This is an article in a series reviewing Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) patents granted in approximately the last year.  In particular, the patents highlighted here relate to auxiliary features of enhanced oil recovery.

It is typical for primary aspects of a technology to be recognized as a valuable asset; things readily perceived as inventive deviations from the conventional, technical inflection points that set processes or products apart from comparative offerings of competitors.  Organizations readily recognize such inventions as needing patent protection.  However, patentable inventions don’t always spring from multi-million-dollar R&D budgets.  Often, they result from engineers and scientists simply focusing on the best way to solve a problem, perform some function more efficiently, or getting more product out the door.  As such, they don’t necessarily relate to the central portion of a process or technology.  Nor do they always appear as something patentable, if to the untrained eye they merely resemble useful twists on things known.  For example, boilers, steam generation and their corresponding controls have long been used, however, Patent No. 10,125,973 applies a steam generation process to oil production.  Magnetic separation processes are also known; however, Patent Nos. 10,138,410 & 10,150,908 demonstrate applying a form of magnetic separation to purifying injection well water.  Everyone learns about precipitation separation of compounds from aqueous solutions in chemistry lab, however, Patent No. 10,258,920 demonstrates an application to a Kuwait oilfield.

The takeaway here for mainline scientists, engineers, technical supervisors, and the business leaders they work with is to empower a patent awareness in their company to facilitate recognition of unforeseen patentable opportunities.  Patents are a vital part of Intellectual Property Rights, and once granted can be very robust, however, the early stages of a patentable technology’s life can also be quite fragile, in that an inventor or company can inadvertently end its (patentable) life through inappropriate disclosure or sales.  The best course is always to seek the advice of your inhouse IP counsel or outside patent professionals with any questions.

Attached Table 1 lists relevant information on the EOR patents reviewed.  Table 2 contains a representative independent claim from each.

U.S. Patent No. 10,125,973 contains a single independent claim (claim 1), and generally relates to a steam generation process for use in oil production, where the steam generation systems contain a feedwater pump, a feedwater supply system and a delivery system.  The delivery system includes a steam header that runs to a destination or a vent pipe.  The quality of a steam/water mixture (where at least 50% is vapor) is monitored, such that when the quality is acceptable it is routed to a destination (steam injection well) and if it is not, it is routed to a venting reservoir; so that the heat thereby pumped into the well produces more oil compared to a well operated without quality control of the steam.

U.S. Patent No. 10,138,410 has two independent claims (claims 1 & 18), and generally relates to a process or system for purifying the water used in injection wells.  The process targets removal of particular analytes from a water source by contacting the water source with a super-paramagnetic or paramagnetic material capable of binding the analytes with application of a magnetic field.  The purified water is then pumped to an injection well and used to produce oil.  Binding of the analytes is accomplished by functionalizing the superparamagnetic or parametric particles with an ion sequester chosen from diamines, porphyrins, triazole-containing molecules, nucleic acids, RNA, DNA, EDTA, EGTA, DTPA and BAPTA.

U.S. Patent No. 10,150,908 has two independent claims (claims 1 & 27), and generally relates to a process or system for purifying the water used in injection wells.  The patent is similar to the 10,138,410 patent above.  Its process again targets removal of particular analytes from a water source by contacting the water source with a super-paramagnetic or paramagnetic material capable of binding the analytes with application of a magnetic field.  The purified water is then pumped to an injection well and is used to produce oil.

U.S. Patent No. 10,258,920 has a single independent claim (claim 1), and generally relates to a method for descaling a saline stream.  The claims do not actually recite oil recovery; however, the background information provides interesting information on how such an invention could be of use in EOR through description of the Mauddud reservoir in northern Kuwait.  The method comprises mixing the saline feed stream with a hydroxide source and a trivalent cation source.  A precipitate, either magnesium sulfoaluminate or magnesium sulfoferrate is formed in a precipitator unit and then filtered.

U.S. Patent No. 10,267,106 has a single independent claim (claim 1) and generally relates to a system for treating mining byproducts.  Such byproduct streams can include materials such as drill cuttings, frack flowback water, tailings, solvents or drilling fluids.  The system contains a glow discharge cell and a plasma arc torch that are connected with assorted valving.

Table 1: EOR Patents  —  Ancillary Systems 

Patent Number Inventor Assignee Title Issue Date
U.S. 10,125,973 Davis et al. Skavis Corporation Steam Generation Apparatus And Associated Control System And Methods For Startup November 13, 2018
U.S. 10,138,410 Bennetzen et al. Total E&P Danmark A/S Method And System For The Enhanced Recovery Of Oil, Using Water That Has Been Depleted In Ions Using Magnetic Particles November 27, 2018
U.S. 10,150,908 Mogensen et al. Total E&P Danmark A/S Method And System For The Recovery Of Oil, Using Water That Has Been Treated Using Magnetic Particles December 11, 2018
U.S. 10,258,920 Bader Bader Method For Improving And Enhancing Oil Recovery April 16, 2019
U.S. 10,267,106 Foret Foret Plasma Labs, LLC System, Method And Apparatus For Treating Mining Byproducts April 23, 2019

