Heat pump system utilizing produced water in oil fields

As the alternative to the heating furnace for crude oil heating, a heat pump system utilizing produced water, a main byproduct, in oil fields was proposed and the thermodynamic model of the system was established. A particular compression process with inner evaporative spray water cooling was applied in the screw compressor and an analysis method for the variable-mass compression process was introduced. The simulation results showed that the efficiency of the screw compressor, the temperature of produced water and the temperature difference in flash process are key parameters affecting the system performance. The energy cost of the heat pump system was compared to that of the heating furnace, revealing that the heat pump system with EER, 4.67, would save over 20% energy cost as compared with the heating furnace. Thus, the heat pump system was energy saving, money saving and environmentally benign.