Detectability of smart proppants traced with gadolinium and samarium in the Vaca Muerta formation

Herrera, María S.; Ortíz, Alberto; Hryb, Damián E.; Rendtorff, Nicolás M.

doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2019.04.064

Cited by 5 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Gd1 and Gd5); only some needles are observed in Gd1 sample, in the Gd5 sample the needles proportion is high and comparable to the rounded alumina grains. These needle grains correspond to the observed crystalline phase belonging to the SiO 2 -Gd 2 O 3 and Al 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -Gd 2 O 3 systems [16] (see Section 3.2.). The needle morphology is similar to the mullite grains [28,40,44], under certain condition of growth stress strain induction in material during crystallization, crystals from in which the growth is rapid in one direction, developing filamentary crystals that are presumably free from gross imperfection [42].…”

Section: Sintering Parameters and Textural Propertiessupporting

confidence: 54%

“…They were compared with the pure bauxite sample, labeled BGd0. The mixture formulations range criteria was to obtain an equivalent macroscopic capture cross-section in such mixtures as the ones present commercial traceable proppants [16,23].…”

Section: Mixture Formulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Physical properties of the tagged proppant (e.g., crash strength and conductivity) are unaffected by the addition of Gd 2 O 3 at a low concentration (0.025 % to 1 % by weight of the proppant) (US Patent 8,234,072 B2). The rare earth incorporation increases the thermal neutron capture cross section (σ) of the constituent proppant material and makes it detectable by the depression of the thermal neutron flux, or due to the emitted gamma rays (prompt gamma rays) [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Up to date there is only one traceable proppant (ceramic) available in the market which uses gadolinium oxide [17,18]. The technology has been successfully employed over 200 vertical wells in field operations in the last decade [7][8][9][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…are preferably used in petrophysics, multiplying 1000 times ∑. This can be estimated from the composition density information of the materials [16,18], and (qualitatively) illustrates the detectability of the proppants. Although commercial ceramic proppants, CarboNRT ® , use up to 0.4 wt.% of gadolinium oxide addition in their composition, higher concentrated proppants (ultra detectable) could be easily blended with non-tagged proppants in order to achieve adequate detectable mixtures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High macroscopic neutron capture cross section ceramics based on bauxite and Gd2O3

et al. 2020

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The effect of the addition of Gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) up to 10 wt.% in bauxite was studied and its thermal behavior compared with pure bauxite. The incorporation of Gd2O3 is of technological interest for the design of smart traceable ceramic proppants used for unconventional gas and oil well stimulation. These high macroscopic neutron capture cross section proppants are used to obtain relevant information, such as the location and height of the created hydraulic fractures, through a neutron based detection technology. The study comprised a set of thermal and sintering behavior analyses up to 1500 ?C of mixtures up to 10 wt.% addition of Gd2O3. The developed texture and microstructure was also assessed. A simple mechanical characterization was performed as well. Fully-dense pore-free microstructures were developed, with alumina and mullite as the main crystalline phases. Gadolinium secondary and ternary alumino-silicate phases were also observed after thermal treatment. These present a needle morphology that might result in reinforcement mechanisms. No important glassy phase was detected; although sintering was enhanced, the Gd2O3 oxide main role was found to be as a sintering aid rather than a strict flux agent. The mechanical behavior remained fragile with the rare oxide addition. In fact, the mechanical resistance increased up to 20 wt.% for the 10 wt.% added sample. The oxide addition together with the bauxite dehydroxilation mass loss resulted in materials with up to 1.5 x 105 (c.u.) macroscopic neutron capture cross section materials. The obtained results permit to define design strategies of high macroscopic neutron capture ceramic materials for wellbore and developed fractures description.

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