Liquid removal process in pipelines, using a moving piston

Abstract: This process is for use in gas pipelines, where the condensate liquid is withdrawn by passing a cylinder (1) made out of a spongy polymeric material, propelled by a small pressure difference between the trailing part of the above mentioned cylinder and its front part, so that the displacement of the cylinder along the internal surface of the pipeline pushes the above mentioned condensate. The piston is made out of a spongy material, preferably flexible spongy polyurethane with a density lower than 40 kg/m³ that suffers a maximum dimensional loss of 0.50% after travelling pipelines with a total length of more than 1000 km.

Description: The present invention concerns an efficient process for removal of condensate or deposited liquids in pipelines using a moving piston. The retention of liquids in pipelines used mainly for the conduction of gases impairs the transport of product and causes largely unacceptable contamination. This retention can appear as liquid deposits, occurring for a variety of reasons in pipeline segments, and which, if not removed, will reflect negatively in the flow control of the transported product gas by altering the flow parameters, as well as by altering the material balance of the components of the product flow. This is a disadvantage if this composition itself represents an important variable in a later processing phase. The transport of gases from petroleum production sites, such as oil wells, or even in intermediate stages of product fractionation, presents such a risk. Another critical aspect in this case concerns the removal of water from a gas pipeline so as to increase the gas transport efficiency and to avoid contamination of the transported product, principally where water is used for certain specific reasons before the transport operation. Until now, pipeline cleaning (including liquid removal) has been carried out in a temperamental manner by use of various forms of pigs, most of them spherical and made out of a polyurethane elastomer (with good dimensional stability and a reduced capacity for elastic deformation), mainly for removal of condensate in gas pipelines. As the specialists in the field will readily appreciate, these pigs are introduced in the pipeline through a special opening named an "inlet opening" (or "opening for introduction"), and from this point onwards are forced through the pipeline by high fluid pressure difference so as to entrain all foreign materials at high speed, until the final removal of such entrained materials and pigs from the pipeline through an "outlet opening" (or "reception opening"). One of the problems experienced with the existing pigs for pipeline cleaning concerns insufficient elasticity (or deformation capacity) of the pig. This lack of elasticity causes high forces, incident perpendicularly to the interior surface of the pipe. This perpendicular force causes high friction and wear and can lead to the jamming of this kind of pig, especially when the pig does not occupy the whole cross-section of the pipeline. Pigs made out of more flexible kind of foams, such as low density polyurethane, constitute a solution of this problem, as illustrated by US-A-5032185 involving the sequential introduction of low density polyurethane pigs, herein defined as having a density value lower than 64 kg/m 3 , for the cleaning of paraffin deposits in pipelines. In all processes using pigs for cleaning solid matter, be the process that mentioned in US-A-5032185 or any other, the material density can not be specified much below this limit without endangering the removal efficiency. That is the reason why all processes for removal of impurity using low density foam pigs only use these devices for the entrainment of solid residue in a liquid over a short distance. On the other hand, condensate removal procedures in gas pipelines use inflatable polyurethane spheres, recognized worldwide as the most economic way for doing this kind of work. Unfortunately, this kind of device cannot be used in long pipelines or in those with significant changes in diameter and without intermediate inlet openings, such as the environments found in hydrocarbon production sites located on the ocean floor at great water depths. Under these circumstances, the chances of damaging, or even jamming, the spheres represent too big a risk for their practicable use. Another disadvantage of the use of this kind of sphere, due to its peculiar form, is the reduced sealing area which is much less than that produced by a cylindrical body. The necessity to run the spheres several times through the pipeline can be seen as a further disadvantage, causing additional operating costs for their return transport to the inlet opening. The present invention refers to a liquid removal process in pipelines with the use of a device to be described later and, for all practical reasons, named a "piston" (a term chosen due to the similarity between the device and the reciprocating piston-cylinder mechanism of a positive-displacement pump). Although the process is of a generic nature, it will be illustrated in its application to long pipelines and, specially, for condensate removal in gas conducting pipelines originating in oil wells or in remote processing sites where, as already mentioned, the condensate formation, unavoidable for several reasons, is considered a serious problem. The most