Air-mud drilling separator modification
- Two-Phase Engineering & Research, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA (United States)
Geothermal air-mud drilling separators are used to remove air from drilling fluids and formation cuttings to allow recycling of the reconditioned drilling fluid. Surges and slugs of air and liquid expanding up the casing string into separators not only create structural instability but can result in severe carry-over and pit volume loss. This paper is a simple case study on modifications made to a conventional drilling separator to address performance, safety, and environmental issues. Modeling of these simple cyclone separators were performed to identify problem areas. By applying fluid mechanics techniques, modifications were developed to enhance the performance of these air-mud drilling separators ten-fold and eliminate the problems of unit instability and drilling mud spray covering the location.
- OSTI ID:
- 602646
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-971048-; TRN: 98:001318-0016
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) annual meeting, San Francisco, CA (United States), 12 Oct 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of Meeting the challenge of increased competition; PB: 665 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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