IMPROVED PUMPING DEVICE, PARTICULARLY SUITABLE FOR COMPRESSING FLUIDS ON DEEP SEA-BOTTOMS

Abstract: Hydraulic-exchange pumping device comprising two containers or tanks (1, 2), inside each of which there are defined: a chamber (5, 7) for the product to be pumped, which is respectively connected, through a delivery valve (26, 26') and a suction valve (25, 25'), to the lines of delivery (24) and of intake (23) of the product to be pumped, as well as a chamber (6, 8) for the hydraulic drive fluid, which is connected to a pump (18) through a four-way, three-position distribution box (4). This partitioning is accomplished by means of an internal elastic membrane (27) having a decreasing thickness from the its peripheral edge towards its central zone, which can be also equipped with a strengthening cloth embedded inside it, as well as with a set of metal rings (29-33...) having a cross-section surface area decreasing towards the centre of the same membrane.

Description: The present invention relates to a pumping device which, by allowing also mixtures heterogeneous and containing large amounts of gas and of particulate solid matter or dirt to be efficaciously compressed, makes it possible to achieve a more efficacious and cheap exploitation of the offshore oil-fields. It is known that in the last times, solving the problem of a rational exploitation of offshore oil-fields has become more and more pressing. According to the present state of the art, the traditional operating pattern of this exploitation provides the arrival of the crude product, generally constituted by oil, gas, water, and miscelleaneous sediments, to an off-shore platform on which the phase separation is carried out: thereafter, the oil either is pumped towards the mainland through a submarine pipeline, or is stored in tanks subsequently conveyed to the mainland by tankers, whilst the gas is, in some cases, re-injected into the reservoir, or, in other cases, is on the contrary delivered to the mainland through a further specific submarine pipeline. From the above, the high burdensomeness and complexity can be realized of the traditional exploitation pattern, which, besides requiring a plurality of submarine pipelines, requires always the use of a large offshore platform for housing the cumbersome and heavy systems for separation and processing of crude product. On the other hand, this pattern of the prior art does not allow those oil-fields to be profitably exploited, which are positioned in areas wherein the construction or the operation of an offshore platform result problematic, both due to technical and financial reasons. Representative examples are constituted by wells in very deep waters, wherein the use of stationary platforms results prohibitive from the financial viewpoint, or by wells situated in the arctic seas, wherein the presence of icebergs renders expensive and complex the construction and operation of platforms. A rational solution for the exploitation of the above mentioned oil-fields, which would allow the platforms to be eliminated, would consist in performing the direct pumping towards the mainland of the crude product, viz., the not separated, not processed heterogeneous mixture, hence generally containing large amounts of solid particulate matter or miscellaneous sediments, as well as of gas, by means of a pumping unit provided on the sea-bottom in the nearby of the well mouth. Such a solution, in fact, by not requiring any kinds of platforms, would allow an evident, considerable reduction to be achieved not only in the necessary investments, but also in the operation costs, in as much as the conveyance would be carried out by one single pipeline only, and furthermore the execution simpleness would also allow an easy exploitation to be performed of offshore pockets not exploited up to date because of their particular location, or abandoned, because they are regarded as not being any longer profitably exploitable by the techniques of the prior art. Unfortunately, for practicing the above said solution, pumping devices are necessary, which are able to operate in the presence of large contents of free gas, and with heterogeneous mixtures comprising variable percentages of solid particulate matter, what presently none of existing pumps are able to do. In fact, the centrifugal type of pump, which, by being sturdy and able to easily handle the solid particulate matter existing inside the heterogeneous mixture, would seem the ideal pump for the said offshore application, actually does not function at all when the gas content at its intake port exceeds certain values (more than about 30% by volume). In the presence of such values of gas content, rotary machines of volumetric type could be used, such as the screw pumps, but their operation would become problematic both in case of large gas amounts and in case of presence, as it