CA3184931A1 - System, method, and medium for historical optimization of oil-water separation process - Google Patents

Abstract

There are provided systems, methods, and processor-readable media for optimizing the use of chemical additives in an oil-water separation process based on historical data. A process optimization software system includes a model that uses historical operating data to identify operating conditions that are a close match to the present operating conditions, and that achieve desirable operating conditions. The process optimization software system then recommends or implements adjustments to the oil-water separation process to emulate the identified operating conditions.

Description

SYSTEM, METHOD, AND MEDIUM FOR HISTORICAL OPTIMIZATION OF OIL-WATER SEPARATION PROCESS
FIELD
[0001] The present disclosure relates to optimizing the processing of hydrocarbon materials, and in particular to systems, methods, and processor-readable media for optimizing the use of chemical additives in an oil-water-gas separation process based on historical data.
BACKGROUND

[0002] Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is a technique for extracting bituminous material, such as bituminous sands (also referred to as oil sands), from subterranean reservoirs. Steam and/or solvent is injected into the reservoir using and injector well to reduce the viscosity of the bituminous material, allowing it to be extracted to the surface in fluid form using a producer well. In SAGD
operations, the produced fluid is a mix of oil (in the form of bitumen), water, produced gas, and other materials. Separating the oil from the water occurs in stages: first, at an inlet separation stage, the produced fluid emulsion is separated into an oil portion and a water portion. Within the inlet separation stage, the oil portion first has a majority (e.g., 90%) of its water removed at a free water knockout (FWKO) vessel, then the output of the FWKO vessel has most or all of its remaining water (e.g., the remaining 10 /0 or close to it) removed at a treater vessel, using one or more treatments such as viscosity reduction, chemicals, etc. The oil portion from the treater vessel is then either sent to market, typically via pipeline or other transportation means, or relayed for further processing.

[0003] Chemicals can be used at the inlet separation stage (such as at the free water knockout and treater vessels) to maximize the separation of oil and water - typical industry standards require that the oil portion should be less than 0.5% water before transportation by pipeline. The chemicals used can include an Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 emulsion breaker (EB) to coalesce water in oil (WI0), and a reverse emulsion breaker (REB) and coagulant to separate oil in water (OIW). These chemicals assist gravity separation to reduce the residence time required to affect the separation, i.e., the duration of time the material must remain within a given stage to allow the operations of that stage to achieve the desired effect.

[0004] After the inlet separation stage, the water portion undergoes further de-oiling and softening (also called water treatment) at a second stage.
Coagulant can also be added at the second stage (i.e. during de-oiling and/or water treatment) to remove residual oil from the water portion. In a typical de-oiling process, the water goes through a serpentine flow path through a de-oiling tank, such as a skim tank or a nnicrobubble flotation (MBF) tank, and may also undergo further de-oiling by an induced static flotation (ISF) vessel and/or an oil removal filter (ORF). The water portion from the de-oiling process then goes through various other water treatment stages to remove hardness and silica to avoid fouling when boiled.

[0005] After the second stage, the recovered de-oiled and softened water is used for steam generation. The steam is injected back into the oil reservoir (e.g.
via an injector well), delivering heat to mobilize bitumen (i.e., to reduce the viscosity of the bituminous material). The water used to generate the steam typically returns to the surface once again as a portion of the produced fluid, and the cycle continues.

[0006] The chemicals used at the inlet separation stage and the second stage are expensive - in some cases, they can account for greater than 50% of operating expenses for a SAGD operation. Thus, there is an incentive to optimize the amount of chemicals used to avoid overuse while maintaining the required specification and ensuring the water is ready for steam generation. Separation at both stages is also affected by other factors, such as residence time and diluent addition.
However, cutting the flow rate of the oil and/or water portions (i.e. increasing their residence time at the various stages) can have significant costs due to reduced production per unit of time.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

[0007] Conventionally, engineers and operators optimize the separation process manually. Engineers on site can monitor trends with regard to the oil and water content of various process streams, the chemical dosages, and the diluent settings. If the required specifications (e.g., low basic sediment and water (BS&W) concentration such as <0.5%, low OIW, low mineral content to avoid fouling) are satisfied, then no changes are made. However, if there is an upset (i.e. the oil and/or water portions fail to meet the specifications), an engineer makes a recommendation, typically based on intuition and experience, to change the operating parameters of the separation process. For example, an engineer may advise that more water be removed at the inlet separation stage if the oil is too wet (i.e. too much water in the oil phase), even though this might make the water portion too dirty. However, relying on the intuitions and experience of engineers and operators to optimize individual operating parameters of the separation process can result in sub-optimal and/or inconsistent performance of the process as a whole, leading to instability and/or inefficiency.

[0008] Accordingly, it would be useful to provide techniques for optimizing and standardizing the operation of an oil water separation process that overcome one or more of the limitations identified above.
SUMMARY

[0009] The present disclosure describes systems, methods, and processor-readable media for optimizing the use of chemical additives in an oil-water separation process based on historical data.

