Page 551 - Air and Gas Drilling Manual

10-76 Air and Gas Drilling Manual
There are several possible candidate compressor units given in Section 4.7 of
Chapter 4 that could be used to provide the compressed air for this example drilling
operation. Since the volumetric flow rate of air required is from 1,240 acfm (drilling
at 7,000 ft) to 1,658 acfm (drilling at 10,000 ft), the most appropriate is the semi-
trailer mounted primary compressor unit with a Ingersoll Rand Model HHE, three
stage, reciprocating piston primary compressor with a rated volumetric flow rate of
1,500 scfm (see Figure 4-26). This primary compressor has maximum pressure
capability of 310 psig (at API Mechanical Equipment Standards standard
conditions).

Figure 10-5: Drill string water (and surfactant) injection volumetric flow rate as a
function of drilling time (drilling depth) for Illustrative Example 10.2.
The prime mover for this compressor unit is a diesel fueled, turbocharged,
Caterpillar Model 3508 with a peak output of 644 horsepower at 1,000 rpm (at API
standard conditions). One primary compressor unit can provide the stable foam
drilling compressed air requirement for up to approximately 31 hours of drilling