claim 8 wherein the U-trap includes an air passage at a top of the U-trap to allow for air passage.

10 . The system of claim 9 wherein the U-trap includes an air passage is of smaller cross-section than the U-trap.

11 . The system of claim 7 wherein the eddy current sensor includes:
(i) resonance circuit including an inductor comprising a coil wound around the pipe, and
(ii) a standing wave ratio (SWR) analyzer configured to measure a height of a peak of a resonance frequency of the resonance circuit; and
wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the oil content in the pipe based on the measured height.

12 . The system of claim 11 wherein the resonance circuit further includes a capacitor.

13 . The system of claim 11 wherein the eddy current sensor is configured to measure the height of the peak of the resonance frequency of the resonance circuit at a resonance frequency of 10 MHz or higher.

14 . The system of claim 7 wherein the one or more processors is configured to determine the oil content including correcting for a salinity of the water.

15 . The system of claim 14 wherein the correcting for the salinity of the water includes computing a ratio of C mixture and C water where C mixture is a conductivity of the oil and water contained in the pipe measured by the eddy current sensor and C water is a pure saline water conductivity.

16 . A method for measuring oil content of a fluid, the method comprising:
disposing a mixture of oil and water in a cavity; and determining oil content of the mixture of oil and water in the cavity using an eddy current sensor.

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the disposing comprises obtaining the mixture of oil and water by performing oil recovery comprising mechanical surface skimming.

18 . The method of claim 17 wherein the cavity comprises a pipe and the disposing comprises flowing the mixture of oil and water through the pipe while determining the oil content of the mixture of oil and water.

19 . The method of claim 18 wherein the pipe includes a U-trap and the determining comprises determining the oil content of the mixture of oil and water in the U-trap using the eddy current sensor.

20 . The method of claim 19 wherein the U-trap is mounted horizontally.

21 . The method of claim 20 further comprising diverting air in the pipe from the U-trap using an air passage installed at a top of the U-trap.

22 . The method of claim 16 wherein the determining comprises:
measuring a height of a peak of a resonance frequency of a resonance circuit configured to produce a magnetic field within the cavity; and
determining the oil content of the mixture of oil and water in the cavity based on the measured height.

23 . The method of claim 22 wherein the resonance frequency is at least 10 MHz.

Assignees

• Battelle Memorial Institute

Inventors

• Winecki Slawomir
• Fought Haskell Jac
• Yugulis Meghan Harley
• Argumedo Darwin
• Stonebraker Robert
• Gibbs William

Classifications

• G01N27/08

  which is flowing continuously · CPC title

• G01N27/025 Primary

  a current being generated within the material by induction · CPC title

• G01N33/2823

  Raw oil, drilling fluid or polyphasic mixtures · CPC title

• G01N33/2847

  Water in oils · CPC title

• G01R27/06

  Measuring reflection coefficients; Measuring standing-wave ratio · CPC title