[0010] In some embodiments, a process optimization software system is used to optimize the operation of fluid treatment processes. The process optimization software system includes a model that uses historical operating data to identify operating conditions that are a close match to the present operating conditions. If the identified operating conditions are known to have given rise to a historical Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 upset, the process optimization software system recommends interventions that solved the historical upset.

[0011] In some embodiments, the model uses three categories of operating parameters as input variables: specified variables, control variables, and observed variables. The specified variables are parameters with values or ranges of values specified by a requirement or constraint of the process, such as a water in oil content range (e.g., a BS&W concentration range) for the produced oil portion in order to satisfy the specification for transport to market (e.g., BS&W between 0.4%
and 0.6%). The control variables are parameters that are used to identify similar historical states, such as flow rates of the inlet emulsion into the plant or the water output to the steam generation stage. The third category, observed variables, do not have to fall within a specified range (unlike the specified variables) and are not used to identify similar historical states (unlike the control variables).
Instead, the observed parameters are simply used to provide additional information about current and historical states to the operator of the oil water separation system.

[0012] In some embodiments, after a favourable historical state has been identified and selected, one or more modifiable operating parameters of the oil water separation system can be modified to transition from the current state closer to the selected historical state. The modifiable parameters include operating parameters that can be controlled or modified via action taken by the operator of the oil water separation system controlling the oil water separation process.
In some examples, the modifiable operating parameters can include one or more of the specified variables, control variables, and/or observed variables. For example, one modifiable operating parameter can denote an amount (e.g., a volume or volumetric flow rate) of emulsion breaker to add upstream from an inlet separation vessel. Another example of a modifiable operating parameter is a flow rate of a water portion produced by an inlet separation vessel (e.g., FWKO vessel or treater vessel), to help maintain an oil-water interface to maintain OIW and BS&W
specifications. Because many of the variables affect each other, often in complex ways, it can be difficult to predict how modifying an operating parameter will affect Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 other variables, unless a similar historical state can be identified in which the new value of the modified operating parameter coexists with other variable values.

[0013] In some embodiments, when identifying similar historical states to the current state, the model seeks to find a historical state that has roughly similar values for most control variables, and a desirable value for one or more specified variables. For a given point in time, each variable has a range or tolerance:
some can have tighter tolerance than others. The model attempts to adjust one or more of the specified variables while remaining within the tolerance of all control variables. Thus, in some embodiments, tolerance selection is important: the tolerances of the control variables used by the model can be configured to be narrow to limit how much the state is modified, but broad enough to give useful similar historical states.

[0014] In various embodiments, the similarity of the current state to a historical state is calculated using various techniques: for example, cosine similarity (i.e. the angle between two points), Euclidian similarity, actual distance, Manhattan distance, etc. Each of these techniques can exhibit various advantages and disadvantages. In some embodiments, the similarity measure is assessed with respect to seven dimensions or more.

[0015] In some embodiments, the model is deployed in association with an oil water separation system to identify best-fit matches of historical states for the state of the oil water separation system on the current day. In some embodiments, a user interface can be used to present a best-fit desirable state to a human user, such as an engineer, along with operating parameter value adjustments to be made for the oil water separation system to mimic the best-fit desirable state. The goal is for the oil water separation system to modify the current day's operations (i.e. to adjust the modifiable operating parameters of the oil water separation process) to match the output(s) of the selected historical state, such as the amounts and characteristics of the intermediate and final products of the oil water separation process. Thus, the tolerances can dictate how much the current state may need to Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 be modified to match the favourable historical state in order to achieve the output(s) of that historical state.

[0016] In some embodiments, the model is incrementally updated as more historical data is generated. In some embodiments, historical data older than a predetermined age (such as data from before a major change in the underlying configuration of the oil water separation process) is not used by the model, to avoid optimizing operations based on historical states that would generate substantially different outputs when applied to the current system. In some embodiments, historical data corresponding to non-typical operating circumstances, such as emergency plant shutdown conditions, plant start-up conditions, new chemical trials, and other atypical operating conditions can be disregarded by the model.

[0017] Some embodiments can apply the techniques described herein to optimize the operating parameters of a separation process other than an oil-water separation process. A separation system, such as an oil-water separation system, can be used to implement a separation process including one or more stages for separating water from other materials. By using the techniques described herein, operating parameters representing a current state of the separation process can be modified to bring the current state of the separation process closer to a historical state of the separation process, thereby improving performance and/or avoiding upset as described above.

[0018] Some example embodiments described herein can exhibit one or more advantages over conventional techniques, and can thereby solve one or more technical problems. Some oil water separation systems have many years of usable historical operating data available to inform the operation of the model. This historical data can be used by the model to achieve the goals of the operators of the oil water separation system: e.g., to adhere to the product specification(s), to increase product throughput, to reduce costs, to reduce waste (e.g. wasted chemical additives, wasted energy used in heat treatment), to reduce environmental impact, etc. By deploying a model to directly inform decision-making using a large body of detailed, objective historical data, the oil water separation Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 process can be optimized without relying on the subjective, inconsistent, approximate intuitions and judgment of individual engineers, which can be imperfect when applied to a system having a large number of variables. Thus, the use of the model can promote consistent operating strategy based on historical successes, i.e., standardizing and prioritizing which operating parameters to modify. The model and process optimization software system may thereby enable proactive daily optimization, minimize trial and error when making changes, and allow the identification of historical states across many more variables than can be comprehended simultaneously by a human engineer. Furthermore, the model can improve its recommendations over time by continuously collecting data from different operating states to add to its body of historical data.

