Devices And Methods For Landfill Gas Well Monitoring And Control

• US 20150275632A1
• Filed: 04/28/2015
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Q.E.D. Environmental Systems, Inc. (Graco Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Graco Minnesota Incorporated (Graco Incorporated)
• Inventors: FISCHER, David A., MIODUSZEWSKI, David
• Granted Patent: US 10,144,043 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B09B 1/006 Shafts or wells in waste dumps
• CPC Class Codes: B09B 3/80 involving an extraction step
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 34/025 Chokes or valves in wellheads and sub-sea wellheads for variably regulating fluid flow
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 43/12 Methods or apparatus for controlling the flow of the obtained fluid to or in wells E21B43/25 takes precedence; valve arrangements E21B34/00
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 44/00 Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 47/00 Survey of boreholes or wells monitoring pressure or flow of drilling fluid E21B21/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3833 Hand-held transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a self-regulating, landfill well control system for automatically controlling a flow of landfill gas (LFG) through a wellhead associated with a landfill well at a landfill. The system has a combination unit operably associated with the wellhead, with a valve actuator, a flow measurement element and a controller. The valve actuator controls a LFG flow control valve, to thus control an LFG flow through the wellhead. The flow measurement element produces differential pressures proportional to a LFG flow rate. The controller controls the valve actuator and, based on data obtained using the flow measurement element, adjusts a setting of the LFG flow control valve to obtain a specific control point setting, and automatically maintains the control point setting thereafter.

Claims

1. A self-regulating, landfill well control system for automatically controlling a flow of landfill gas (LFG) through a wellhead associated with a landfill well at a landfill, the system comprising:

a combination unit operably associated with the wellhead, the combination unit having;

a valve actuator for controlling a LFG flow control valve, to thus control an LFG flow through the wellhead;

a measurement element operably associated with the wellhead for measuring a parameter which affects the LFG flow through the wellhead; and

a controller for controlling the valve actuator, based on data obtained using the measurement element, to adjust a setting of the LFG flow control valve to obtain a specific control point setting, and to automatically maintain the control point setting.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the measurement element comprises an orifice element for enabling a differential pressure across the orifice element to be determined.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the orifice element comprises at least one of:

an orifice plate;

or

a pitot tube.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the combination unit comprises a short range wireless protocol transceiver for wirelessly communicating with an external mobile electronic device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the short range wireless protocol transceiver comprises at least one of:

a Bluetooth®

protocol wireless transceiver;

or

a ZigBee®

protocol open standard wireless transceiver.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the combination unit further comprises a pressure transducer.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a mobile hand held electronic device including at least one table for correlating a sensed LFG variable to a recommended valve position for the LFG flow control valve.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the combination unit comprises a short range wireless transceiver for wirelessly communicating with the mobile hand held electronic device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the valve actuator comprises a powered flow control device actuator.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the system further includes an embedded wireless communications device associated with the powered flow control device actuator for receiving wireless signals from a remote source to enable remote setting of the LFG flow control valve by the powered flow control device actuator;

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to implement at least one of the following schemes:

a scheme to maintain a constant LFG flow rate;

a scheme to maintain a constant level of vacuum applied to the well head;

a scheme to maintain a desired combination of LFG flow rate and vacuum;

or

a scheme to maintain a desired combination of LFG flow rate and vacuum, also taking into consideration at least one of barometric pressure and ambient air temperature.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the system accesses a cloud for historical data.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the mobile hand held electronic device includes:

LFG data including LFG well head vacuum and pressure, LFG gas quality data, LFG gas temperature; and

site and ambient data readings including at least one of;

barometric pressure;

air temperature; and

a geospatial location of an LFG well head.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the combination unit is responsive to at least one of:

satellite signals;

or

cellular signals.

15. A self-regulating, landfill well control system for automatically controlling a parameter associated with a wellhead associated with a landfill well at a landfill, and where a landfill gas (LFG) is flowing through the wellhead, the system comprising:

a combination unit operably associated with the wellhead, the combination unit having;

a valve actuator for controlling a LFG flow control valve, to thus control an LFG flow through the wellhead;

a measurement element operably associated for measuring the parameter to be controlled; and

a controller for controlling the valve actuator, based on measurements obtained using the measurement element, to adjust a setting of the LFG flow control valve to achieve a desired control point setting for the parameter, and to automatically adjust the LFG flow control valve as needed to maintain the desired control point setting for the parameter.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the parameter comprises LFG flow.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the parameter comprises vacuum applied to the wellhead from an external vacuum source.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the parameter is a combination of at least two of LFG flow, vacuum, barometric pressure and ambient air temperature.

19. A method for forming a self-regulating, landfill well control system for automatically controlling a parameter associated with a wellhead associated with a landfill well at a landfill, and where a landfill gas (LFG) is flowing through the wellhead, the method comprising:

using a valve actuator to control a LFG flow control valve, to thus control an LFG flow through the wellhead;

using a measurement element operably associated with the wellhead to measure the parameter to be controlled; and

using a controller to control the valve actuator, based on data obtained using the measurement element, to adjust a setting of the LFG flow control valve to achieve a desired control point setting for the parameter; and

to automatically adjust the LEG flow control valve as needed to maintain the desired control point setting for the parameter.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the operation of using a measurement element to measure the parameter to be controlled comprises using a measurement element to measure at least one of:

LFG flow through the wellhead;

vacuum at the wellhead;

or

a combination of at least two of LFG flow, vacuum, barometric pressure and ambient air temperature.