LARRY BEST PATENTS

HYDRAULIC PUMPING UNITS

1. 1 st. Generation HPU:
Provisional Application filed August 15, 2007;
Patent Application Filed August 14, 2008;
Patent 8,087,904 granted on January 3, 2012
Assigned to Global Oilfield Services, Inc. Houston, TX in 2010
Assigned to Halliburton in 2011
2. 2nd. Generation: Constant HP Regen
Patent application Filed September 10,2012
Patent Granted September 3, 2013
Assigned to Flotek Industries, Inc. Houston, TX in 2015
3. 2nd. Generation Dual Well
Patent Application Filed March 31, 2014
Patent Granted August 25, 2015
Assigned to Flotek Hydralift, Inc Houston, TX 2015
4. 2nd. Generation Dual Well Pump-Down Control
Patent application Filed October 21, 2015
Patent Granted August 30, 2016
Assigned to Flotek Hydralift, Inc.
FOLLOWING ARE ABSTRACTS ON CHAPARRAL’S 3RD. GENERATION HPU
THAT ARE BEING PREPARED TO FILE WITH THE US PATENT OFFICE

COVER SHEET

PATENT SPECIFICATION

for a

CLOSED LOOP REGENERATIVE ASSIST FOR A

HYDRAULIC ROD PUMPING UNIT

Inventor(s):

Larry D. Best
2221 McVoid Road
Springtown, Texas 76082

Please send all correspondence to:

P.T.O. CUSTOMER No. 30142

Mark W. Handley, Esq.

HANDLEY LAW FIRM, PLLC
P.O. Box 97
Grapevine, Texas 76099-0097

Tel: (972) 518-1713

Fax: (972) 518-1777
FILE NO. LBST-28627US P

IN THE UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

PATENT SPECIFICATION

For a

CLOSED LOOP REGENERATIVE ASSIST FOR A

HYDRAULIC ROD PUMPING UNIT

INVENTOR(S)
[0001] Larry D. Best, a resident of the City of Springtown, in Wise County, Texas, United States of
America, and a citizen of the United States of America.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates in general to pump units for oil wells, and in particular to a
hydraulic pumping unit having a regenerative assist.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] An assist for a hydraulic rod pumping unit is disclosed which does not make use of
secondary hydraulic cylinders, and which provides both downstroke energy recovery and
horsepower assist using a single pump and smaller accumulator sizes than used in the prior art. One
closed loop variable displacement, positive displacement pump is coupled to a single prime mover.
The pump is connected between an accumulator or pressurized hydraulic fluid reservoir and a
hydraulic cylinder for the pumping unit. The closed loop pump is connected between the hydraulic
cylinder and an accumulator chamber, which preferably has a nitrogen pre-charge region. The
closed loop pump is connected to a control unit which automatically controls the displacement and
selectively determines whether the pump is operable as a hydraulic motor or a hydraulic pump. The
Closed Loop pump is a variable displacement piston, hydraulic pump which operate in a reverse
flow direction, such that during the Down-Stroke the hydraulic fluid may pass from the hydraulic
cylinder, back into the pump discharge port, through the pump, through the pump input port and
into an accumulator that maintains pressure on the inlet and stores energy to assist on the Up-
Stroke. The drive shaft for the hydraulic pump and the drive shaft, of the drive motor are turning in
the same angular direction as that for pumping the hydraulic fluid into the ram. Reversing the flow
direction of the hydraulic fluid through the pump selectively uses the pump as hydraulic motor
which provides power for assisting the prime mover.

[0007] A control unit determines actuation of the pump for either pumping fluids or providing a
hydraulic motor, in combination with the power output by the drive motor. The control unit
includes a microprocessor which controls hydraulic motor displacement for pump with feedback
from pump/motor displacement, pressure transducer and speed sensor. During the up stroke of the
well head pumping unit, the pump is operated as a motor driven by the charge on the accumulator
and the control unit increases pump/motor displacement to assist the prime mover even if drive shaft
speeds change. During the down stroke of the well head pumping unit, the pump/motor Inlet port is
operated as a pump that charges the accumulator and the pump/motor discharge port is operated as a
motor driven by the down stroke rod load that drives the
accumulator pump with displacement, pressure and speed feedback that controls the Down-
Stroke speed. This results in recovery of the potential energy stored by lifting the weight of the
sucker rod assembly during the cylinder up stroke by passing the hydraulic fluid from the
cylinder through the discharge port of pump in the reverse flow direction, and the pump/motor
Inlet now the pump discharge charging the accumulator. The power assist provided by using
the energy stored in the accumulator results in reducing the size requirements for the prime
mover to power the cylinder pump for moving the weight of the sucker rods and associated
well fluids.