[0019] In the present disclosure, the term "product" refers to either an intermediate product or a final product of an oil-water separation system.

[0020] As used herein, the term "threshold" refers to a limit on a value. The threshold may be a lower limit, an upper limit, an absolute limit of absolute magnitude, or a relative limit with respect to the current value of a system variable, or any other limit. Statements that a value is "within" a threshold refer to the value being within a region or range bounded by the threshold.

[0021] In the present disclosure, the terms "parameter" and "variable" are used interchangeably to refer to a measurable aspect or characteristic of a system.
Parameters have values, which can be scalar, vector, or other types of values, and can change over time.

[0022] As used herein, statements that a second item (e.g., a signal, value, scalar, vector, matrix, calculation, or bit sequence) is "based on" a first item can mean that characteristics of the second item are affected or determined at least in part by characteristics of the first item. The first item can be considered an input to an operation or calculation, or a series of operations or calculations, that produces the second item as an output that is not independent from the first item.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

[0023] In some aspects, the present disclosure describes a method that includes obtaining current state data comprising a plurality of operating parameter values for a separation process, the separation process comprising one or more stages for separating water from other materials, the plurality of operating parameter values jointly representing a current state of the separation process. The method further includes obtaining historical data comprising a plurality of historical data samples, each historical data sample representing a respective historical state of the separation process comprising a plurality of historical operating parameter values. The current state data and the historical data are processed to identify one or more historical states that satisfy a similarity condition with respect to the current state and that also satisfy a desirability condition. A selected historical state from the one or more historical states is applied to the separation process by modifying current values of one or more of the operating parameters of the separation process based on respective historical operating parameter values indicated by the selected historical state.

[0024] In some example aspects, the similarity condition requires each operating parameter value of the current state to fall within a respective tolerance threshold of a corresponding historical operating parameter value of the historical state.

[0025] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the similarity condition requires that a distance value, measured between the plurality of operating parameter values of the current state and the respective plurality of historical operating parameter values of the historical state, is within a distance threshold.

[0026] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the distance value is calculated based on at least one of: cosine similarity, Euclidian distance, actual distance, and Manhattan distance.

[0027] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the desirability condition requires that a water concentration parameter of the operating parameters, indicating a water concentration of a water portion produced by a stage of the one or more stages, is within a water concentration range.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

[0028] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the desirability condition requires that a non-water substance concentration parameter of the operating parameters, indicating a concentration of a specific non-water substance of a non-water portion produced by a stage of the one or more stages, is within a non-water substance concentration range.

[0029] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the desirability condition requires that a chemical additive amount parameter of the operating parameters, indicating an amount of a chemical additive added to a stage of the one or more stages, is within a chemical additive range.

[0030] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the separation process comprises an oil water separation process comprising one or more stages for separating water from oil.

[0031] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the desirability condition requires that a water concentration parameter of the operating parameters, .. indicating a water concentration of a water portion produced by a stage of the one or more stages, is within a water concentration range.

[0032] In one or more of the preceding aspects, a stage comprises an inlet separation stage.

[0033] In one or more of the preceding aspects, a stage comprises a de-oiling .. stage.

[0034] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the desirability condition requires that an oil concentration parameter of the operating parameters, indicating a concentration of oil of an oil portion produced by a stage of the one or more stages, is within an oil concentration range.

[0035] In one or more of the preceding aspects, a stage comprises an inlet separation stage.

[0036] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the desirability condition requires that a chemical additive amount parameter of the operating parameters, Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 indicating an amount of a chemical additive added to a stage of the one or more stages, is within a chemical additive range. In one or more of the preceding aspects, the third stage comprises an inlet separation stage; and the chemical additive comprises one of the following: an emulsion breaker; a reverse emulsion breaker; and a coagulant.

[0037] In one or more of the preceding aspects, the chemical additive comprises a coagulant.

[0038] In one or more of the preceding aspects, modifying the current values of the one or more of the operating parameters of the separation process comprises modifying the current value of at least one of the following operating parameters:
a flow rate of a product of a stage of the plurality of stages; a temperature of a stage of the plurality of stages; an amount of a diluent to add to a stage of the plurality of stages; an amount of a diluent to add to a product of a stage of the plurality of stages; an amount of an emulsion breaker to add to a stage of the plurality of stages; an amount of a reverse emulsion breaker to add to a stage of the plurality of stages; and an amount of a coagulant to add to a stage of the plurality of stages.In some aspects, the present disclosure describes a system. The system comprises a processor device, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor device, cause the system to perform one or more of the methods described above. ,

[0039] In some aspects, the present disclosure describes a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions thereon to be executed by a processor device, the instructions, when executed, causing the processor device to perform one or more of the methods described above.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0040] Reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings which show example implementations of the present application, and in which:
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

[0041] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the stages of a SAGD system suitable for implementation of examples described herein.