generally occurs, of particulate solid matter which would render necessary uncomfortable servicing performances at the sea-bottom and at short time intervals, with consequent intolerable cost increases. The dragging of particulate solid matter renders also problematic the use of the piston pumps, wherein the functioning is bound to the life of the sealing components of the same piston. From the prior art, also known are the hydraulic-exchange pumps, in which a membrane made from an elastomeric material separates the liquid to be handled from the hydraulic drive oil, but even these pumps, which are purposely designed for an efficacious pumping of liquids, cannot be used for mixtures containing a certain gas amount, in as much as they are not able to avoid that, during the movement of approaching the membrane to the inner wall of the chamber occupied by the mixture to be compressed, entrained gas pockets may remain, which, by acting as a noxious volume, prevent the required high compression ratios from being achieved. Exemplary of such prior art devices is DE-C-904 498, which discloses a pump for circulating a drilling mud from the surface into a perforation for an oil well and for returning the particle-laden mud to the surface, but does not contemplate the presence of significant amounts of gas therewith, the device comprising two identical containers each of which includes a membrane fastened to the peripheral edge of the relevant container and centrally controlled by a rod, so as to approach, in one position, the upper hemispherical inner surface of the container, and, in the opposite position, the lower hemispherical inner surface of the other container, and vice versa. A drawback of this device is that a void space is always left between the membrane and the inner wall of the container concerned, so that the device is inapt to manipulate fluids containing significant volumes of gas. Another prior art approach is DE-A-35 22 711, which shows a particular membrane configuration, in the form of a spherical segment of one base (Kalotte), the thickness of which changes from the centre towards the outer edge (Rand). The membrane in question is adapted to small size devices such as metering pumps and, though cloth-reinforced, has no special metallic reinforcements. FR-A-1 136 478 discloses a few examples of metallic reinforcement for a pump membrane, extending continuously from the centre of a virtually planar membrane to the periphery thereof, such reinforcement taking various configurations, such as a planar spiral, a spoked disc, a perforated circular plate or a metal gauze. Summing up, no pumping devices exist at present, which allow the crude product, which is a highly heterogeneous mixture consisting of a considerable charge of solid particles and large volumes of gas in addition to the liquid hydrocarbon phases, to be extracted from the seabed and directly conveyed to the mainland. To solve this difficult problem, the present invention, therefore, provides a pumping device of the kind comprising two identical containers and an internal cloth-reinforced elastic membrane partitioning each container into two chambers, each of said membranes having a decreasing thickness from its peripheral edge towards its central part and fixed at said edge to the middle of said container, a distribution box connecting the other pair of said chambers with a hydraulic pump to control the flow of hydraulic fluid therebetween, switching means being connected to said containers and distribution box for causing said box to change the flow of hydraulic fluid from one of said containers to the other when the product in one of said containers has fully deformed said membrane therein, whereupon the product causing said deformation is discharged from said container, characterized in that it further comprises: (a) a plurality of metal rings in each of said membranes for increasing the stability of said membranes during the deformation thereof, said rings being concentric to each other, parallel to a horizontal plane at said middle of said container and decreasing in cross-sectional area relative to one another from the peripheral edge of each membrane to the central portion thereof, and (b) an intake line and a delivery line connected to one chamber of each container for the intake and delivery of product, said pair of chambers being one the same side as the membrane in each container. The membrane is so shaped that, in pumping, it is so deformed that it comes to adhere to the inner surface of the container first at its peripheral, larger-thickness zone, and finally at its central zone, wherein the delivery valve of the device is located, that which ensures that no gas pockets are formed, whereby the noxious volume is nil, and, consequently, the complete expulsion of the liquid is achieved, be it a liquid or a gas. On the other