Drilling fluid is considered the backbone of drilling operations in the oil and gas industry to unlock hydrocarbon from subterranean formations. Maintaining the drilling fluid properties, for example, flow properties such as rheology, plastic viscosity (PV), yield point (YP), gel strength (GS), and circulation loss, is the challenge for fluid/mud engineers to carry out successful drilling operations. A variety of chemicals have been added to improve the drilling fluid properties by introducing new chemicals(s) or optimizing the existing chemicals without affecting the other essential fluid properties. The present study for the first time employs the eco-innovation concept to explore the utilization of steelmaking industry waste, i.e. silicomanganese fume (SMF), as bridging material. The objective of this article is to design an eco-friendly framework that comprehensively explains and utilizes SMF as a bridging material in water-based fluid (WBF). The eco-innovation/eco-friendly framework includes the steps required for processing and understanding the new material and evaluating its effects on flow and the bridging properties of WBF. A scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and particle size distribution (PSD) were used to understand the physiochemical properties of SMF. The flow properties were studied using a Fann rheometer before and after hot rolling at 120 °F. A high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) filter press equipment was used to investigate the bridging capability of seepage losses following conditions of 190 °F and 300 psi differential pressure. Minimal cleaning and disintegration with a mortar and pestle are enough to prepare SMF to be incorporated in drilling fluid. The SEM and XRF results showed that SMF contains oxides of manganese, silicon, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, while the PSD revealed a natural bimodal distribution with an average grain size of D50 of around 29 microns. SMF showed a noticeable and measurable enhancement of flow properties and bridging capability in WBF. The SMF-based WBF showed improved rheological properties, plastic viscosity, and yield point compared to marble-based WBF. Adding SMF to WBF with and without marble showed a ten-fold superior plugging performance compared to marble-based WBF using 20-micron ceramic discs. The findings revealed the successful utilization of SMF in WBF by improving the rheology, plastic viscosity, yield point, and bridging capability.
Steelmaking industrial waste, that is, silicomanganese fume (SMF), is one of the byproducts obtained during the steelmaking process in an electric submerged arc furnace at 1500 °C. Millions of tons of such wastes are generated yearly and used in different applications such as road construction, cement mortar, recycling into sinter plant, and so forth. In this study, the application of SMF in the drilling operations was investigated by employing SMF as a bridging material (BM) in waterbased drilling fluid (WBF). The SMF samples were collected and drysieved, and then, the retained particles on each mesh were examined for elemental analysis. Thereafter, a battery of tests was performed using the WBF-SMF system comprising different SMF grades and mixed grades to investigate their bridging performance. The commercial BM (marble) was used as a reference fluid (WBF-marble system) for comparative investigation. The bridging performance of WBF-SMF and WBFmarble systems was tested and compared at 190 °F and 300 psi testing conditions using 10, 12, 20, and 50 μm ceramic discs. The processing techniques have shown that raw SMF does not require prolonged processing steps like the other waste material requires. All the SMF grades have shown homogenous chemical composition in oxides of manganese, silicon, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, and iron. Moreover, the WBF-SMF system have shown substantial improvement in bridging and sealing performance with average 47, 42, 84, and 75% superior fluid loss performance against 10, 12, 20, and 50 μm ceramic discs, respectively, compared to the WBFmarble system. While comparing the filter cake thickness, the WBF-SMF system has deposited a filter cake with more than 50% reduction in thickness compared to the WBF-marble system for different ceramic-disc sizes. Consequently, this study has introduced SMF as a novel BM with a unique particle size distribution that can be used in WBFs to plug formation pores effectively. In addition, this waste material (SMF) has been investigated as an economical, effortless, readily available, and high-performance material compared to other commonly used BMs.
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