[0042] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example computing system suitable for implementation of examples described herein.

[0043] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example process optimization software system, in accordance with example implementations described herein.

[0044] FIG. 4A is a graph of similar historical states to a current state with respect to two specified variables, using a Euclidean similarity measure, in accordance with example implementations described herein.

[0045] FIG. 4B is a graph of similar historical states to a current state with respect to two specified variables, using a cosine similarity measure, in accordance with example implementations described herein.

[0046] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing operations of a method for optimizing the operation of an oil water separation system using historical data, in accordance with example implementations described herein.

[0047] Similar reference numerals can have been used in different figures to denote similar components.
DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATIONS

[0048] The present disclosure describes systems, methods, and processor-readable media for optimizing the use of chemical additives and separation vessels interface control in an oil-water separation process based on historical data.

Systems and methods will be described with reference to a process optimization software system used to control or assist the operation of an oil water separation process of a SAGD system. However, it will be appreciated that the techniques described herein can also be applied to other separation processes that separate water from other substances, and/or to the optimization of other operating Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 parameters of such processes, and/or can be implemented through other computational means.

[0049] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example SAGD system 100, including an extraction system 110 and an oil water separation system 120. The extraction system 110 includes one or more injector wells 114 and one or more producer wells 112. The injector well(s) 114 are configured to inject steam 168 received from the steam generation stage 142, potentially mixed with other injected fluids 14 (such as solvents) to form an injected fluid 12, into a subterranean reservoir 10 of bituminous material such as oil sands. In operation, the injected fluid 12 mobilizes the bituminous material and causes it to flow toward the bottom producer well(s) 112, which are used to transport the bituminous material, now mixed with water and/or other fluids from the injected fluid 12 as a fluid emulsion 152, to the surface. The fluid emulsion 152 is provided to the oil water separation system to produce oil from the bitumen content of the fluid emulsion 152 and to recycle the water content of the fluid emulsion 152 for use as steam 168.

[0050] The stages of the oil water separation system 120 will now be described briefly. It will be appreciated that the stages shown in FIG. 1 are functional units that can include many sub-components such as pumps, heaters, and other equipment not fully described herein.

[0051] An inlet separation stage 122 includes one or more free water knockout (FWKO) vessels 124 and one or more treater vessels 126. The FWKO
vessel 124 receives the fluid emulsion 152, potentially diluted with a diluent 178, and removes most of the water from the (diluted or non-diluted) fluid emulsion as a FWKO water portion 156. The water can be removed by gravity separation;
the duration of time required to effect the gravity separation can vary based on various operating parameters, but can sometimes be shortened by addition of FWKO
chemical additives 170 upstream of the FWKO vessel(s) 124, which can include an emulsion breaker (EB) to coalesce the water in oil (WIO) more effectively, and/or a reverse emulsion breaker (REB) and/or a coagulant to separate oil in water (OIW) more effectively. Thus, use of greater amounts of some chemical additives 170 can Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 potentially reduce the FWKO residence time necessary to affect a given amount of emulsion in the FWKO vessel 124.

[0052] The FWKO oil portion 154 is received by the one or more treater vessels 126. The additional water removed from the FWKO oil portion 154 by the treater vessel 126 constitutes the treater water portion 160; the treater oil portion 158 is a final product output by the oil water separation system 120 as oil ready for storage, transportation, or further processing.

[0053] A de-oiling vessel 134 and water treatment stage 136 operate to further process the FWKO water portion 156 and the treater water portion 160 (which may be combined into a single stream in some embodiments) to prepare the water for conversion to steam 168 for use in further SAGD extraction operations. A
de-oiling vessel 134, such as a skim tank, receives the FWKO water portion 156 and the treater water portion 160, de-oiling the water portions 156, 160 by mechanically removing floating oil. De-oiling tank chemical additives 174, such as coagulants, can be used to improve the effectiveness of the de-oiling operation of the skim tank 134. In some embodiments, the skim tank oil portion 162 can be provided as a final product for storage or transport along with the treater oil portion 158. The de-oiling tank water portion 164 is provided to a water treatment stage 136 for softening (i.e. removal of mineral content) and/or removal of silica.
In some .. embodiments, the de-oiling tank water portion 164 undergoes further de-oiling, such as by an induced static flotation (ISF) vessel and/or an oil removal filter (ORF), before proceeding to the water treatment stage 136. In some embodiments, the softening process of the water treatment stage 136 can be assisted by addition of water treatment chemical additives 176. The treated water 166 produced by the water treatment stage 136 is provided to a steam generation stage 142, which uses a boiler 144 to generate steam 168 from the treated water 166. The steam 168 is provided to the extraction system 110.

