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Replies to post #56764 on QS Energy Inc (QSEP)
Recently I have posted how important the AOT hydrostatic tests using oil and high voltage have been in recreating conditions close to those on a commercial pipeline. Push back from the usual suspects was immediate.
PumpersExposed said:
But things like this hydrostatic test are so laughable, and let stand for pundits to run with because they have nothing else to promote, and they wanted a meaningless pressure test for certification to seem like more than it was. It's 'really' simple to look up what this is.. I mean the word 'hydro' kinda gives it away.
Pumper laughs at us for thinking that oil can be used in a hydrostatic test. Derisively he says the word "hydro" kind of gives it away.
Sano gave us this pearl:
The company itself refers to the test as a “hydrostatic test” which ( Sano says) is preformed with water.
But, they would be wrong. From Wikipedia:
Hydrostatic tests are conducted under the constraints of either the industry's or the customer's specifications, or may be required by law. The vessel is filled with a nearly incompressible liquid – usually water or oil – pressurized to test pressure, and examined for leaks or permanent changes in shape.
From Merriam Webster:
hydrostatics
noun
hy·?dro·?stat·?ics ?hi-dr?-'sta-tiks
plural in form but singular in construction
: a branch of physics that deals with the characteristics of fluids at rest and especially with the pressure in a fluid or exerted by a fluid
Sano echoed Pumper stating categorically that oil was not used in the AOT hydrostatic test even though the May 23rd Press Release said that it was.
More push back came when I stated that the design of the AOT when deployed was to slow the speed of pipeline oil during its transit through the AOT. This was to allow enough time for full treatment. Instead of the AOT having to treat turbulent oil moving at 5mph it is treating oil moving slowly in laminar fashion. While the oil in the hydrostatic test was not moving it is not far off from slow laminar flow conditions.
Sano said:
So Aot is now a bottle neck right after exiting a pump station’s 3500 hp turbulent outflow? I’d stop now if I was you.
Pumper weighed in, if you can make any sense of his gobble de gook post:
Yes hilarious.. the oil speeds asking.. then shows inside an aotee, then shows back up again on the other side! Magic! Because if it didn't, it would cost the shipper massive cash in less barrels moved per day, and they'd probably pull the bottleneck off the line quickly
Not to be outdone Soxy added:
If I have oil flowing at 5mph through a pipeline and then slow it down to treat it (per your statement) what happens to the oil that was flowing in front of the treated oil? That oil is still flowing at supposedly a fastr rate because that they were treated so there is then a vacuum created between the slower flowing oil and the faster oil in front of it. How does that work?
To understand how oil can move more slowly through the AOT than the rest of a pipeline without causing a "bottleneck" you must first go to the home page of the QS Energy website. You will see a picture of an AOT four unit skid. Each unit has a 36 inch inside diameter as does the TransCanada Pipeline on which it was deployed.
The inside volume of the 4 parallel AOT units when combined is far greater than a similar length of TransCanada's 36 inch diameter pipe. Situated just downstream of the pumping station the AOT receives oil moving at roughly 5 mph through the TC 36 inch diameter pipe connected to its own 36 inch pipe. The oil is then split into the 4 units on the skid. As it flows through the AOT it is treated. Then the oil is combined back into a 36 inch pipe which in turn is connected back into TransCanada' 36 inch pipeline.
Oil enters the AOT at 5 mph. Oil exits the AOT at 5 mph. Oil might run through the AOT at something like 1 1/2 to 2 mph. The volume entering the AOT is the same as the volume exiting. Think of the AOT like a bigger pipeline with say a 48 inch diameter that can move the same volume at 2 mph that a 36 inch pipeline can at 5 mph. The 4 combined units of the AOT are like the larger diameter pipeline. To slow the speed of oil even more just add units or increase their size.
Without full deployment along the full length of the pipeline the speed of the oil running through the pipeline can't be increased but pumping pressure and costs can be greatly reduced. Full deployment along the length of the line will allow for increased speed and greater delivered volumes.
My apologies to any real pipeline engineers out there. My numbers were for illustration purposes only. The complexities of the AOT are far greater than this poster has knowledge of, though I think I got the basic idea right.
As zerosnoop is fond of saying " this was far more than a simple leak test ".
