January 2022
During 2022, Breakthrough Engenuity LLC was VERY busy executing engineering and design projects for local and international clients alike.
This all started when a German engineering company inquired about needing assistance in developing a crude oil processing system for its Russian client for an application in Iraq.
The issue in this project was that the client needed assistance in designing and predicting the performance of a customized "gunbarrel" crude oil dehydration tank. The end user had no background in such systems, nor did the German engineering consultant firm.
Breakthrough Engenuity LLC developed several flow models of the system, each predicting the crude oil dehydration performance of the various designs being developed and considered.
After several iterations and many weeks of back-and-forth communications, all parties agreed on Breakthrough Engenuity LLC's recommended design.
The system was predicted to dehydrate crude to <0.25% BS&W. Breakthrough Engenuity LLC's AutoCAD engineering drawings were redrafted by the client for their presentation to the end user, who ultimately bought in and authorized the fabrication and installation of Breakthrough Engenuity LLC's Gunbarrel Tank Design. This project took over seven months but ended in success.
February 2022
Fire consumed this client's waste oil reclamation plant in southern Oklahoma. Since one man was killed in the fire, the local authorities demanded maximum care in redesigning a replacement facility, with all due regard for safety. Breakthrough Engenuity LLC was solicited to do the engineering and design for the new facility and to get its AutoCAD drawings stamped by a professional engineer. Special concerns for gas venting were incorporated to minimize the likelihood of the facility emitting a flammable mixture of hydrocarbons ever again. Breakthrough Engenuity LLC's design was stamped, and the new facility was built and is now in service.
March 2022
The firetubes were also designed unusually long, so achieving uniform heat transfer was a challenge. Furthermore, the designer had specified heavy-wall pipe for the firetubes. This rendered each firetube so heavy that the firetube flanges warped and leaked, and the firetube bolts stretched and sheared off.
This client was having serious firetube failures in its Neuquén Basin, Argentina, production operations. The heater treaters had been designed and fabricated locally only a few years prior, but the firetubes had failed several times. Local experts were stumped, so the client called Breakthrough Engenuity LLC. Upon preliminary discussions, it was obvious that over-firing had occurred and that burners were maladjusted, concentrating all heat release in the first few feet of the firetubes. The firetubes were unusually long, so achieving heat release in the first few feet of the firetubes was beyond the scope of understanding by operating personnel.
Within a few months of start-up, the firetube, firetube flange, and firetube bolt failures reached an unacceptable level of frequency. Local experts and academicians were baffled. Pipes of imploded and failed firetubes accumulated in the client's “bone-yard.” Since the problems were not yet understood, there was no obvious solution. However, in the first few minutes of the first telephone conversation, the discussion turned to burner adjustments and flame patterns.
At that point, the problem shifted from a comprehension of the causes of the problems to understanding the complexity and implementing realistic solutions. Breakthrough Engenuity LLC was commissioned to draft a fifty-six-page report outlining the history of over-firing, the cause of the implosions, and a dissertation refuting the theory proposed by others that this crude coke-out was due to chemical incompatibilities. It concluded with a recommendation to replace ALL Schedule 60 firetubes with lighter-weight pipe and to shorten all firetubes to reduce the overall weight and failure forces on the flanges and bolts. But most importantly, it recommended several methods of achieving uniform heat transfer once and for all.
August 2022
The Facilities Engineering Group leader of a major Texas oil producer called, asking about developing a standard ten-well central tank battery (CTB) facility detail and dimensional design for all future 10-well CTBs in the Delaware Basin of west Texas. The concept was to modularize the entire facility so the same manifolds could be used on every site, and equipment could be moved freely from one to the next as production depletion took its toll. Standardizing could significantly cut both CAPEX and construction time, adding equivalent oil production and revenue.
Once Breakthrough Engenuity LLC developed the conceptual design, and after the client's careful review, dimensional AutoCAD drawings were converted into a 3D model of the facility, complete with a detailed bill of materials. Local equipment fab shops were issued Breakthrough Engenuity LLC's drawings. Fabrication began, and equipment was delivered and set in record time.
January 2023
The principal of a major Brazilian oil company contacted Breakthrough Engenuity LLC to ask for help with a production facility that was malfunctioning. The facility was producing about 8,000 barrels of oil daily through free water knockouts, an indirect heater, and finally through a locally designed wash tank. Crude quality ranged from 5% to 40% BS&W but needed to be below 0.5%
The Brazilian oil company had hired a local engineering company to help solve the problem, but quickly fired them as they had no plausible solutions. A second local engineering firm with CFD modeling expertise was brought on board and instructed to work with Breakthrough Engenuity LLC to identify and solve the oil treating problems.
Working together, both engineering firms evaluated the local issues. CFD models proved that the locally designed wash tank could not possibly function. Breakthrough Engenuity LLC proposed its patented Wash Tank design. That proposal was accepted. The existing wash tank internals were removed and replaced with Breakthrough Engenuity LLC's designed internals. The revamped wash tank was put in service and performed as predicted, solving the problem.
December 2024–August 2025
A major international oil company headquartered in Denver, Colorado, had issues with a 100,000 BWPD SWD facility in the Delaware Basin of West Texas. The facility had been designed to be one of the first totally automated SWDs in the region but had failed to perform as originally expected. Breakthrough Engenuity LLC was hired to work as a member of the facilities' improvement team, troubleshooting and resolving all issues. The facility had been designed by a competent independent engineering firm, very knowledgeable in facility design but not in fluid dynamics or phase separation. Months of teamwork resulted in solutions to solve the fluid and separation issues, saving this oil company over one million dollars in OPEX each year.