FAQ: Surface Applications
What general conditions do I need to look for to determine when the installation of a surface Vortex tool may be beneficial?
If your surface line is experiencing excess pressure loss due to liquid holdup or paraffin deposition, the Vortex surface tool can eliminate the line restriction and reduce your upstream pressure. If your surface line is multi-phase (combination of oil/water and gas), the Vortex tools can organize the flow, reduce the multi-phase friction and lower the upstream pressure. If your water line is experiencing excess pressure due to gas pockets, the Vortex tool can organize the two phases and enable the gas to flow downstream without getting logged against the top of the pipe as it travels uphill.
Do the Vortex surface tools work where we have very low wellhead or system pressures?
Yes. The surface tools have provided very significant impact in very low pressure environments in the Powder River, Raton and San Juan Basins.
Will the surface tools work if we have low velocities?
Yes. We have now developed very effective software models for determining the minimum requirements for the Vortex tools to establish the flow regime. Velocity is one of many factors that are evaluated to determine the benefit that the Vortex tools can provide to your oil and gas production operations.
How can the Vortex tools mitigate paraffin build-up?
Based on lab observations, we can see that the Vortex tools create a flow regime where the water travels along the pipe wall. We believe that the water isolates the pipe wall and prevents the paraffin solids from contacting the pipe wall. If the paraffin canŐt contact the pipe wall, it canŐt collect along the wall. We can also see that larger particles that are lighter than the water are drawn toward the low-pressure center of the flow regime and donŐt contact the pipe wall. This theory has been supported by field tests at RMOTC and numerous customer installations.
Our line has a level of pulsation in it from the compressors. Will this pulsation hinder the formation of the necessary flow pattern from your tool?
No. The pulsations will not cause a problem. We have the same affect in lab testing. We also have installations between compressors where we've had very strong results. One of those is included as part of the current 'Gathering Case Study' on our website.
Do you have any installation or tests with multiple tools in series?
Yes. This is done frequently when optimizing a gathering system. We target additional installations just downstream from gathering line tie-ins.