Review and Perspectives of Coated Proppant Technology

Abstract

Conventional proppants have the problem of proppant flowback and the inability to fully distribute along long fractures. To solve these problems, coated proppants have emerged and have been successfully used in many oilfields. Polymers are widely used in the petroleum industry, and one of their functions is for proppant coatings. Polymer coatings can change the mechanical properties of the proppant, improve the fracture conductivity of the proppant, and give the proppant other properties, such as self-suspending, low-density, antiflowback, and hydrophobic properties. This paper reviews the polymers and polymer nanocomposites commonly used in proppant coatings, introduces the performance characteristics of various functional proppants, and describes the latest developments regarding coated proppants, which can be of reference for petroleum workers.

CO2-Responsive Foam (CRF) for Mitigating CO2 Channeling in Heterogenous Reservoirs

“…This shields electrostatic repulsion between negatively charged surfactant head groups. While inorganic salts can reduce surfactant efficacy in some instances, 51,52 the interaction energy between LES and DETA in CRF significantly exceeds that between salts and surfactants, indicating that surfactant effectiveness is not compromised by salt. In such conditions, the solution can form anionic wormlike micelles that are long and flexible, and these micelles may be wound into a transient network, resulting in a high viscosity of the sample.…”

A Study on a New Type of High-Performance Resin-Coated Sand for Petroleum Fracturing Proppants

“…Herein, modified quartz sand was coated with a layer of low-density resin to reduce the overall density of the proppant, thereby improving the suspension of the proppant in the fracturing fluid. The coating accounted for 5-20% of the total mass of the proppant [28][29][30]. The resulting low-cost proppant balances the relationship between a high strength and low density, and no longer satisfies a single function but realizes a composite of multiple functions [31].…”