[0054] The process conditions of each unit operation of the oil water separation system 120, i.e. each stage, can be defined by a set of parameters referred to herein as operating parameters. Some operating parameters can be Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 controlled or modified by an operator of the oil water separation system 120, and can be referred to herein as modifiable operating parameters. Adjustment of a modifiable operating parameter can include adjustment of actual physical conditions of a process within the oil water separation system 120, through various physical adjustment means, such as actuating valves, modulating the amount of energy supplied to a heating element, instructing personnel to increase or decrease an amount of chemical additive manually added to a stage, etc. In various embodiments, the modifiable operating parameters can include flow rates of various products 154, 156, 158, 160, 162, 164, flow rates of various diluents 178, flow rates of various chemical additives 170, 174, 176, temperatures of various stages, etc.

[0055] Other operating parameters can be measured (e.g., by sensors), but not directly controlled.

[0056] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example computing system 240 including computing hardware suitable for optimizing the operation of an oil water separation system 120 according to example embodiments described herein. In some implementations, computing system 240 can be an electronic computing device, such as a networked server. In other implementations, the computing system 240 can be a distributed computing system including multiple devices (such .. as a cloud computing platform) or a virtual machine running on one or more devices in mutual communication over a network. Other examples suitable for implementing implementations described in the present disclosure can be used, which can include components different from those discussed below. Although FIG.
2 shows a single instance of each component, there can be multiple instances of each component in the computing system 240.

[0057] The computing system 240 can include one or more processor devices (collectively referred to as processor device 242 or processor 242). The processor device 242 can include one or more processor devices such as a processor, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a dedicated logic circuitry, a dedicated artificial intelligence processor unit, or combinations thereof.

[0058] The computing system 240 can include one or more network interfaces (collectively referred to as network interface 246) for wired or wireless communication over a network. The network interface 246 can include wired links (e.g., Ethernet cable) and/or wireless links (e.g., one or more antennas). The computing system 240 can communicate with one or more user devices 247 (such as user workstation computers) via the network interface 246. The computing system 240 can also communicate with various sensors 248 (e.g. flow rate sensors, temperature sensors, pH sensors, visual sensors) or other data sources (e.g., lab test results) to obtain data used in operating and optimizing the oil water separation system 120. The computing system 240 can also communicate with various process controllers 249 via the network interface 246 to control the modifiable operating parameters of the various components of the oil water separation system 120. In some examples, the user devices 247 and/or the components of the oil water separation system 120 can communicate with the computing system 240 through other means, such as an input/output interface of the computing system 240 (not shown) or through an intermediate device in communication with the computing system 240.

[0059] The computing system 240 can include one or more non-transitory memories (referred to collectively as a memory 244), which can include a volatile or non-volatile memory (e.g., a flash memory, a random access memory (RAM), and/or a read-only memory (ROM)). The memory 244 can also include one or more mass storage units, such as a solid state drive, a hard disk drive, a magnetic disk drive and/or an optical disk drive.

[0060] The memory 244 can store instructions for execution by the processor device 242 to carry out examples described in the present disclosure. The instructions can include instructions for implementing and operating the process optimization software system 300 described below with reference to FIG. 3. In some embodiments, the process optimization software system 300 includes Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 subsystems or functional modules such as a model 302 and a user interface (UI) module 304, both described below with reference to FIG. 3. The memory 244 can include other software instructions, such as for implementing an operating system and other applications/functions. In some examples, the computing system 240 can additionally or alternatively execute instructions from an external memory (e.g., an external drive in wired or wireless communication with the computing system 240) or can be provided executable instructions by a transitory or non-transitory computer-readable medium. Examples of non-transitory computer readable media include a RAM, a ROM, an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a flash memory, a CD-ROM, or other portable memory storage.

[0061] The memory 244 can store data 270 used by the process optimization software system 300. Current state data 310 can be received from the sensors 248, process controllers 249, and/or other data sources and stored in the memory.
The .. current state data 310 can include values for one or more specified variables 312, control variables 314, and/or observed variables 316, as described above.
Historical data 320 can also be stored, consisting of a plurality of historical state data 321 records, each of which includes values for one or more specified variables 322, control variables 324, and/or observed variables 326. The current state data 310, and each historical state data 321 record, represents a single state of the oil water separation process implemented by the oil water separation system 120.

[0062] The computing system 240 can also include a bus 250 providing communication among components of the computing system 240, including those components discussed above. The bus 250 can be any suitable bus architecture including, for example, a memory bus, a peripheral bus or a video bus, or the bus 250 can be another communication link such as a network interface 246.

[0063] FIG. 3 illustrates an example process optimization software system 300. The process optimization software system 300 is executed by a computing system 240 to perform the methods and operations described herein. The process .. optimization software system 300 includes functional modules or subsystems 302, Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 304, as described below. It will be appreciated that some implementations can omit one or more of the described subsystems and/or can combine the functions of two or more of the described subsystems into a single component. In some implementations, different functions of the process optimization software system 300 can be performed on different devices other than the computing system 240.
For example, computationally intensive functions such as training machine learning models and executing trained machine learning models can be performed on a cloud computing platform in communication with a local computing system 240.

