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Injection pump apparatusInjection pump apparatus description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080145237, Injection pump apparatus. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the process and oil industries and to chemical injection; in particular the device relates to gas driven positive displacement or diaphragm injection-type pumps providing a means for monitoring and controlling the output flow. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONIn the oil, gas, petrochemical, water treatment, and environmental protection industries there is an absolute necessity to treat many flowing liquids on a continuous basis with various chemicals. For example, a few of these chemicals are corrosion inhibitors, emulsifiers, scale inhibitors, antifreeze, bactericides, and others. Many of the flowing liquids are flowing under pressure within pipelines and require a high-pressure means of injecting the chemicals. In many cases, the quantity of injected chemical is somewhat critical and must be adjusted from time-to-time to conform to the flow rate within the pipeline. Many injection sites for chemicals are remote from maintenance personnel, which create a dilemma since the injector pumps are, by nature, prone to unexpected failure. In the oil and gas industry for instance, an interruption of chemical treatment can mean the shut-in of a well or freeze-up of a transmission line. Such events can cost many tens-of-thousands of dollars. Currently, the best method of protecting against injector pump failure is through a daily visit by pump maintenance personnel (known as a pumper). Many chemical injection locations are at oil well pumping sites that may be remote from the pumper by a hundred miles or more. Offshore production requires a boat and crew to assist the pumper in making his rounds to dozens of unmanned platforms. This type of service is very costly. Even with daily visits by a pumper, there is no assurance that the pump will not fail within minutes after the inspection is completed. Typically, pump failures are caused by malfunctions of the suction or delivery check valve, packing leakage, mechanical drive failure, chemical supply blockage, electrical or gas interruption to the drive motor, or piping failures, just to name a few. For the past fifty years or more, there has been a serious problem in the industry due to the inability to constantly monitor the flow rate of the chemical injection pumps. The problem has always been how to detect, measure, and possibly adjust the flow rate of a chemical injector from a distant location. With the development of reliable cellular telephone service, it is now possible to provide communication between the pumper and the pump installation, both onshore and offshore, with the ordinary cellular telephone (or other SCADA—supervisory control and data acquisition system). If a simple and inexpensive method of automatically monitoring of injection flow rates was available, the monitoring system would transmit an appropriate signal to the maintenance personnel through the cellular system or SCADA system, and industry could save millions of dollars each year. There have been many attempts made to monitor flow rates of chemical pumps and transmit this data, but none have been successful. Typically, these systems are so expensive and complicated that more problems are created than solved. The most common technique is by sensing the pressure in the output of the injection pump. There are several techniques, well known in the industry, to monitor pressure ranging from simple “snap-like” devices (high-normal-low pressure switches) to pressure transducers/transmitters. pressure transmitter system may be found in the disclosure by Smith et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,504) that, although the application is not for an injection pump, dislcoses a Downhole Pump Monitoring System that supervises a pump by using a pressure transmitter to determine if the pump is operating. Yoder et. al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,135,719 and 6,135,724) disclose a more typical injection pump system. Here a complex feedback control scheme is used to meter and monitor a series of chemical injection pumps by means of position control on the stroke control unit. The problem of a simple tall-tale device has been resolved by the MG & G pump company who manufactures and markets their “Automatic Check Valve” known as an ACV. The same company also manufactures and markets chemical injection pumps as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,753to Greene entitled “Injection Pump Apparatus” and has offered this device for some 30 years to the industry. The injection pump apparatus is rugged and has become an industry standard; however, as pump parts wear the quantity of fluid injected per stroke tends to wander and in some cases stop. Thus a need remains for a small, locally controlled chemical injection system that can adjust chemical injection rates in a set ratio and be reliable and consistent. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is a monitoring and control system for use with chemical injection comprising:
an indicating check valve or ACV;
a dual stroke pneumatic piston driver;
a solenoid valve; and
control means.
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