Submitted by: John Schiffner
Researchers and scientists are putting on endless effort to make the sources of energy clean and green. There are many devices in the market that run on solar energy. The alternative energy atmosphere is charged with anticipation and excitement. But till now one of the biggest dampeners in green energy scenario is the prices. Fossil fuels are available cheaply all over the world. But solar, wind, geothermal or biofuels are still expensive and out of reach of commoners.
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The University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory Mirror Lab has paid attention to this particular aspect. They have produced the first prototype of a solar device that will hopefully not be outrageously priced. The device’s inventor Roger Angel’s expectations will ultimately generate electricity from the sun at a price akin to the cheapest fossil fuels. That’s what manufacturer and consumer both want. Every manufacturer aims for profit and all end users want to save money.
Roger Angel’s prototype makes use of mirrors. These mirrors are arranged in such a way that 21 segments form an array in a parabola on a lightweight aluminum frame. This arrangement helps in focusing the sun’s light on a small solar cell. Its first prototype is supposed to be shipped next week to Raytheon Missile Systems. This design could be used to build portable solar generators for battlefield deployment. This fact is reveled by Eric Betterton. He is a UA professor of atmospheric sciences and he is also the principal investigator for the project.
The prototype costs around about $300,000 to engineer and assemble, with its mirrors forged individually in the mirror lab and hand-coated. This project is undertaken by the UA with grants from Science Foundation Arizona. Angel who is the Mirror Lab’s founder and director, said the device uses only about $200 worth of glass and ultimately could be mass-produced for $1,500. It is estimated that at that price, the device would produce energy for $1 a watt. This is as cheap as coal-burning electrical plants.
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Showing posts with label john schiffner heartland energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label john schiffner heartland energy. Show all posts
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Drilling Operations: Fishing & Well Control
Article submitted by: John Schiffner
For our purposes special drilling operations include directional drilling, fishing, and well control. Directional drilling is initially drilling the hole off-vertical for various reasons. Fishing is the operation crew members implement to retrieve an object in the wellbore that doesn't belong there and impedes drilling. Well control is the techniques crew members use to regain control of the well should formation fluids inadvertently enter the well.
Fishing
A fish is a piece of equipment, a tool, or a part of the drill string that the crew of Heartland Energy Colorado loses in a hole. Drilling personnel call small pieces, such as a bit cone or a wrench "junk." Whenever junk or a fish exists in a hole, the crew has to remove it or fish it out otherwise they cannot continue to drill. Over the years, fishing crews have developed many ingenious tools and techniques to retrieve fish. For example, the crew can run an overshot into the hole to he fish. Crew members of Heartland Energy Colorado, make up the overshot on drill pipe and lower the overshot over the fish. Grapples in the overshot latch onto the fish firmly. Then the crew pulls the overshot and attached fish out of the hole.
Another fishing tool is a spear. Unlike an overshot, which the crew places over the fish, a spear then grips insde the fish and allows the crew to retrieve it. Other fishing tools include powerful magnets and baskets. The crew uses them to fish for junk. Since no two fishing jobs are alike, manufacturer and fishing experts have developed many other fishing tools to meet the unique needs of fishing crews.
Well Control
As mentioned earlier, one vital job drilling fluid should do is keep formation fluids from entering the wellbore. If enough formation fluids enter the wellbore, drilling personnel of Heartland Energy Colorado say that the well "kicks." A kick, if not recognized and properly handled, an lead to a blowout. A blowout can be a catastrophic event. In many cases, fluids in the blowout ignite and reduce the rig to a melted pile of junk.
Blowouts not only waste oil and gast but also threaten the lives of the crews working on the rig. Obviously drilling crews take a great deal of care not to allow blowouts, and in fact not too many occur at Heartland Energy Colorado. Because a blowout is a spectacular show and human lives are sometimes lost, a blowout often becomes a media event. Unfortunately, the impression may linger that blowouts are not the rarity they actually are. In fact, thousands of wells are drilled every year and very few of them blow out.
More articles by John Schiffner on Heartland Energy Colorado | Colorado Energy News | Heartland Energy
For our purposes special drilling operations include directional drilling, fishing, and well control. Directional drilling is initially drilling the hole off-vertical for various reasons. Fishing is the operation crew members implement to retrieve an object in the wellbore that doesn't belong there and impedes drilling. Well control is the techniques crew members use to regain control of the well should formation fluids inadvertently enter the well.
Fishing
A fish is a piece of equipment, a tool, or a part of the drill string that the crew of Heartland Energy Colorado loses in a hole. Drilling personnel call small pieces, such as a bit cone or a wrench "junk." Whenever junk or a fish exists in a hole, the crew has to remove it or fish it out otherwise they cannot continue to drill. Over the years, fishing crews have developed many ingenious tools and techniques to retrieve fish. For example, the crew can run an overshot into the hole to he fish. Crew members of Heartland Energy Colorado, make up the overshot on drill pipe and lower the overshot over the fish. Grapples in the overshot latch onto the fish firmly. Then the crew pulls the overshot and attached fish out of the hole.
Another fishing tool is a spear. Unlike an overshot, which the crew places over the fish, a spear then grips insde the fish and allows the crew to retrieve it. Other fishing tools include powerful magnets and baskets. The crew uses them to fish for junk. Since no two fishing jobs are alike, manufacturer and fishing experts have developed many other fishing tools to meet the unique needs of fishing crews.
Well Control
As mentioned earlier, one vital job drilling fluid should do is keep formation fluids from entering the wellbore. If enough formation fluids enter the wellbore, drilling personnel of Heartland Energy Colorado say that the well "kicks." A kick, if not recognized and properly handled, an lead to a blowout. A blowout can be a catastrophic event. In many cases, fluids in the blowout ignite and reduce the rig to a melted pile of junk.
Blowouts not only waste oil and gast but also threaten the lives of the crews working on the rig. Obviously drilling crews take a great deal of care not to allow blowouts, and in fact not too many occur at Heartland Energy Colorado. Because a blowout is a spectacular show and human lives are sometimes lost, a blowout often becomes a media event. Unfortunately, the impression may linger that blowouts are not the rarity they actually are. In fact, thousands of wells are drilled every year and very few of them blow out.
More articles by John Schiffner on Heartland Energy Colorado | Colorado Energy News | Heartland Energy
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