[0064] In some implementations, the process optimization software system 300 operates to identify desirable historical states of the oil water separation system 120 that are similar to the current state, and to modify or recommend modifications to the operating parameters of the current state to more closely approximate a selected historical state in order to stabilize and/or optimize the operation of the oil water separation system 120. The operation of the process optimization software system 300 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 as well as the flowchart of FIG. 5 and the similarity measures of FIG.s 4A-4B.

[0065] FIG. 5 is flowchart showing operations of a method 500 for optimizing the operation of an oil-water separation process based on historical data. The method 500 will be described in the context of the example oil water separation system 120, using a computing system 240 executing the process optimization software system 300. However, it will be appreciated that the operations or steps of method 500 are not limited to this example and can be implemented using other separation processes or systems, using other software systems executed by other computing systems, etc.

[0066] At 502, current state data 310 is obtained. As described above, the current state data 310 includes one or more specified variables 312, control variables 314, and/or observed variables 316 that are determined from data received from the sensors 248, the process controllers 249, and/or other data sources (not shown) such as laboratory testing results, predetermined fixed values of various equipment, etc.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

[0067] The specified variables 312 have known specifications used as criteria for identifying valid historical states, i.e., historical states that satisfy a desirability condition. In some examples, the specified variables 312 include a basic sediment &
water (BSW) variable indicating the concentration of water and sediment in a final oil product such as 158 or 162 (e.g., having an example specification of between 0.4% and 0.6%). In some examples, the specified variables 312 include a dilbit density variable indicating the density of dilbit (i.e. diluted bitumen); an example specification for dilbit density can be between 915 and 920 kg/m3. In some examples, the dilbit density can be that at the gas boot (i.e. at the output of the oil water separation system 120, where final oil products 158 undergo a final de-gassing step not shown in FIG. 1). In some examples, the specified variables include an emulsion breaker (EB) dosage variable indicating a concentration of EB
of the FWKO chemical additives 170 injected upstream of the FWKO vessel 124.
In some embodiments, the historical data 320 is filtered to remove historical state data 321 records not meeting the specifications. In some embodiments, the specifications 350 are provided by a subject matter expert or by product requirements. In various examples, the specifications 350 may be coded into the process optimization software system 300 and/or received from external data sources or users via the user devices 247 and/or the network interface 246 for storage in the memory 244.

[0068] The control variables 314 do not have a specification 350, but are used to identify historical states (based on their respective historical state data records) that are similar to the current state (based on the current state data 310), i.e., historical states that satisfy a similarity condition. In some examples, the control variables 314 include produced water measurement variables at the FWKO
vessel 124 and the treater vessel(s) 126 (e.g., flow rates of the FWKO water portion 156 and/or the treater vessel water portion 160). In some examples, the control variables 314 include an inlet emulsion flow rate variable (e.g., the flow rate of fluid emulsion 152).
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

[0069] The observed variables 316 are not compared to a specification 350 to satisfy a desirability condition, nor are they used to identify similar historical states that satisfy a similarity condition. Instead, after the model 302 identifies historical states meeting the specifications (i.e., the specified variables 322 of the historical state data 321 satisfy the desirability condition) that are similar to the current state of the plant (i.e., the control variables 324 of the historical state data 321 satisfy the similarity condition), the UI module 304 also presents the values of other variables associated with the identified historical states. The other variables whose values are displayed to a user by the UI model 304 are the observed variables 316, 326. In some examples, the observed variables 316 include a water cut setpoint (i.e., the ratio of the water which is produced from the producer well(s) 112 compared to the volume of the total liquids produced, i.e., the water concentration of the fluid emulsion 152). In some examples, the observed variables 316 include an emulsion breaker (EB) set point, i.e., the baseline amount (e.g., volumetric flow rate or concentration) of EB added to the inlet separation stage 122 in steady-state operation.

[0070] At 504, historical data 320 is obtained. The historical data 320 includes multiple historical state data 321 records, each of which includes one or more specified variables 322, control variables 324, and/or observed variables 326 collected during historical operation of the oil water separation system 120.
In some examples, the historical data 320 can be supplemented with data collected from other oil water separation systems that are identical or nearly-identical to the oil water separation system 120.

[0071] At 506, the model 302 processes the current state data 310 and the historical data 320 to identify one or more historical states that satisfy a similarity condition with respect to the current state and that also satisfy a desirability condition.

[0072] In some examples, the similarity condition is satisfied by historical states in which the value of each control variable and/or specified variable falls within a respective tolerance threshold of its value in the current state, determined Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 according to a similarity measure. In some embodiments, the similarity condition is satisfied by historical states in which a distance value, measured between the values of the control variables and/or specified variables of the current state and the respective values of the control variables and/or specified variables of the historical state, is within a distance threshold. In some embodiments, the distance value can be calculated using various similarity measures, such as cosine similarity, Euclidian distance, actual distance, and Manhattan distance. Two example similarity measures, cosine similarity and Euclidian distance, will now be described with reference to FIG.s 4A-4B.

