The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 25, 1991
Filed:
Nov. 30, 1989
William E Showalter, Long Beach, CA (US);
Union Oil Company of California, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A steam injection pipe system within a cased wellbore is processed to reduce the emissivity of an outwardly facing surface. The pipe system is combined with: (1) a cleaning device or process for maintaining the low emissivity surface; and (2) a mixed fluid non-condensable gas supply to exclude steam from an annular space. This achieves a low cost and low thermal loss steam injection system. The pipe is composed of stainless steel and is polished to reduce the emissivity. The pipe is assembled and run into a cased wellbore. The polished surface of the pipe sections is solvent washed and surrounded by a non-condensable gas within the casing/pipe annulus. The non-condensable gas is introduced at the periphery of the injection pipe, mixed with the steam, and separated down-hole to fill the annulus. The cleaned low emissivity surface and mixed feed fluid gas supply achieves a significant reduction in heat loss without costly pipe insulation when compared to bare pipe injection.