Patent ID: 7971657

Claim:
A system for handling a return fluid formed of drilling fluid and entrained cuttings recovered while drilling a wellbore in an earthen formation, comprising: a separation unit at least partially separating the drilling fluid from the return fluid, a slurry of cuttings thereby being formed, the separation unit including: (i) a shaker for removing the entrained cuttings from the return fluid; and (ii) a separator for extracting the drilling fluids from the entrained cuttings; a cutting flow unit receiving a slurry from the separation unit, the cutting flow unit adapted to convey the slurry through a conduit coupled thereto, the cutting flow unit including at least a dense phase blower; at least one bulk tank coupled to the conduit, each bulk tank having (i) an interior volume receiving the slurry and (ii) a discharge port selectively restricting flow of the slurry out of each bulk tank, the return fluid being contained in the interior volume at least until the discharge port is opened, the slurry forming a body in the interior volume; a conveyance member positioning inside each bulk tank, the conveyance member applying a motive force at least partially across the slurry body that causes the slurry body to flow out of each bulk tank discharge port; and a conveyor receiving the slurry from each bulk tank discharge port; wherein the system is positioned on an offshore drill rig, and wherein the cuttings flow unit includes a diverter valve configured to selectively direct flow to the at least one bulk tank and a transport vessel having at least one container receiving the slurry from the at least one bulk tank via the diverter valve.