Vol. 226 No. 12

Rig Floor Equipment

Two-stage mud cooler is air cooled

Task Environmental Services, based in Heerhugowaard, the Netherlands, has developed and fabricated a special mud cooler. Based on the technology used in a special mud cooler system that was developed and built for Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM), the patented system is an advanced version developed and built for Bentec. The cooler was made from titanium panels and uses two modules with heat exchangers. Its pipe systems are made from 316 TI quality stainless steel.

The mud cooler works in two stages. In the first module, drilling fluid gives off its heat to a glycol/ water mix through a heat exchanger, which cools the fluid from 85°C to 70°C. In the second stage, the glycol/ water mix is cooled with air through the second module’s heat exchanger. Two ventilators moving 70,000 cu m of air/hr cool the glycol/ water heat transfer fluid.

Air cooling was chosen because seawater cooling was not possible. At low tide on the Wadden Sea, there is insufficient cooling water available, while at high tide the seawater contains sand that would damage the heat exchanger.

The system is installed on a new drilling facility in the Mittelplate oil production complex in the German sector of the Wadden Sea.