Table 2.  —  Enhanced Oil Recovery  —  Ancillary Systems

Patent Number Independent Claim
U.S. 10,125,973 1. A method, comprising the steps of: determining, by an apparatus capable of producing a mixture of water and steam of varying quality, whether it is permissible for a feedwater pump in a feedwater supply system of the apparatus to run, the feedwater supply system further comprising a steam generation system, a delivery system that includes a main steam header pipe that runs from the steam generation system to a destination, and a vent pipe that branches from the main steam header pipe and that runs to a venting reservoir; determining, by said apparatus, at startup and during normal operation, whether a quality of a mixture of water and steam produced by the steam generation system is within acceptable parameters, wherein the quality of the mixture of water and steam is a mass fraction in a saturated mixture that is vapor, and wherein the acceptable parameters comprise the quality of the mixture of water and steam being within a range of 50 to 100 percent; responsive to a determination that the quality of the mixture is within acceptable parameters, sending the mixture to the destination; and responsive to a determination that the quality of the mixture is not within acceptable parameters, sending the mixture to the venting reservoir; wherein maintaining the acceptable parameters of the mixture allows more heat to be pumped into an injection well and raises a number of units of oil produced from an oil well per unit peat put into a steam injection well, as compared to oil extraction systems lacking control of steam quality.
U.S. 10,138,410 1. A method for recovering crude oil from a hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir by water flooding, the method comprises the steps of: (i) providing a water source; (ii) depleting one or more ions from the water source by contacting the water source with a superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particle capable of binding the one or more ions present in the water source thereby providing a capturing mixture; (iii) removing the ions bound to the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles from the capturing mixture by applying a magnetic field thereby providing a depleted water; (iv) pumping the depleted water into one or more connecting injection well(s) in an oil field thereby pushing the crude oil towards one or more production well(s); and (v) recovering the crude oil from the one or more production well(s), wherein the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles are functionalized with a moiety capable of specifically binding the one or more ions present in the water source; and wherein the functionalization adapted to specifically bind the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles to the one or more ions consists of functionalization with an ion sequester selected from the group consisting of diamines, porphyrins, triazole-containing molecules, nucleic acids, RNA, DNA, EDTA, EGTA, DTPA and BAPTA.
U.S. 10,150,908 1. A method for recovering crude oil or natural gas from the ground, the method comprises the steps of: (i) providing a water source; (ii) depleting one or more analyte(s) from the water source by contacting the water source with a superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particle capable of binding the one or more analyte(s) present in the water source thereby providing a capturing mixture; (iii) removing the analyte(s) bound to the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles from the capturing mixture by applying a magnetic field thereby providing a depleted water; (iv) pumping the depleted water into one or more connecting injection well(s) in an oil field thereby pushing the crude oil towards one or more production well(s); and (v) recovering the crude oil from the one or more production well(s), wherein the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles are functionalized with a moiety capable of specifically binding the one or more analyte(s) present in the water source, and wherein the functionalization moiety is adapted to specifically binding the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles to the one or more analytes and is selected as a polymeric or co-polymeric compound.

 
U.S. 10,258,920 1. A method for recovering crude oil or natural gas from the ground, the method comprises the steps of: (i) providing a water source; (ii) depleting one or more analyte(s) from the water source by contacting the water source with a superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particle capable of binding the one or more analyte(s) present in the water source thereby providing a capturing mixture; (iii) removing the analyte(s) bound to the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles from the capturing mixture by applying a magnetic field thereby providing a depleted water; (iv) pumping the depleted water into one or more connecting injection well(s) in an oil field thereby pushing the crude oil towards one or more production well(s); and (v) recovering the crude oil from the one or more production well(s), wherein the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles are functionalized with a moiety capable of specifically binding the one or more analyte(s) present in the water source, and wherein the functionalization moiety is adapted to specifically binding the superparamagnetic or paramagnetic particles to the one or more analytes and is selected as a polymeric or co-polymeric compound.
U.S. 10,267,106 1. A system for treating a mining byproduct comprising: a glow discharge cell having a side inlet to receive the mining byproduct, a top outlet and a bottom outlet; a first valve connected to the bottom outlet of the glow discharge cell; a plasma arc torch comprising: a cylindrical vessel having a first end and a second end, a first tangential inlet connected to or proximate to the first end, a second tangential outlet connected to or proximate to the second end, an electrode housing connected to the first end of the cylindrical vessel such that a first electrode is (a) aligned with a longitudinal axis of the cylindrical vessel, and (b) extends into the cylindrical vessel, and a hollow electrode nozzle connected to the second end of the cylindrical vessel such that a centerline of the hollow electrode nozzle is aligned with the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical vessel, the hollow electrode nozzle having a first end disposed within the cylindrical vessel and a second end disposed outside the cylindrical vessel; a second valve connected between to the top outlet of the glow discharge cell and the first tangential inlet of the plasma arc torch; and a third valve connected to the second tangential outlet of the plasma arc torch.

-William Reid

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