Patent ID: 9617811
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: B01D,E21B

Claim:
1. A drilling mud cooling apparatus, comprising: a shell; a drilling mud flow plate mounted in said shell, said drilling mud flow plate being oriented at a flow angle relative to a horizontal plane and comprising an inlet end and an outlet end, said inlet end of said drilling mud flow plate being adapted to receive, on an upper surface thereof, a flow of a mixture of drilling materials comprising drill cuttings and drilling mud that is returned from a wellbore drilling operation, wherein said flow angle is adapted to facilitate gravity flow of said flow of said mixture of drilling materials along a length of said drilling mud flow plate from said inlet end down to said outlet end; and first cooling means for cooling said flow of said mixture of drilling materials during said gravity flow thereof along said length of said drilling mud flow plate from said inlet end down to said outlet end, wherein said first cooling means comprises a plurality of cooling tubes positioned below a lower surface of said drilling mud flow plate, said plurality of cooling tubes being adapted to circulate a heat transfer fluid, each of said plurality of cooling tubes being oriented at said flow angle relative to horizontal.