1. A method of controlling a materials recycling facility, comprising:
(a) using an automatic separator apparatus, separating an input material stream into at least a first and a second output stream containing predominantly first and second materials, respectively;
(b) providing to an automatic control system, data representative of a feedrate versus separating efficiency relationship for said automatic separator apparatus;
(c) providing to said automatic control system, data representative of an economic value for at least one of said first and second materials;
(d) calculating with said automatic control system an optimum processing rate to maximize profitability of step (a); and
(e) automatically adjusting a feedrate of said input material stream to said automatic separator apparatus toward said optimum processing rate.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
in step (c) providing to said automatic control system, cost data representative of a cost of operating said materials recycling facility.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein:
in step (c) said cost data includes data representative of a cost of manual labor for supplemental manual sorting to sort contaminants from at least one of said first and second output streams; and
step (d) includes considering an increased cost of manual labor for supplemental manual sorting needed as a result of increasing feedrate to said automatic separator apparatus.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein:
in step (c) said cost data includes data representative of operating costs of said automatic separator apparatus.
5. A method of controlling a materials recycling facility, comprising:
(a) conveying an input material stream with a conveyor having an adjustable feed rate;
(b) using a first automatic separator apparatus, separating the input material stream into at least a first and a second output stream;
(c) using a second automatic separator apparatus, separating the first output stream into a first plurality of product streams;
(d) using a third automatic separator apparatus, separating the second output stream into a second plurality of product streams;
(e) measuring an amount of product in each of the product streams of said first and second pluralities of product streams;
(f) providing to an automatic control system, data representative of an economic value of product of at least one of said product streams; and
(g) controlling the materials recycling facility with the automatic control system to improve a profitability of operating the materials recycling facility.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein step (g) includes adjusting the feedrate of the input material stream.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein:
in step (b), the first automatic separator apparatus has at least one adjustable operating parameter which affects a product content of each of the first and second output streams; and
step (g) includes adjusting the at least one adjustable operating parameter with the automatic control system.
8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
providing to the automatic control system, data representative of a feedrate versus separating efficiency relationship for at least one of said first, second and third automatic separator apparatus; and
wherein step (g) includes adjusting a feed rate to said at least one of said first, second and third automatic separator apparatus.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
providing to the automatic control system a total throughput requirement for the input material stream, and a time constraint for processing the total throughput requirement through the material recycling facility.
10. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
providing to said automatic control system, cost data representative of a cost of operating at least a part of the materials recycling facility.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein:
said cost data includes data representative of an operating cost of at least one of said first, second and third separator apparatus.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein:
said cost data includes data representative of a cost of manual labor for supplemental manual sorting to sort contaminants from at least one of said output streams or at least one of said product streams.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
providing to the automatic control system, data representative of a feedrate versus separating efficiency relationship for at least one of said first, second and third automatic separator apparatus; and
wherein step (g) includes considering an increased cost of manual labor for supplemental manual sorting needed as a result of increasing feed rate to at least one of said first, second and third automatic sorter apparatus.
14. A materials recycling facility, comprising:
an input conveyor for an input material stream, said conveyor having an adjustable input rate;
an adjustable first separator for separating the input material stream into a first output stream and a second output stream;
a second separator for separating the first output stream into a first plurality of product streams;
a third separator for separating the second output stream into a second plurality of product streams;
a first sensor, operably associated with the second separator for measuring an amount of product of each of said first plurality of product streams;
a second sensor, operably associated with said third separator, for measuring an amount of product of each of said second plurality of product streams; and
an automatic control system, communicated with said first and second sensors, and operably associated with said input conveyor and said first separator, said control system including control system software having a data input software portion for receiving data representative of an economic value of a product of at least one of said product streams.
15. The materials recycling facility of claim 14, further comprising:
a fourth separator for separating one of said product streams of said second plurality of product streams into a third plurality of product streams.
16. The materials recycling facility of claim 14, wherein:
said adjustable first separator is an inclined rotary disc screen for separating an input material stream including mostly paper and containers into a first output stream including primarily paper and a second output stream including primarily containers.
17. The materials recycling facility of claim 16, wherein:
the second separator and the first sensor are operable to identify, separate and measure an amount of paper and an amount of contaminating containers in the first output stream; and
the third separator and the second sensor are operable to identify, separate and measure an amount of containers and an amount of contaminating paper in the second output stream.
18. The materials recycling facility of claim 17, wherein:
the third separator and the second sensor are further operable to identify, separate and measure the containers of the second output stream into a plastic container stream and an aluminum container stream.
