Dehydration of a pipeline with a portable dry air generating plant

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR DEHYDRATING A PIPELINE ADAPTED TO CARRY FLUIDS, SAID PIPELINE CONTAINING UNDERSIRED WATER, SAID PROCESS COMPRISING: MOVING TO SAID PIPELINE A TOWABLE DEHYDRATION PLANT; COMPRESSING WITH SAID PLANT NEAR THE PIPELINE AMBIENT AIR; COOLING THE COMPRESSED AIR TO CONDENSE WATER AND OIL THEREFROM; FILTERING OIL VAPOR OUT FROM THE COOLED AIR, AND REMOVING A SUFFICIENT AMOUNT OF WATER VAPOR FROM THE OIL-FREE AIR TO PRODUCE WATER-ABSORBING DRY AIR; PROPELLING A CYLINDRICAL PIG THROUGH SAID PIPELINE WITH SAID DRY AIR, THEREBY CAUSING SAID PIG TO PHYSICALLY PUSH THE WATER DOWNSTREAM AND SAID AIR TO ABSORB WATER; AND REMOVING FROM THE DOWNSTREAM END OF THE PIPELINE THE WATER SATURATED AIR, THE PIG, AND THE WATER PUSHED BY SAID PIG.

Claim 3

A system for dehydrating a pipeline containing water, comprising: a towable, dry air generating plant for producing compressed, water-absorbing, substantially-oil-free, dry air; a cylindrical pig inside said pipeline; a line connecting the output of said plant to said pipeline upstream of said pig to feed dry air to said pipeline whereby said dry air propels said pig downstream without bypassing said pig, said pig pushing most of the water downstream and said dry air simultaneously absorbing a small portion of the water in said pipeline; said plant including; cooling means for cooling compressed ambient air, liquid-water-and-oil removing means coupled to the cooling means, oil-vapor filter means coupled to the liquid-removing means, at least two desiccant towers connected in parallel to the output of said filter means for removing water vapor from the cool, oil-free air, an upper manifold and a lower manifold, said towers being connected between said upper and lower manifolds, said lower manifold containing two pairs of switching valves operated in criss-cross fashion; air-operated valve means for consecutively allowing one desiccant tower to generate dry air to its output line while the other desiccant tower regenerates; a clock-controlled mechanism for controllably feeding instrument air to operate said switching valves at predetermined time intervals; an electric battery for energizing said mechanism; and a trailer for carrying said plant to said pipeline.

Claim 4

A system for dehydrating a pipeline containing water, comprising: a towable, dry air generating plant for producing compressed, water-absorbing, substantially-oil-free, dry air; a cylindrical pig inside said pipeline; a line connecting the output of said plant to said pipeline upstream of said pig to feed dry air to said pipeline whereby said dry air propels said pig downstream without bypassing said pig, said pig pushing most of the water downstream and said dry air simultaneously absorbing a small portion of the water in said pipeline; said plant including; cooling means for cooling compressed ambient air, liquid-water-and-oil removing means coupled to the cooling means, oil-vapor filter means coupled to the liquid-removing means, at least two desiccant towers connected in parallel to the output of said filter means for removing water vapor from the cool, oil-free air, an upper manifold and a lower manifold, said towers being connected between said upper and lower manifolds, said lower manifold containing two pairs of switching valves operated in criss-cross fashion; air-operated valve means for consecutively allowing one desiccant tower to generate dry air to its output line while the other desiccant tower regenerates; a clock-controlled mechanism for controllably feeding instrument air to operate said switching valves at predetermined time intervals; an electric battery for energizing said mechanism; and a trailer for carrying said plant to said pipeline.