important feature of the present invention concerns the fact that the circulating device for liquid removal, in our case the above mentioned "piston", has a predominantly cylindrical form as can be seen in the accompanying Figures 1, 2 and 3, and is made out of a very light kind of polyurethane (having a density of no more than 40 kg/m 3 ) without need for any sort of protective resin or synthetic rubber coating, ensuring an extremely favourable degree of compressibility, which is decisive for its performance. Another remarkable feature of this invention is the fact that the outside diameter of the piston can be much bigger than the inside diameter of the pipeline. The annexed Figures are included for illustration of the important features of the piston used for the execution of the present process: FIGURE 1 shows a perspective view of a cylindrically shaped piston; FIGURE 2 shows a perspective view of a cylindrically shaped piston with a bevel edged top part, giving it the aspect of the frustum of a cone; FIGURE 3 shows, in perspective, a version of piston with a hemispheric or slightly parabolic finishing of the piston head; FIGURE 4 shows a crudely formed piston, having however a satisfactory performance; and FIGURE 5 is a graph of the liquid removal efficiency as a function of the volumetric fraction of liquid in the pipeline. Figure 1 shows a piston 1, of cylindrical shape and made out of very low density polyurethane foam (a maximum density value of 40 kg/m 3 ). Experience has revealed that even when the longitudinal axis 3 of the piston remains parallel to the longitudinal axis of the pipeline, this kind of piston performed well as a propeller of liquid, if allowance is made for the wear sustained by the front edges 2 as small particles are detached by attrition with irregularities on the interior surfaces of the pipeline and by the flow distribution in front of the piston. The embodiment shown in Figure 2 was conceived so as to prevent the above mentioned disadvantage of frontal erosion and has the frontal part 5 shaped as the frustum of a cone 4, without the above mentioned front edges 2, minimizing the destruction of the front of the piston and facilitating the introduction of the piston, especially when the radius of the compressible piston is much bigger than the pipeline inside diameter. The chamfered (frusto-conical) end portion 4 may, for example, occupy from 10-20% of the overall length of the piston. For the same motives, and resulting in a more suitable embodiment, Figure 3 shows a piston with a rounded front part 6. Although, when compared with the embodiment of Figure 2, this version does not represent a major improvement (in terms of operation and during normal usage) its main advantage resides in a greater flexibility of piston movement when travelling in pipelines which have localised diameter restrictions. An important feature of the present process, having no counterpart in the conventional processes, is the possibility of introducing a piston through any kind of inlet opening, even one much smaller than the piston dimensions, in view of the extreme compressibility of the very low density polyurethane foam, with a density of no more than 40 kg/m 3 and preferably in the range between 17 and 33 kg/m 3 . As can be seen in Figure 1 to 4, the basic shape of the pistons is a cylinder, with the top part either formed as the frustum of a cone or rounded off. When rounded off, the top may be a hemisphere or a peraboloid. The examination of these Figures reveals a certain proportionality between the total length of each piston and its diameter. It is quite clear that the represented forms can be maintained if the length of the piston is more or less double its diameter (independent of the shape of the top part of the piston). In practice, this proportion can vary between about 1.5:1 and 2:1. A short piston (with a height equal to or less than its diameter) should be avoided so as to avoid overturning of the piston (spinning of the piston) while being propelled inside the pipeline. Very long pistons are not very effective either, as they are subject to deformations that could roughly be classified as buckling; in other words, the gas and liquid phases pass between the interior pipe surfaces and the external surfaces of the piston, deforming the piston shape and interfering in its movement. The present invention has two big advantages in terms of the process: a) there is a dramatic reduction in the cost of the piston used in the present process; b) the fact that the piston can easily be passed through reduced diameter portions of the pipeline renders this a very efficient process. In fact, the prior art pipeline cleaning processes adapted for liquid removal, use expensive pigs, made out of an expensive raw material, polyurethane elastomer, coated with resin or synthetic rubber to resist wear and gas permeation. In the case of the process of the present invention, the price of a polyurethane foam piston without any kind of coating is 150 times less than its equivalent made out of a polyurethane elastomer. At this price level, pistons can be changed frequently before heavy wear sets in; it even becomes possible to consider the piston as a one-way product, making the operational procedure for pipeline cleaning much simpler. A comparison between the new method and the conventional systems was undertaken in those cases where the traditional devices could