Liquid heaters and vaporizers – Flasher
Reexamination Certificate
2002-10-24
2003-10-28
Wilson, Gregory (Department: 3749)
Liquid heaters and vaporizers
Flasher
C122S051000, C126S350200, C159S026100, C159S028400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06637379
ABSTRACT:
I. TECHNICAL FIELD
A system for the conversion of liquids to gases that may be used in the context of various technologies to reduce the volume of liquids, remove and accumulate dissolved solids from liquids, produce distillates, purify water, introduce liquids into the surrounding environment or the watershed, generate expansion gases as a source of energy, or the like. Specifically, certain embodiments of the invention can be used to accelerate the evaporation of liquids that are produced from oil and gas well drilling and completion processes.
II. BACKGROUND
Liquids can pose significant problems with respect to transportation, storage, disposal; volume reduction, distillation, or purification; or contaminant deposition, precipitation, or accumulation, and the like. Certain of these problems have been made more acute by recent changes in federal and state laws that have generated more stringent environmental regulations with respect to storage or disposal of liquids by containment in ponds, pits, or the like. In the context of oil or gas drilling, for example, ponds or reserve pits that hold liquids (such as water generated during the drilling operations) may have to be emptied and reclaimed within 30 days of finishing the well drilling or completion process. As a result, there is an increasing market demand for cost effective liquid to gas conversion devices (liquid-gas converters), or liquid to gas conversion methods, that can be used to convert liquids to their corresponding vapors, gases, or the like (water to steam as an example), remove contaminants from liquids, reduce the volume of liquids, or prepare liquids for direct introduction into the environment or watershed.
As an example, oil or gas well drilling and completion processes may produce very large amounts of water to handle or dispose of (15,000 barrels of water is not unusual). Because liquids generated from drilling activities may contain high levels of contaminants, dissolved solids, or contain oil, gas, or other organic materials, such liquids should not be released directly into the surrounding environment or into the watershed. As such, liquids generated from well drilling operations are typically left for long periods of time to slowly evaporate. Under recently promulgated regulations, however, liquids may not remain in reserve pits to evaporate for such long periods of time, and removal of liquids from remote locations may be impossible or simply impracticable.
While other examples of liquid handling, storage, or disposal problems may be provided within the context of the oil or gas industry, other industries, including both small and large businesses, also have liquid management problems relating to conversion of liquids to gases, the reduction of liquid volume, removal of contaminants from liquids, purification of liquids, distillation of liquids, disposal of liquids, or processing of liquids for direct release into the environment, the watershed, or into sewage systems.
Because the demand for liquid-gas converters or methods of converting liquids to gases, vapors, of the like is increasing, an increasing number and variety of liquid-gas converters and methods of converting liquids to gases are now available to the consumer. Even though there is an increased number and variety of liquid-gas converters and methods for converting liquids to gas available to the consumer a number of significant problems remain unresolved with respect to converting liquids to gas, reducing the volume of liquids, the removal, deposition, or accumulation of contaminants from liquids, or the processing of liquids for direct release into the environment, watershed or sewage system.
A significant problem with existing liquid management technology may be that natural liquid evaporation rates are slow. As a result, numerous liquid-gas converters, or liquid evaporation facilitation methods, have been devised to accelerate natural evaporation or liquid to gas conversion processes. For example, efforts to facilitate the evaporation of liquids include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,849, hereby incorporated by reference. The patent discloses facilitating the evaporation rate of water by spraying water from a liquid containment pond, pit, or the like into the atmosphere and recollection of the water in the pit to be re-sprayed. However, liquid spraying methods may still be too slow for operators to meet statutory reclamation deadlines, may be effected by or not work at lower temperatures, or may not meet environmental statutory or regulatory requirements. A practical problem with spraying liquids into the atmosphere to accelerate evaporation may be that wind will carry the sprayed water away from the containment area and contaminate the surrounding soil or may percolate to the underlying ground water.
Another significant problem with existing liquid management technology may be that it is incompatible or impractical to use with large volumes of liquid. Many applications require the conversion of hundreds of gallons or thousands of gallons of liquid per hour. Many liquid to gas converters, or methods of converting liquid to gas, are for individual or personal use such as facial saunas, air humidifiers, hair dressing, steam irons, or the like, as disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,399,349; 2,343,458; 3,546,428; 3,695,066; 3,742,629; 3,511,236; 3,745,306; each hereby incorporated by reference. Even liquid to gas converters that are specifically manufactured for the reduction of substantial volumes of liquid have a practical range of application in the tens of gallons or hundreds of gallons per hour. Typically, liquid-gas converters do not have an evaporation rate exceeding 200 gallons per hour. See for example, Encon Entrainment Contained Evaporator, PSI Water Systems, Inc., http://www.evaporator.com, or Landa, Inc. http://www.landa-inc.com, each hereby incorporated by reference.
Another significant problem with existing liquid management technology may be that liquid is heated in an open container to convert the liquid to a gas. One aspect of this problem, may be that the liquid cannot be heated substantially above the boiling point of the liquid to facilitate the conversion of the liquid to a gas. As can be understood, liquids within a container are heated, certain molecules having higher than average energy escape the liquid as a gas, because molecules of higher energy are lost the remaining molecules of liquid cannot achieve substantially higher energy, as such the remaining liquid(s) maintain a temperature which does not substantially exceed its (their) respective boiling point(s). A related aspect of this problem may be that liquids heated in an open container may not be pressurized so that the temperature of the liquid may be substantially increased above the liquid(s) respective boiling point(s). Another aspect of this problem may be that liquids can be very alkaline or very acidic, depending on the concentration of substances dissolved in the liquids, and such liquids may damage the container or other components submersed in the liquid. As such, the container and other submersed components may have to be constructed of more expensive materials such as stainless steel as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,680, hereby incorporated by reference. See also, Encon Entrainment Contained Evaporator, PSI Water Systems, Inc., http://www.evaporator.com; and Landa, Inc., http://www.landa-inc.com.
Another significant problem with existing liquid management technology may be that substances dissolved in a liquid are difficult to isolate, accumulate, or remove from deposition surfaces. These substances may include metals, minerals, greases, oils, soaps, road film, organic compounds, or the like. For example, the “Samsco” water evaporator disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,525, hereby incorporated by reference, heats liquid in a container with a serpentine heat exchanger submersed in the liquid. Substances precipitate and then accumulate in the container as liquid evaporates. These precipitates or residual solids must then be periodically remov
Hays Herbie Jack
Hays William Merle
Quezada Arturo
A. Western Pump & Dredge, Inc.
Miles Craig R.
Santangelo Law Offices P.C.
Wilson Gregory
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