[0073] FIG. 4A shows the determination of a Euclidean distance measure in a simplified example using only two variables, a first specified variable sv1 and a second specified variable 5v2, to compute the similarity measure between a current state and a set of historical states. FIG. 4A shows a graph 400 having the value of sv1 as the X axis 402 and the value of 5v2 as the Y axis 404. The value of (sv1, 5v2) of the current state data 310 is indicated by data point 410. The model applies a Euclidean distance measure to identify historical state data 321 records that satisfy the similarity condition. The values of (sv1, 5v2) of each historical state data 321 record are graphed as points 440. By applying the Euclidean distance measure, data points having the shortest straight-line distance from point 410 are .. determined to satisfy the similarity condition: namely, similar points 420.
Of the similar points 420, a desirability measure may be applied in some embodiments to select a similar point 420 with the most desirable value for sv1 and/or 5v2, in this example desirable similar point 430.

[0074] FIG. 4B shows the determination of a cosine similarity measure in the .. same simplified example as FIG. 4A. The value of (sv1, 5v2) of the current state data 310 is indicated by data point 410. The model 302 applies a cosine similarity measure to identify historical state data 321 records that satisfy the similarity condition. The values of (sv1, 5v2) of each historical state data 321 record are graphed as points 440. By applying the cosine similarity measure, the direction of point 410 from the origin (sv1=0, 5v2=0) is determined (shown as ray 460), and Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 data points in this direction (i.e. close to ray 460) are determined to satisfy the similarity condition: namely, similar points 420. Of the similar points 420, a desirability measure may be applied in some embodiments to select a similar point 420 with the most desirable value for sv1 and/or 5v2, in this example desirable similar point 430.

[0075] As will be appreciated from FIG.s 4A and 4B, the set of data points that are similar to an observed (current state) data point can be quite different depending on the measure of similarity used. The differences can be more pronounced with a high number of input variables. For example, in some SAGD
systems, similar states can be identified (i.e. the similarity condition can be satisfied) by comparing the values of 8 specified variables and 17 control variables.

[0076] Returning to step 506 of method 500, the desirability condition can be satisfied in various embodiments through a combination of hard constraints and/or desirability metrics for the specified variables 312, 322. Some embodiments use a desirability condition that requires each specified variable 312, 322 to remain within a specified range (i.e., hard constraints). Some embodiments use a desirability condition that requires an overall desirability measure to fall within a range, wherein the desirability measure is a function of the current values of the specified variables (i.e., soft constraints). Some embodiments use a desirability condition that combines hard constraints and soft constraints for various specified variables.

[0077] The historical states whose historical state data 321 satisfies the similarity condition and the desirability condition are added to a list of identified historical states. In some embodiments, a historical state is selected algorithmically from the list of identified historical states by the process optimization software .. system 300. In some embodiments, a state that is most similar to the current state of the plant, but with more optimal values for one or more specified variables, is selected.

[0078] At 508, the selected historical state is presented to a user.
The UI
module 304 presents the selected identified historical state, e.g. via the network interface 246 to user device 247. In some embodiments, the selected historical Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 state can be presented on a display as a set of variable values of the historical state data 321, including not only values of the specified variables 322, but also of the control variables 324 and/or observed variables 326 in order to display the full description of the selected historical state to the user. In some embodiments, the user is also presented with the point in time in the oil water separation system's 120 history from which the selected historical state was drawn, so that the user can understand more about the relevance and recency of the selected historical state.

[0079] At 510, user input is received (e.g., through the user device 247 via the network interface 246) confirming the selection of the selected historical state (e.g., the selected historical state 340) for emulation by the oil water separation system 120.

[0080] In some embodiments, steps 508 and/or 510 are omitted, and user confirmation is not required; the process optimization software system 300 automatically applies the selected historical state to the oil water separation system 120.

[0081] At 512, the selected historical state 340 is applied to the oil water separation process of the oil water separation system 120. The current values of one or more of the modifiable operating parameters of the oil water separation system 120 are modified, based on the respective values of the modifiable operating parameter values indicated by the selected historical state 340. In some examples, some or all of the modifiable operating parameters are modified directly via the process controller 249. In some examples, some or all of the modifiable operating parameters are modified indirectly via intervention by workers. The new, modified values of the modifiable operating parameters are used to update the current state data 310 to reflect the new, modified current state.

[0082] At 514, the oil water separation system 120 is operated, in accordance with the newly modified current state. By making these modifications, the current state of the oil water separation system 120 becomes a state that is likely to satisfy the specification(s) 350, e.g., BSW within a certain tolerance, more optimal chemical usage, etc.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 General

[0083] Although the present disclosure describes functions performed by certain components and physical entities, it should be understood that, in a distributed system, some or all of the processes can be distributed among multiple components and entities, and multiple instances of the processes can be carried out over the distributed system.

[0084] Although the present disclosure describes methods and processes with steps in a certain order, one or more steps of the methods and processes can be omitted or altered as appropriate. One or more steps can take place in an order other than that in which they are described, as appropriate.

