Reduced pipe wear in slurry transport pipelines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9694993-B2
Application number	US-201414539752-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 12, 2014
Priority date	Nov 12, 2013
Publication date	Jul 4, 2017
Grant date	Jul 4, 2017

Abstract

A process for operating a settling slurry transportation pipeline is provided, comprising: determining the deposition velocity for a particular slurry being transported through the pipeline; and operating the pipeline at an operating velocity at or near the deposition velocity to form a stationary or near stationary bed of solids that will still allow the slurry to freely flow through the pipeline and not plug the pipeline.

First claim

We claim:

1. A process for operating a slurry transportation pipeline designed for transporting a slurry derived from an oil sands extraction process, comprising:
determining the deposition velocity for a particular slurry derived from an oil sands extraction process being transported through the pipeline; and
operating the pipeline at an operating velocity below the deposition velocity to form a stationary or near stationary bed of solids at or near the 6 o'clock position of the pipeline that will still allow the slurry to freely flow through the pipeline and not plug the pipeline while reducing the pipeline wear rate.

2. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the operating velocity is not more than about 40% below the deposition velocity.

3. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the operating velocity is about 5% below the deposition velocity.

4. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the operating velocity is at least about 10% below the deposition velocity.

5. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the operating velocity is between about 10% to about 40% below the deposition velocity.

6. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the slurry is an oil sand slurry comprising mined oil sand and water and the pipeline consists of 24″ pipe, whereby operating the pipeline at the operating velocity below the deposition velocity is accomplished by replacing some or all of the 24″ pipe of the pipeline with 28″ pipe while maintain the original hydraulics and pumping capacity.

7. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein operating the pipeline at the operating velocity below the deposition velocity is accomplished by installing adequate pump horsepower to lift or move the stationary bed when pipeline pressure gradients are trending upwards at constant flow rate and/or the pipeline capacity is being reduced at a given pump speed.

8. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the relative height of the stationary or near stationary bed of solids is between about 0.05 and 0.1.

9. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the relative height of the stationary or near stationary bed of solids is between about 0.05 and 0.2.

10. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the relative height of the stationary or near stationary bed of solids is less than about 0.25 but greater than about 0.05.

11. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the height of the stationary or near stationary bed is controlled by pressure gradient, densitometry, electrical tomography, ultrasonic velocity measurements or other instrumentation to avoid pipeline blockage by the stationary or near stationary bed.

12. The process as claimed in claim 1 , whereby the wear on the pipeline is reduced so as to increase the overall pipeline service life.

13. The process as claimed in claim 11 , whereby the height of the stationary or near stationary bed is about 5% of the diameter of the pipeline.

14. The process as claimed in claim 11 , whereby the height of the stationary or near stationary bed is between about 5% and about 20% of the diameter of the pipeline.

15. The process as claimed in claim 11 , whereby the height of the stationary or near stationary bed is less than about 25% of the diameter of the pipeline but greater than about 5% of the diameter of the pipeline.

Assignees

• Syncrude Canada Ltd
• Syncrude Canada Ltd

Inventors

• Revega Tim
• Chiovelli Stefano
• Reid Kevin

Classifications

• B65G53/30 Primary

  Conveying materials in bulk through pipes or tubes by liquid pressure · CPC title

• F17D1/088

  for solids or suspensions of solids in liquids, e.g. slurries (F17D1/086 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F17D3/01

  for controlling, signalling, or supervising the conveyance of a product · CPC title