be used. The results obtained point to a probable change in procedure for condensate removal in gas pipelines with the substitution of the traditional spheres by foam devices. One embodiment of this process can use the piston shown schematically in Figure 4. The piston was manufactured without any finishing, by simply cutting a cylinder (in this case, a rather rough prism) out of a polyurethane foam block of commercial grade, using a well honed cutting tool. After repeated passes through great lengths of pipeline this piston showed a surprisingly low wear rate and a highly satisfactory dimensional stability. At each pass through the pipeline, a minimum liquid removal efficiency of 90% was obtained with a maximum piston diameter loss of 0.50%. Operational tests carried out with very low density polyurethane foam pistons showed surprisingly good performance results as compared to what was expected and with what was true of the prior art. First of all, it was expected that the very low density polyurethane foam pistons without any kind of impervious resin coating would not present a satisfactory abrasion resistance in any sort of operation. This expectation was fuelled by the known fact that a flexible polyurethane piston, made out of a material of excellent quality with a density of 60 kg/m 3 no longer presented minimum working conditions after passing through 3 km of pipeline. A piston formed of polyurethane foam of density 33 kg/m 3 was passed through a gas pipeline of 208 km length and 40,64 cm internal diameter. The following results, as to wear were observed: manufacturer's declared nominal outer diameter of the piston: 45.72 cm average (measured) outer diameter of the piston: 45.46 cm final outer diameter of the piston after one pass through the pipeline: 44.95 cm In view of these results, it is reasonable to expect at least 10 passes through the test pipeline without notable wear of the piston. It should be remembered that a traditional pig made out of a polyurethane elastomer does not withstand two passes through a pipeline of the same length. The present process exposed another misconception of the prior art, namely, the necessity of an impervious coating of resin or synthetic rubber of the front part of the moving body (in our case, the piston, or, in the prior art, the pig), so as to avoid gas passing through the pores of the material at high pressures, held to be very damaging. Furthermore the piston proposed for use in the process of the present invention does not need any coating of its trailing part to ensure a satisfactory performance in propelling liquid through a pipeline. Another advantage of this process resides in the fact that only a small pressure difference is enough to propel the piston along the internal surfaces of the pipeline, even when for operational reasons significant diameter changes occur. Such a piston can be propelled along the chosen pipeline segment by establishing a small pressure difference (of from 69 to 207 Kpa (10 to 30 lb/in 2 ) between its trailing part (the thrust side) and its front part, shaped, if desired, for entraining liquid displacement along the pipeline. The examples included for illustration of this description show a wide variation in the relative proportions of (i) the pipeline diameter and (ii) the piston radius, contrary to common belief held by those not knowledgeable about the real behaviour of the material used. A third advantage of the invention is the surprisingly good operating capacity in sections of pipeline with a total length of hundreds of kilometres, or even thousand kilometres, without loss of performance and needing only one inlet opening, thus doing away with intermediate collectors and introduction openings. On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that the attrition caused by a rigid polyurethane elastomer pig, used in the prior art, is much higher than the attrition caused by the above mentioned foam piston. The polyurethane elastomer pig has a limited flexibility and is introduced into the pipeline, inflated to a diameter only slightly larger than the internal diameter of the pipeline (a difference that amounts to a few millimetres), and as such was subject to jamming on passing an obstruction such as a surface irregularity of the internal wall of the pipeline. However, in the case of a less elastic pig, the flow pressure of the propelling gas is kept high so as to speed up the pig, lessening the chances of a jamming but increasing the chances of it being lacerated in certain stretches of the pipeline with restricted passage, such as low-radius curves, misaligned flanges and localized bumps or diameter reductions, etc. The majority of pig losses in gas pipelines occurs this way. The following examples leave no doubt about the relatively small piston wear rates observed under rather severe operating conditions, contrary to what could be expected from such a light and flexible material. EXAMPLE 1 A polyurethane foam (density 33 kg/m 3 ) piston with a 17.78 cm diameter was introduced into a pipeline of 15.24 cm internal diameter and a length of 72 km. The pipeline was used for conducting 340.000 Nm 3 of gas per day under a pressure of 56.24 kg/cm 2 . The piston removed the condensate from the pipeline and arrived in due time at the outlet opening. The final outside diameter of the piston after its removal from the pipe line was 15.75 cm. EXAMPLE 2 Under the same operating