Drying of Drill Cuttings: Emphasis on Energy Consumption and Thermal Analysis

Abstract

Drill cuttings, contaminated with drilling fluids, are characterized by their high moisture content, which can cause problems for collection, storage, and transportation. Additionally, the practice of disposing waste with high moisture content into sanitary landfills is undesirable and mostly forbidden. For that reason, drying of waste with high moisture content, such as drill cuttings, is an essential operation. In this work, microwave and conveyor belt drying processes for drying drill cuttings containing water-based drilling fluids were examined in a lab-scale study. The results of the study indicated that the microwave dryer has been shown to be advantageous in terms of time and energy consumption for drying of thin film layers, while the conveyor drying system was more appropriate for bulk drying.

Special Issue on “Microwave Applications in Chemical Engineering”

“…In view of the problem of the drying treatment of the drill cuttings generated in the drilling operation, in the paper by Tınmaz Köse [8], two drying systems, microwave drying and conveyor belt drying, were used to dry cuttings containing water-based drilling fluid. The differences of drying time and energy consumption between the two drying systems were compared.…”