[0085] Although the present disclosure is described, at least in part, in terms of methods, a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the present disclosure is also directed to the various components for performing at least some of the aspects and features of the described methods, either by way of hardware components, software or any combination of the two. Accordingly, the technical solution of the present disclosure can be embodied in the form of a software product. A suitable software product can be stored in a pre-recorded storage device or other similar non-volatile or non-transitory computer readable medium, including DVDs, CD-ROMs, USB flash disk, a removable hard disk, or other storage media, for example. The software product includes instructions tangibly stored thereon that enable a processing device (e.g., a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute examples of the methods disclosed herein. In general, the software improves the operation of the hardware in one or more ways.

[0086] The present disclosure can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the subject matter of the claims. The described example implementations are to be considered in all respects as being only illustrative and not restrictive. Selected features from one or more of the above-described implementations can be combined to create alternative implementations not explicitly described, features suitable for such combinations being understood within the scope of this disclosure.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

[0087] All values and sub-ranges within disclosed ranges are also disclosed.
Also, although the systems, devices and processes disclosed and shown herein can include a specific number of elements/components, the systems, devices and assemblies could be modified to include additional or fewer of such elements/components. For example, although any of the elements/components disclosed can be referenced as being singular, the implementations disclosed herein could be modified to include a plurality of such elements/components. The subject matter described herein intends to cover and embrace all suitable changes in technology.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

Claims (20)

- 25 -

1. A method comprising:
obtaining current state data comprising a plurality of operating parameter values for a separation process, the separation process comprising one or more stages for separating water from other materials, the plurality of operating parameter values jointly representing a current state of the separation process;
obtaining historical data comprising a plurality of historical data samples, each historical data sample representing a respective historical state of the separation process comprising a plurality of historical operating parameter values;
processing the current state data and the historical data to identify one or more historical states that satisfy a similarity condition with respect to the current state and that also satisfy a desirability condition; and applying a selected historical state from the one or more historical states to the separation process by modifying current values of one or more of the operating parameters of the separation process based on respective historical operating parameter values indicated by the selected historical state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:
the similarity condition requires each operating parameter value of the current state to fall within a respective tolerance threshold of a corresponding historical operating parameter value of the historical state.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein:
the similarity condition requires that a distance value, measured between the plurality of operating parameter values of the current state and the respective plurality of historical operating parameter values of the historical state, is within a distance threshold.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:
the distance value is calculated based on at least one of: cosine similarity, Euclidian distance, actual distance, and Manhattan distance.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:
the desirability condition requires that a water concentration parameter of the operating parameters, indicating a water concentration of a water portion produced by a stage of the one or more stages, is within a water concentration range.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein:
the desirability condition requires that a non-water substance concentration parameter of the operating parameters, indicating a concentration of a specific non-water substance of a non-water portion produced by a stage of the one or more stages, is within a non-water substance concentration range.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein:
the desirability condition requires that a chemical additive amount parameter of the operating parameters, indicating an amount of a chemical additive added to a stage of the one or more stages, is within a chemical additive range.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:
the one or more stages for separating water from other materials comprise one or more oil water separation process stages for separating water from oil.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:
the desirability condition requires that a water concentration parameter of the operating parameters, indicating a water concentration of a water portion produced by at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages , is within a water concentration range.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:
the at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages comprises an inlet separation stage.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein:
the at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages comprises a de-oiling stage.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein:
the desirability condition requires that an oil concentration parameter of the operating parameters, indicating a concentration of oil of an oil portion produced by at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages, is within an oil concentration range.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:
the at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages comprises an inlet separation stage.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein:
the at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 comprises a de-oiling stage.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein:
the desirability condition requires that a chemical additive amount parameter of the operating parameters, indicating an amount of a chemical additive added to at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages, is within a chemical additive range.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:
the at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages comprises an inlet separation stage; and the chemical additive comprises one of the following:
an emulsion breaker;
a reverse emulsion breaker; and a coagulant.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein:
the at least one stage of the one or more oil water separation process stages comprises a de-oiling stage; and the chemical additive comprises a coagulant.

18. The method of any one of claims 1 to 17, wherein:
modifying the current values of the one or more of the operating parameters of the separation process comprises modifying the current value of at least one of the following operating parameters:
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23 a flow rate of a product of a stage of the plurality of stages;
a temperature of a stage of the plurality of stages;
an amount of a diluent to add to a stage of the plurality of stages;
an amount of a diluent to add to a product of a stage of the plurality of stages;
an amount of an emulsion breaker to add to a stage of the plurality of stages;
an amount of a reverse emulsion breaker to add to a stage of the plurality of stages; and an amount of a coagulant to add to a stage of the plurality of stages.

19. A system, comprising:
a processor device; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor device, cause the system to perform a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 18.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions thereon to be executed by a processor device, the instructions, when executed, causing the processor device to perform a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 18.
Date Recue/Date Received 2022-12-23