Upstream Injection Water & SRU

Contamination can cause injection and disposal well plugging or environmental violations. Pall liquid particle filters remove contaminant particles from a liquid stream to prevent excessive pump wear, heat exchanger fouling and contactor foaming. The Ultipleat® High Flow Filter is a crucial part of maintaining well performance.

A new oil well starts to produce oil from the oil-bearing porous rock formation via the natural reservoir pressure, a phase known as primary production.  This will drive oil production until about 30% of the original oil in place is recovered.  Next, secondary production utilizing waterflood injection is commonly used to recover up to approximately 60% of the original oil in place.  The injected water repressurizes the formation, re-establishing the driving force to produce used during most of the primary production phase.  It also pushes or ‘sweeps’ the oil towards the producing wells to improve production from the reservoir overall. 

The oil exists in porous rock of varying permeability, a measure of the openness of the rock to flow.  Formations with smaller spaces between the rock granules are said to be ‘tighter’ formations, having a lower permeability rating as measured in milliDarcys.  The smaller spaces of a tighter formation act as a fine filter, trapping any fine particulate present in the injection water.  As the formation fouls with solids, it becomes more difficult to inject the water, leading to a decline in oil production.  Wells can be worked over or ‘stimulated, where they are taken offline and subjected to acidizing or high pressure fracturing to re-establish flow.  These operations cost millions of dollars, result in lost downtime, and may not fully recover the damage done, permanently reducing the well’s ability to produce.  

A rule of thumb has been developed stating that to avoid formation plugging, the injection water should be filtered to a micron level equal to 1/3 to 1/7 the square root of the permeability in milliDarcys.  For example, under these guidelines, to protect a tight 100 milliDary formation, the injection water should be filtered to between 1.4 and 3 micron.  High efficiency filtration is required to achieve this level of performance.  Pall’s absolute/Beta-rated filters are well suited to this type of need.  For coarser formations, a range of nominal or absolute-rated filters are available to optimize oil production, reduce workover costs and achieve controlled filtration costs.

The Ultipleat® High Flow Filter is a large diameter, coreless, single open ended, pleated cartridge with an inside-to-outside flow pattern. The filter's unique crescent-shaped pleat geometry, combined with its large 152.4 mm (6 inch) diameter and proprietary range of available Pall filter media, allows the use significantly fewer filters and smaller housings for high flow rate applications. Systems can handle up to 115,443 lpm (30,500 gpm).

• Up to 50% smaller filter system possible
  
• Up to 40 times fewer elements to change out
  
• Higher flow rates per filter cartridge – up to 1900 lpm (500 gpm)
  
• Available in 508 mm (20 inch), 1016 mm (40 inch), 1524 mm (60 inch) and 2032 mm (80 inch) lengths
  
• Coreless, all plastic construction to minimize waste disposal
  
• Absolute rated filter medium for reproducible performance
  
• Inside-to-outside flow configuration – all debris stays within the filter

To achieve the cleanest injection water to meet your requirements, we provide a wide range of injection water filtration solutions through to retrofit element styles depending on your current filtration equipment availability and needs. When a complete housing and filter element solution is required, the Ultipleat® High Flow filter delivers an economical and reliable filter system for high flow applications. The Ultipleat® high flow filter is a large diameter, coreless, single open ended, pleated cartridge with an inside-to-outside flow pattern. The filter's unique crescent-shaped pleat geometry, combined with its large 152.4 mm (6 inch) diameter, 40”, 60” or 80” lengths and proprietary range of available Pall filter media, allows the use of significantly fewer filters and smaller housings for high flow rate applications that control up front, labor and disposal costs.

High Flow filter housings are available in both horizontal and vertical configurations depending on operational and space considerations. For quick availability, these housings are also available through our rental program for flows up to 9500 gpm.  With it’s compact design there are up to 40 times fewer elements to change out vs. conventional 2.5” O.D. elements. It accommodates high flow rates – up to 1900 lpm (500 gpm per element). A coreless, all plastic construction minimizes waste disposal. The absolute rated filter medium delivers reproducible performance, and inside-to-outside flow configuration means all debris stays within the filter.

• Up to 50% smaller filter system possible
• Up to 40 times fewer elements to change out
• Higher flow rates per filter cartridge – up to 1900 lpm (500 gpm)
• Available in 508 mm (20 inch), 1016 mm (40 inch), 1524 mm (60 inch) and 2032 mm (80 inch) lengths
• Coreless, all plastic construction to minimize waste disposal
• Absolute rated filter medium for reproducible performance
• Inside-to-outside flow configuration – all debris stays within the filter

For users or service companies that already have existing filter housings, a wide range of filter elements are available, including Nexis, Claris and string wound depth cartridges, Marksman bag filter retrofits and an extensive range of bag filters. Products with either nominal or absolute ratings in various configurations are available to meet your cleanliness, filter service life and op cost needs.

Pall’s Ultipleat® filters allows the use significantly fewer filters and smaller housings for high flow rate applications. Remove contaminants for better well performance when dependability counts. Click here to see purchase information or talk to a Pall expert.