hand, since the pumping device in question is intended to operate at high depths, the two containers are preferably spherical in order to better withstand high hydrostatic pressures. The distribution box used is of the 4-way,3-position type, so that, in the two end positions of the distribution box the two containers are connected to the pump delivery port and the intake port, respectively, and vice versa, the fluid being drawn from a container and delivered to the other container, and vice versa, it being possible, in an intermediate position of the box, to connect both containers together and to connect the intake and the delivery ports together as well, whereby the oil pressure is balanced, and water-hammer prevented, when switching. Switching the distribution box is automatized by a stop device of the proximity type or of a mechanical type, provided in each one of the two containers or tanks, which switches its position every time that the central portion of the elastic membrane, so pushed by the intaken product, comes to completely adhere to the inner wall of the same tank. Then, to the purpose of endowing the elastic membrane with a higher mechanical strength, according to a further characteristic of the present invention, said membrane is provided, besides the linearly variable thickness, with a cloth made from a natural (cotton) or synthetic material, embedded inside it. Finally, in order to increase the shape stability of the membrane during its excursions, and cause the deformations thereof to be always symmetrical relatively to the symmetry axis perpendicular to the plane of fastening of the mambrane to the container or tank body, what secures an optimum functioning of the membrane, and, consequently, of the whole device, according to a further characteristic of the present invention, the membrane is provided with a set of metal rings located concentrically to each other and parallelly to the plane of fastening of the membrane to the container or tank body, said rings of said set having a cross-section surface area decreasing from the periphery towards the centre of the membrane. The invention is now explained in greater detail by referring to the hereto attached drawings, which illustrate a preferential form of practical embodiment, supplied to purely exemplifying, non-limitative purpose, in that technical or structural variants may always be supplied without exiting the scope of the present invention. In said drawings: Figure 1 shows a schematic sectional view of a pumping device according to the invention, with the distribution box being in an extreme positions; Figure 2 shows the connections with the distribution box of Figure 1 being in its other extreme position; Figure 3 shows the connections with the distribution box of Figure 1 being in its intermediate position; Figura 4 shows a sectional partial view on an enlarged scale of the sequential deformations taken by the elastic membrane of the device of Figure 1. Referring to the drawings, with 1 and 2 two containers or tanks are respectively shown, which are perfectly equal to each other, and have a spherical shape, each of which supports, in correspondence of its horizontal middle plane, the edge 3 or 3′ of an internal elastic membrane 4 or 4′ which defines, in this way, two chambers, respectively 5 or 7, for the crude product to be pumped, and 6 or 8, for the hydraulic drive fluid. The upper portion of chamber 6 of tank 1 is then connected, by means of duct 9, with one way 10 of a four-way, three-position distribution box 11, the other way 12 of which is connected, on the contrary, through the duct 13, with the upper portion of the corresponding chamber 8 of tank 2. The other two ways 14 and 15 of the distribution box 11 are instead respectively connected to the intake port 16 and to the delivery port 17 of pump 18. At the upper end of each of chambers 6 and 8 a stop device is furthermore provided, housed inside a suitable hollow 19 provided inside the body of the same tank, which is constituted by a switch 20 controlled by a return spring 21, which closes, in cooperation with the central part 27 of the elastic membrane 4 or 4′, the electrical circuit of excitation of the control device 22 which controls the switching of the distribution box 11. The two chambers 5 and 7 are instead connected, in correspondence of their lowermost part, both with the intake line 23 for the crude product to be pumped, and with the delivery line 24 for said crude product, through respectively an intake valve 25 or 25′ controlled by a downwards-acting return spring, and a delivery valve 26 or 26′ controlled by an upwards-acting return spring. The said internal elastic membrane 4 or 4′ has furthermore a thickness which decreases from its peripheral edge 3 towards its central part 27 and is mechanically strengthened by means of a cloth 28 (see specifically Figure 