conditions as in Example 1, a piston of density of 33 kg/m 3 with a 20.32 cm outer diameter on introduction had a final outer diameter of 17.53 cm when removed. EXAMPLE 3 Another dry test was done to evaluate the wear rate under severe attrition. A piston of 33 kg/m 3 polyurethane foam was introduced into a dry pipeline and propelled with a velocity of 21 m/s along 6 km of pipeline. The evaluation was done in terms of mass loss. initial mass = 82.94 g final mass = 71.60 g ratio between the evaluated masses : 86 % relative mass loss = 1.89 g/km Another important performance evaluation concerns the liquid removal capacity. EXAMPLE 4 Predetermined water volumes, each representing a respective percentage H L of the total available pipeline volume, were deposited in a pilot pipeline. The total volume of water removed was measured after the passage of a piston with a bevel edged front (Figure 2). The results are summarized in Table 1. Water introduced (litres) Volume withdrawn (litres) H L % Efficiency % 400 390 91 97.5 206 200 47 97.1 100 94 23 94.0 40 37 9 91.3 The graph in Figure 5 shows a loss in efficiency associated with lower ratios of liquid volume in the pipeline. Even so, the efficiency is surprisingly still over 90% for low values of H L . EXAMPLE 5 OPERATIONAL TEST OF THE PRESENT PROCESS WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE PISTON THROUGH RESTRICTED DIAMETER SECTIONS OF A PIPELINE. This test illustrates the main qualities already mentioned of the process: (i) the effective removal of liquid from a pipeline with the use of a piston of high compressibility, (ii) a satisfactory performance in passages of restricted (sometimes very restricted) diameter, and (iii) no loss of removal efficiency in the presence of a small pressure difference. A piston with a diameter slightly bigger than 15.24 cm (as evidenced by the easy introduction of the piston into the inlet opening without notable deformation) passes through a diameter reduction from 15.24 cm to 10.16 cm (the pipeline internal diameter) before starting its course along a pilot pipeline, with a total length of 48 m. The foam used was polyurethane of 33 kg/m 3 density, the overall length of the piston was 24.13 cm of which the front 3.81 cm was frusto-conical to facilitate introduction into the pipeline. During its trajectory, the piston passes several diameter reductions and a cycle of four small radius 90° bends. As a function of the specific reduction, the necessary pressure difference was measured. The results are summarized in Table II. Reduction A T /A E R T /R EQE P (kg/cm 2 ) from 10.16 cm to 7.62 cm 0.234 0.484 0.84 from 10.16 cm to 5.08 cm 0.105 0.324 6.53 where, A T = the section of the pipeline, in cm 2 A E = the section of the piston, in cm 2 R T = the inner radius of the pipeline, in cm R EQE = the equivalent radius of the piston, in cm The above stated results show unequivocally that the process using a very low density polyurethane piston, introduced into the pipeline with a considerable reduction in diameter and following a course including several significant reductions in diameter of the pipeline, has a high efficiency in the removal of condensate liquids and water, and can even be used as a measure for pipeline volume, without suffering significant losses in a piston volume or without causing destruction of the piston. It is understood that the examples and implementations given herein do not constitute application limits for the present invention; the device mentioned herein can safely be reckoned on for removal of liquid material by means of a gas- propelled piston, without the need of a high pressure difference.

Claims: A process for removing liquid from a gas-conducting pipeline, comprising driving along the inner surface of the pipeline, by means of gas pressure, a piston introduced through an inlet opening and removed through an outlet opening, wherein said piston (1) is formed as a cylindrical body made of a flexible, polymeric foam material with a density no greater than 40 kg/m 3 without any kind of impervious resin coating and having a ratio of from 1.5:1 to 2:1 between its length and outer diameter. A process according to claim 1, wherein the cylindrical body of said piston (1) has a leading end shaped as the frustum of a cone by bevelling (4). A process according to claim 1, wherein said piston (1) has a leading part in the shape of a paraboloid or a hemisphere (6). A process according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said cylindrical body (1) of the piston has a lateral surface is formed by cutting a prism with multiple rectangular sides of small width, out of a block of polymeric foam material, so as to approximate to a cylindrical shape. A process according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said piston (1) is propelled along the pipeline by a pressure difference of from 69 to 207 Kpa (10 to 30 lb/in 2 ) between its trailing part and its leading part used for the removal and displacement of the liquid material along the pipeline. A process according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the density of the polymeric foam material is in the range of from 17 to 33 kg/m 3 .

Inventors: LIMA PAULO CESAR RIBEIRO, LIMA, PAULO CESAR RIBEIRO, Lima, Paulo Cèsar Ribeiro
Applicants: PETROLEO BRASILEIRO SA, PETROLEO BRASILEIRO S.A. - PETROBRAS
Application year: 1993
Main classification: B08B9
IPC codes: F17D3, B08B9