19. The materials recycling facility of claim 18, further comprising:
a fourth separator for receiving the plastic container stream from the third separator and separating the plastic container stream into a PET stream, a colored HDPE stream and a natural HDPE stream.
20. The materials recycling facility of claim 14, wherein:
said data input software portion of said automatic control system is adapted for receiving cost data representative of a cost of operating at least a part of the materials recycling facility.
21. The materials recycling facility of claim 20, wherein:
said cost data includes data representative of an operating cost of at least one of said first, second and third separator apparatus.
22. The materials recycling facility of claim 20, wherein:
said cost data includes data representative of a cost of manual labor for supplemental manual sorting.
23. The materials recycling facility of claim 14, wherein:
said control system software includes a historical data portion including data representative of a separating efficiency versus throughput rate relationship for at least one of said first, second and third separator apparatus.
24. The materials recycling facility of claim 14, wherein:
said data input software portion of said automatic control system is adapted to receive a total throughput requirement for the facility and a time constraint for processing the total throughput requirement through the facility.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of cleaning a wellbore drilled with an oil-based drilling fluid that forms an oil-based filter cake, the method comprising:
emplacing a non-emulsified single phase breaker fluid into the wellbore, the breaker fluid comprising:
at least 60% by volume of a water-miscible non-aqueous fluid forming a continuous phase;
at least one weighting salt; and
at least one breaking agent; and
shutting in the well for a period of time sufficient to initiate breaking of the oil-based filter cake.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the water-miscible non-aqueous fluid comprises at least one of ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, glycerol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, and tripropylene glycol.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the weighting salt comprises at least one alkali carboxylate salt, alkali halide salt, alkaline earth carboxylate salt, or alkaline earth halide salt.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one breaking agent comprises at least one of a fragmentation agent, an acid source, and a chelant.
5. The method of claim 1, the breaker fluid further comprising:
at least one of a surfactant and an emulsifier.
6. The method of claim 1, the breaker fluid further comprising:
at least one mutual solvent.
7. The method of claim 1, the breaker fluid further comprising: water.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the breaker fluid has a density greater than 11 ppg.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the breaker fluid has a density greater than 14 ppg.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
initiating production of formation fluids through the wellbore.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
performing at least one completion operation in the wellbore.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one weighting salt is dissolved in the water-miscible non-aqueous fluid.
13. A method for completing a wellbore, comprising:
drilling the wellbore with an oil-based drilling fluid to form an oil-based filter cake on the walls thereof;
gravel packing at least one interval of the wellbore;
emplacing non-emulsified a single phase breaker fluid into the wellbore, the breaker fluid comprising:
at least 60% by volume of a water-miscible non-aqueous fluid forming a continuous phase;
at least one weighting salt; and
at least one breaking agent; and
shutting in the well for a period of time sufficient to initiate breaking of the oil-based filter cake.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the water-miscible non-aqueous fluid comprises at least one of ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, glycerol, and diethylene glycol.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the weighting salt comprises at least one alkali carboxylate salt, alkali halide salt, alkaline earth carboxylate salt, or alkaline earth halide salt.
16. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one breaking agent comprises at least one of an emulsifier, a fragmentation agent, an acid source, and a chelant.
17. The method of claim 13, the breaker fluid further comprising:
at least one surfactant.
18. The method of claim 13, the breaker fluid further comprising:
at least one mutual solvent.
19. The method of claim 13, the breaker fluid further comprising: water.
20. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
initiating production of formation fluids through the wellbore.
21. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
performing at least one completion operation in the wellbore.
22. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one weighting salt is dissolved in the water-miscible non-aqueous fluid.
23. A breaker fluid, comprising:
about 50 to 90 percent by weight of a non-aqueous base fluid comprising:
at least 60% by volume of a water-miscible non-aqueous fluid forming a continuous phase;
at least one weighting salt; and
about 10 to 50 percent by weight of a breaking agent selected at least one of an emulsifier, a fragmentation agent, an acid source, and a chelant;
wherein the breaker fluid is a non-emulsified single phase fluid.
24. The fluid of claim 23, wherein the water-miscible non-aqueous fluid comprises at least one of ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, glycerol, and diethylene glycol.
25. The fluid of claim 23, wherein the weighting salt comprises at least one alkali or alkaline earth salt of a carboxylate or halide.
26. The fluid of claim 23, further comprising:
at least one surfactant.
27. The fluid of claim 23, further comprising:
at least one mutual solvent.
28. The fluid of claim 23, further comprising:
water.
29. The breaker fluid of claim 23, wherein the at least one weighting salt is dissolved in the water-miscible non-aqueous fluid.