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A Closed Loop hydraulic rod pumping unit (12) has a horsepower regenerative
assist featuring downstroke energy recovery. The pumping unit (12) has a hydraulic
cylinder (26) connected to the discharge port the Closed Loop pump (18). The drive shaft
(40) of the Closed Loop pump (18) is coupled to the drive shaft (20) and to a rotor of a
prime mover (16). A hydraulic accumulator (24) is connected to the input port of the
Closed Loop pump (18) a variable displacement piston pump controlled by a
microprocessor based controller (44), such that during the downstroke of the hydraulic
cylinder (26) the Closed Loop pump (18) discharge port operates as an hydraulic motor
and the input port is now the pump discharge port that charges the accumulator (24) and
during the
10 up stroke of the hydraulic cylinder (26) the Closed Loop pump inlet port (18) operates
as a hydraulic motor that passes fluid to the Closed Loop pump (18) discharge port to
raise the cylinder.
20. The method for operating a pump according to Claim 17, further comprising a
positioning system which includes pressure proximity sensors mounted in cylinder tubing
for determining when said cylinder is disposed in a selected position in a stroke, a sensor
in the ram pump for determining the swash plate angle which provides the displacement
of the pump, and wherein the pump swash plate is turned at known angular velocity and
the controller is configured for calculating positioning of the cylinder in a stroke relative
to the selected position.
 COVER SHEET

Patent Application for a

CLOSED-LOOP SYNCHRONIZED DUAL WELL WITH

REGENERATIVE ASSIST

Inventor(s):

Larry D. Best
2221 McVoid Rd.
Springtown, Texas 76082

Please send all correspondence to:

P.T.O. CUSTOMER No. 30142

Mark W. Handley, Esq.

HANDLEY LAW FIRM, PLLC
P.O. Box 97
Grapevine, Texas 76099-0097

Tel: (972) 518-1713

Fax: (972) 518-1777
FILE NO. LBST-28622US

IN THE UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

SYNCHRONIZED DUAL WELL WITH CLOSED LOOP REGENERATIVE ASSIST FOR

HYDRAULIC ROD PUMPING UNIT

INVENTOR(S)
[0001] Larry D. Best, a resident of the City of Springtown, in Wise County, Texas, United States of
America, and a citizen of the United States of America.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates in general to pump units for oil wells, and in particular to a
hydraulic pumping unit having a regenerative assist.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] A synchronized dual well with closed loop regenerative assist is provided for pumping two or
four wells. The dual well regenerative system is preferably provided for wells in pairs, such as two
wells, four wells, six wells, etc., in a cluster, and synchronizes a pair of wells so when one is on the up
stroke the other one is on the down stroke. The down-stroke polished rod energy from the down-stroke
of one well is used to assist the other well during its up-stroke and provide counter-balance. If one of
the pair of wells is shut-down for work-over, a stand-by accumulator can be activated to provide power
assist and counter-balance.
One closed loop variable displacement, positive displacement pump is coupled to a single prime mover. The
pump port “A” is connected to hydraulic cylinder of well (1) and the pump port “B” is connected to
hydraulic cylinder of well (2). The closed loop pump is connected to a control unit which automatically
controls the displacement and selectively determines whether the pump ports “A or B” is operable as a
hydraulic motor (Inlet) or as hydraulic pump (Discharge). The Closed Loop pump is a variable displacement
piston, hydraulic pump which operate in a reverse flow direction, such that during the Down-Stroke the
hydraulic fluid may pass from hydraulic cylinder (1), back into the pump port “A”, through the pump,
through the pump port “B” and into hydraulic cylinder (2) to assist on the Up-Stroke. Reversing the flow
direction of the hydraulic fluid through the pump selectively reversing direction and operation of hydraulic
cylinders (1) and (2).

[0007] A control unit determines actuation of the pump to select cylinder direction for both pumping units.
The control unit includes a microprocessor which controls hydraulic pump/motor displacement with feedback
from pump/motor displacement, pressure transducer and speed sensor. Should pump down be encountered in
one of the wells, the controllers reduce the stroke length of the cylinder for pumped-down well, such that
cylinder of the pumped down well will remain synchronized with the cylinder other well. Preferably the
stroke length of the cylinder of the pumped down well will be decreased by 1.5 % per stroke when pump
down is detected until pump down is no longer detected or minimum stroke length setting is reached and will
be increased by 2% per stroke until a constant fluid level is reached.

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

15 A dual well pumping unit (12) has two hydraulic cylinder units (26), one for each well. Each of
the hydraulic cylinder units is connected
to closed loop pump/motor (18) hydraulic cylinder (1) to pump/motor port “A” and hydraulic cylinder (2)
to port “B”. The drive shaft (40) of the closed loop pump/motor (18) is coupled to the prime mover shaft
(16). The pump/motor (18) is a closed loop variable displacement piston pump which
20 is controlled by a microprocessor-based controller (44), such that during the downstroke of the
hydraulic cylinder (26) and the up stroke of the hydraulic cylinder (27) the pump/motor (18) operates
as a hydraulic motor to provide assist to raise hydraulic cylinder (27).