Martin, C., Nourian, A., Babaie, M. orcid.org/0000-0002-8480-940X et al. (1 more author) (2024) Innovative drilling fluid containing sand grafted with a cationic surfactant capable of drilling high pressure and high temperature geothermal and petroleum wells. Geoenergy Science and Engineering, 237. 212767. ISSN 2949-8929
Abstract
Maintaining the rheology and filtration properties of a drilling fluid plays a vital role during a drilling operation. With the current challenges of high pressure and high temperature environments, there is an urgent need to design thermally stable water-based mud systems (WBM) which are environmentally clean and economically cheap. High pressure and high temperature (HPHT) environments affect drilling fluid systems leading to degradation of additives hence reducing the efficiency of the drilling fluid. Nanotechnology has been widely used to answer questions about additive degradation, and many studies are currently being conducted on how to use nanotechnology to design smart drilling fluids. However, nanotechnology comes at a high cost, resulting in an increase in the overall drilling operation costs and the project as a all. Therefore, the effectiveness of sand particles as a replacement of commercial nanoparticles is investigated in this study as an additive for designing effective-performance water-based drilling fluids. Effective-performance drilling fluids are environmentally friendly, stable at high temperatures, and help to avoid well damage during drilling operations. The research compared sand particles, which are widely available and inexpensive to silica nanoparticles at 0.5 wt% concentration. The samples were tested at different aging temperatures. Rheological properties were measured at room temperature up to 232 °C. The performance of sand and silica nanoparticles was studied by comparing each of the nanoparticle muds with the reference mud sample, taking filtration and rheological properties as the benchmark parameters. Experimental data showed that sand particles enhanced almost all the rheological and filtration properties of the WBM compared to the reference mud. When compared to silica nanoparticles, the results showed neither statistically significant variance in plastic viscosity and yield point among the samples, with muds containing sand particles performing similarly or better. Formulation S2 (35–70 μm) demonstrated the ability to improve the rheology of WBM. At 204 °C and 232 °C, Formulation S2 (35–70 μm) filtrate loss decreased by 16.35% and 29.52%, respectively, compared to 5.66% and 11.32% by mud containing nano silica. The same mud sample decreased the mud cake thickness at the same temperatures conditions by 54.74% and 45.45%, respectively, as opposed to 36.84% and 11.81%. The new innovative mud system can be used to drill in HPHT conditions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Geothermal drilling fluid, Nano sand, Rheological properties, HPHT, Cationic surfactant |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Thermofluids, Surfaces & Interfaces (iETSI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 03 Oct 2024 10:38 |
Last Modified: | 03 Oct 2024 10:38 |
Published Version: | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.geoen.2024.212767 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:217862 |