Louisiana Patent of the Month – April 2021
Oil and gas production sites release massive amounts of water from their storage in the earth. This wastewater creates ponds which can flood their facilities and often contains hydrocarbon content which can be dangerous. Previous methods have been to store and transfer the water to a handling facility off-site where the water is filtered in various ways. Marine Turbine Technologies, LLC is an engineering company which has recently developed an exhaust powered liquid evaporator. The device can rapidly evaporate wastewater at oil and gas production sites.
MTT’s method offers an on-site evaporative removal system. Their system uses an exhaust flow channel and a spray fixture which divides fluid into multiple streams for delivery into the exhaust path. The intake opening of the flow channel connects to a gas turbine engine. Hot exhaust from the engine travels through the exhaust path. The wastewater is preheated by running through the conduits laid out within the exhaust stream. The heated water is then diverted into multiple streams using the spray fixture, and directed back into the hot exhaust stream where it is immediately evaporated. The Exit pressure can be modified to control the temperature of the evaporated water, ensuring it disperses without condensing rapidly. MTT’s system has a high flow rate for rapid evaporation of large quantities of water. The gas turbine engine in use is usually already on-site and can be easily modified to work with this system. Overall, the use of MTT’s evaporator saves time and energy for wastewater handling at oil and gas sites.
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