Abstract:
A downhole arrangement including an outer housing, an inner housing disposed within the outer housing and defining with the outer housing a chamber, a turbine disposed within the chamber, and one or more nozzles disposed at the chamber capable of exhausting steam into the chamber. A method for moving a target fluid within a wellbore.

Description:
[0001]    The ability to affect fluids in the downhole environment is both a necessary part of hydrocarbon production and a source of consternation in some applications due to inherent difficulty in creating the desired effect. In some cases, work is performed on the fluid from remote locations while in other cases, work is performed on the fluid locally. Where work is performed locally, there are added difficulties to overcome such as providing power to whatever device is doing the work, etc. In some situations, such difficulties are overcome and the operation goes forward without significant difficulty with a particular set of tools and/or components and/or processes. The same paradigm however may not work well for another wellbore or even for another section of the same wellbore. Therefore, the art is always receptive to new arrangements and methods for doing “work” on a fluid in the downhole environment. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0002]    A downhole arrangement including an outer housing, an inner housing disposed within the outer housing and defining with the outer housing a chamber, a turbine disposed within the chamber, and one or more nozzles disposed at the chamber capable of exhausting steam into the chamber. 
         [0003]    A method for moving a target fluid within a wellbore including supplying a reactant fuel to a catalyst nozzle in a downhole arrangement and exhausting a resultant steam through a turbine. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0004]    Referring now to the drawings wherein like elements are numbered alike in the several Figures: 
           [0005]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a steam turbine driven configuration in accordance with the disclosure hereof. 
           [0006]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of another steam turbine driven configuration in accordance with the disclosure hereof. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0007]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , an arrangement  10  is illustrated that facilitates the application of work to a fluid in the downhole environment. The arrangement  10  includes an outer housing  12 . The housing  12  supports one or more catalyst nozzles  14  that are fluidly connected to a reactant fuel source through one or more conduits  16 , which may comprise commonly used control line. 
         [0008]    The catalyst that is provided within the nozzle  14  is a powdered precious metal-based catalyst (available from Oxford Catalysts Group PLC trading under Oxford Catalysts Limited, 115e Milton Park, Oxford, OX14 4RZ, UK). The reactant fuel (e.g. aqueous methanol and hydrogen peroxide) is supplied to the catalyst through the conduit(s)  16  as noted whereby an exothermic reaction takes place. The reaction produces water, carbon dioxide and heat thereby generating steam at a selected temperature up to about 1500° F. and at atmospheric pressure. The pressure with which the steam is applied to an end target can be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the pressure of the reactant fuel mixture supplied to the catalyst. 
         [0009]    Nozzles  14  are directed to exhaust steam to a chamber  18  that is defined at an outside surface by housing  12  and at an inside surface by an inner housing  20 . In this embodiment, a downhole end of the chamber  18  is closed by closure member  22 , which ensures that all steam created by fuel passing through the nozzles  14  will act upon a turbine  24  that is rotatably supported between the housing  12  and the housing  20 . Expanding steam through a plurality of vanes of the turbine allows the turbine to extract energy from the steam and put is to useable work. In this iteration of the arrangement  10  the energy is used to drive a pump. 
         [0010]    In the illustrated embodiment, a pump impeller  28  (the pump) is drivingly connected to the turbine  24  by a shaft  30 . The impeller  28  thereby spins with the turbine causing a target fluid  32  to move through an inlet  34  of the inner housing toward a directed destination. 
         [0011]    While the arrangement  10  will function to move the target fluid  32  toward a desired destination as has been disclosed, the movement of the fluid can be augmented within the operation of the arrangement  10 . More specifically, a review of  FIG. 1 , will make clear that the inner housing  20  ends at a downstream end  36  of inner housing  20  that is still within a volume defined by the outer housing  12 . Steam that has passed through the turbine  24  will consequently mix with the target fluid  32  downstream of the end  36 , in zone  38 . Those of skill in the art will recognize such a condition to be a gas lift condition as the steam will reduce the density of the target fluid  32  making it easier for the fluid to move to a surface or other location. 
         [0012]    In another embodiment of the arrangement  10 , referring to  FIG. 2 , a positive displacement pump  40  is substituted for the action of the impeller  28  and a gear reducer  42  is added between the turbine  24  and the pump  40  in order to ensure that sufficient torque is available to drive the pump  40 . This of course requires that shaft  30  be bifurcated to a primary shaft  30   a  and a secondary shaft  30   b . In other respects, the embodiment of  FIG. 2  operates as does that of  FIG. 1 . 
         [0013]    In operation, the arrangement  10  is run into the downhole environment and at least an inlet  34  of the arrangement  10  into contact with a target fluid  32 . Fuel can then be supplied at any time to begin the steam generation process. Once the fuel is brought into contact with the one or more nozzles  14 , the catalyst in the nozzles  14  will react with the fuel to produce steam at a selected temperature and pressure. The steam will naturally be directed through the turbine from the chamber  18  thereby spinning the turbine. The energy extracted by the turbine from the steam may be applied as is desired. In the illustrated embodiments hereof, the use is to activate a pump. In no way is it intended that the concept be limited to pumps however as the extracted energy can be used for other devices. 
         [0014]    While preferred embodiments have been shown and described, modifications and substitutions may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the present invention has been described by way of illustrations and not limitation.