4) made from cotton, or from a synthetic material, embedded inside it. Furthermore, in order to increase its shape stability during its deformations, the membrane is provided with a plurality of metal rings 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, ..., having a cross-section surface area decreasing in that order, and located concentrically to each other and parallelly to the horizontal middle plane of same tank. Such a profile and shape forces the elastic membrane 4 or 4′ to deform as schematically indicated in Figure 4, wherein, besides the end position of the membrane, shown by continuous lines, also the intermediate positions 34 and 35 are shown. It can be seen that during the pumping step the elastic membrane 4′ comes to adhere to the inner surface of tank 2 first in correspondence of its higher-thickness peripheral zone, and finally in correspondence of its central zone 27, in correspondence of the delivery valve 26′, with the consequent complete expulsion of the product, whether it is a liquid or a gas. The operating way of such a device is evident. By starting from the condition as illustrated in Figure 1, the vacuum generated inside the chamber 6 of tank 1 by the pump 18 which delivers the hydraulic fluid into the chamber 8 of tank 2, causes the crude product to be intaken, through the valve 25, into the chamber 5 of tank 1, whilst the crude product contained inside the chamber 7 of tank 2 is expelled into the delivery line 24 through the valve 26′. When the crude product has completely filled the chamber 5, and the membrane 4 has thus come to completely adhere to the inner surface of tank 1, the closure of switch 20 causes the distribution box 11 to switch into the configuration as of Figure 2, so that the cycle is repeated with the tanks being exchanged, viz., with tank 1 expelling the crude product, and tank 2 intaking it. On the other hand, the said switching of the distribution box 11 brings this latter, before to the configuration as of Figure 2, to the intermediate configuration of Figure 3, which equalizes the pressures inside chambers 6 and 8, thus preventing water hammerings.

Claims: A pumping device of the kind comprising two identical containers (1,2) and an internal cloth-reinforced (28) elastic membrane (4,4') partitioning each container (1 or 2) into two chambers (5,7), each of said membranes having a decreasing thickness from its peripheral edge towards its central part and fixed at said edge to the middle of said container (1,2), a distribution box (11) connecting the other pair of said chambers (5,7) with a hydraulic pump (18) to control the flow of hydraulic fluid therebetween, switching means (20) being connected to said containers (1,2) and distribution box (11) for causing said box to change the flow of hydraulic fluid from one of said containers (1,2) to the other (2,1) when the product in one of of said containers has fully deformed said membrane (4,4') therein, whereupon the product causing said deformation is discharged from said container, characterized in that it further comprises: (a) a plurality of metal rings (29,30, 31, 32,33...) in each of said membranes (4,4') for increasing the stability of said membranes (4,4') during the deformation thereof, said rings (29,30,31,32,33...) being concentric to each other, parallel to a horizontal plane at said middle of said container (1,2), and decreasing in cross-sectional area relative to one another from the peripheral edge of each membrane (4,4') to the central portion thereof, and (b) an intake line (23) and a delivery line (24) connected to one chamber (5 or 7) of each container for the intake and delivery of product, said pair of chambers( 5,7) being on the same side as the membrane (4,4') in each container (1,2). Pumping device according to Claim 1, wherein each of said containers (1,2) has a spherical shape. Pumping device according to Claim 1, wherein the distribution box (11) is of a four-way, three-position type. Pumping device according to Claim 1, wherein the switching means (20) includes a stop device (21) in each of said containers (1,2), said stop device (21) cooperating with the central part (27) of a fully deformed membrane (4,4') for actuating a device (22) operatively connected to the distribution box (11) for switching said distribution box (11). Pumping device according to Claim 1, wherein said reinforcing cloth (28) is made from natural (cotton) or synthetic fibre material. Pumping device according to Claim 3, wherein in one of the three positions of said distribution box (11) the two chambers (5,7) are in mutual communication together with the delivery port (17) and the intake port (16) of said hydraulic pump (18).

Inventors: COCCHI, VITTORIO, MEZZEDIMI, VASCO
Applicants: NUOVOPIGNONE INDUSTRIE MECCANICHE E FONDERIA S.P.A.
Application year: 1987
Main classification: F04B43
IPC codes: F04B43