Patent ID: 8127844

Claim:
A method of operating at least one pressure vessel to inject a particulate slurry into a high-pressure line, comprising: a first operating cycle comprising: isolating the at least one pressure vessel from the high-pressure line; introducing particulate solids into the pressure vessel through a particulate solids inlet aperture; a second operating cycle comprising: providing high-pressure flow into the pressure vessel; and providing a high-pressure slurry flow from the pressure vessel into the high-pressure line; operating the at least one pressure vessel in the second operating cycle to create a heterogeneous flow of slurry into the high-pressure line; wherein the at least one pressure vessel is a single chamber container, and wherein the second operating cycle further comprises equalizing the pressure of the pressure vessel and the high-pressure line by increasing the pressure in the pressure vessel prior to providing high-pressure clean-fluid flow into the pressure vessel.