TKR Engineering provides chemical injection skid services for any industry players who need it. Not everyone knows what chemical injection skid is and what it does. If you are here to find out what chemical injection skid is, then read on. In this article, we will try our best to explain what it is, what it does, and who uses it.
What is Chemical Injection Skid?
As the name implies, the chemical injection skid is a piece of equipment made to inject chemicals into a system. People usually use it to inject chemicals at a certain level of pressure for the system.
The chemical injection may work continuously or intermittently. On top of that, many marine and offshore industries use it in a wide range of settings and for many different purposes. Engineers will then inject water into the reservoir through this kind of oil industry system.
This is to increase pressure and stimulate production. People also use the chemical injection skid to displace or sweep the oil from the reservoir, pushing it towards water injection wells. Those injection wells are usually found in both onshore and offshore. To increase and maintain the reservoir’s rate of production long-term, people only extract 30% of the oil in a reservoir.
There are chemical injection skids with medium and high-pressure injection systems and packages. You can also find other upstream and downstream chemical injection skids. All of those are to clean the waters really well, improve pipeline flow or oil recovery, among many others.
What Are Included in a Chemical Injection Skid System?
You can find quite a few components that make up a chemical injection skid system. Here are some of the main components that make up one.
Tanks
Tanks are one of the most important components of any chemical injection system. This is mostly because they need to store the chemicals that get injected into the system. Tank sizes and structures may differ. However, they generally will be horizontal and cylindrical. They may feature a flat, conical, or hollow bottom with a flat or a hollow top.
Pumps
Pumps are another important part of the chemical injection system. It is mostly because they offer the source for generating the flow the pressure needs to achieve the system’s objective. Pumps can be a diaphragm or plunger type and may come in a number of different power sources including the electric motor, air-operated motor, solar power motor, or solenoid driven motor.
Valves and Instrumentations
Chemical injection skid needs valves and instrumentation to measure and monitor what is going on in the system. For example, they will monitor the liquid level inside the tank, allow for the calibration of the flow rate, monitor and adjust the pressure within the system. It may also set off alarms and other fail-safes made to ensure safety and proper functionality. Specific gauges and valves may differ depending on the exact purpose of the chemical injection system and the client’s own specific set of requirements and needs.
Electrical
A chemical injection system’s electrical system provides a way for the skid to start or stop. It can be done either locally or remotely. Usually, the various controls and functions will route to a control panel for ease of use and function.
Skid Structure
All skid mounted chemical injection systems will also feature a skid structure as part of their fundamental component part. The skid structure offers the structure itself for the system and is made in such a way to protect the system while accommodating its various parts. It will usually feature structural steel that has been continuously welded. A lot of times it will also feature a drip pan made to collect drained chemicals.
What Does a Chemical Injection Skid Do?
Traditionally, chemical injection skids are used to clear off any oil spillages and dirty contaminations in rivers or seas. However, it’s not just the oil and gas industries that use chemical injection skids.
It is also common to see agriculture industries using chemical injection skids too. However, they will usually use chemical injection skids to inject pesticides into waters. The pesticide-water mixture is usually for killing off any pests in plantations.
Some common chemical injection skid pumps you can find on the market are:
- Gear pumps
- Centrifugal pumps
- Positive displacement pumps
- Diaphragm pumps
- Metering type pumps
You can also find pumps for extremely caustic chemicals. People will usually use centrifugal pumps and gear pumps, as they are more popular. Both the pumps are made to be able to handle chemicals and are usually made from chemical resistant materials.
Commonly Used By Oil & Gas Industries
Oil and gas industries are still the biggest users in using chemical injection skid pumps. And for fair reasons too. Those oil and gas industry companies will usually increase their production with the help of chemical injection skid pumps.
The chemical injection assimilates software and hardware equipment. The same hardware equipment helps to impede any dangerous deposits and corrosions. It will also help to improve the quality of oil and gas before transport it to their destinations.
The equipment that the O&G companies need may vary depending on its application, environment, and usage. It can be installed above ground, or even below ground. It some cases, it may be installed in deep water or other harsh environments.
If you are to properly use it, a chemical injection skid system can also provide other benefits. They can assist in minimizing internal corrosion in production tubing. Those can be caused by hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.
On top of that, it can remove wax deposits, excess salt, and other minerals that build up. All those build-ups can decrease production efficiency.
After saying all of that, if you are to stack all of these benefits together, it can help increase production times between invasive good interventions. All those benefits (and more) makes chemical injection skid systems a really solid offshore investment.
Conclusion
If you are working in the oil and gas industry, then its good to have a series of chemical injection skids. Even if you don’t work in the oil and gas industry, but still need some, then have at it.
There’s no harm in
getting your company some if you need it to mix 2 kinds of components together belligerently. After all, it’s about increasing production and maximizing company profits.