Methods of Storing and Moving Proppant at Location Adjacent Rail Line
A method of delivering proppant to a well site has the steps of transporting a load of proppant in a vessel to a desired location, moving the load of proppant from the vessel into a container so as to create a proppant-loaded container, unloading the proppant-loaded container into a pneumatic bulk trailer, and transporting the unloaded proppant in the pneumatic bulk trailer to well site. The container is placed onto a bed of a truck and moved in proximity to the vessel. The proppant-loaded container is placed onto a tilting mechanism and then tilted so that the proppant is discharged through a flow gate of a container into a hopper. The proppant in the hopper can then be conveyed to the pneumatic bulk trailer.
1 . A method of storing and moving proppant, the method comprising:
a) storing fracking proppant at a desired location to be transferred to a plurality of containers, each container comprising:
an opening adjacent the top thereof to receive proppant into the container, a pair of spaced-apart end walls connected to and extending between the bottom and the top, and a pair of sidewalls connected to an extending between the pair of end walls and the top and the bottom;
an outlet adjacent a bottom for discharge of proppant therefrom;
a flow gate positioned adjacent the outlet to control flow of proppant through the outlet; and
b) transporting one or more of the plurality of containers from the desired location onto one or more trailers by use of a loader/unloader;
c) removing the one or more of the plurality of containers; and
d) tracking the amount of proppant on hand at the location.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further including injecting air into each of the plurality of containers to enhance flow of proppant from the outlet of each of the plurality of containers adjacent the flow gate when discharging proppant therefrom, and stacking the plurality of containers on top of one another so that a bottom of one of the plurality of containers overlies the top of another one of the plurality of containers to thereby define a stack to reduce the footprint of the stored containers.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
before step a), transporting proppant to the desired location for storing adjacent a rail line on one or more railcars, each railcar configured to transport an amount of proppant equal to or greater than the amount of proppant required to fill at least two of the plurality of containers.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transporting includes positioning each of the plurality of containers when proppant is positioned therein adjacent a fracturing operation of a production field.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the tracking including:
tracking the mesh size of the proppant in the containers at a location adjacent the rail line with bar-codes or logging mechanisms.
6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of containers that each has proppant therein includes up to four containers, wherein up to four containers are positioned in the stack, wherein the stack comprises a first stack, and wherein the method further comprises stacking another plurality of containers that each have proppant therein closely adjacent the first stack thereby to define a second stack.
7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising staging a plurality of empty containers at a proppant site.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the outlet of each of the plurality of containers is positioned in a substantially central portion of the bottom of the container, and wherein the tracking further includes performing the tracking with bar-codes or logging mechanisms.
9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
positioning prongs of a forklift in one or more slots positioned adjacent the bottom of each of the plurality of containers in an open space region to thereby enhance lifting and positioning of the containers for stacking and moving the plurality of containers.