Experimental Investigation of Limonene-based Environmental-Friendly Emulsion Drilling Mud
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The use of emulsion drilling mud in the oil and gas industry has
gained wide acceptance. However, the disposal of drill cuttings and the
waste of such emulsion drilling mud usually poses environmental
concern. Hence, there is the need to seek oil from biodegradable sources
as an alternative to the current conventional diesel oil which constitute
environmental threat. In this study, limonene obtained from dried peel of
sweet orange was used as the dispersed phase in the formulation of nanomodified
emulsion drilling mud. A Design Of Experiment (DOE)
approach was employed to investigate the extraction of limonene and the
results analysed. Three different mud samples were formulated; the
conventional water-based drilling mud, nano-modified emulsion drilling
mud with diesel oil and limonene as the dispersed phase respectively. The
rheological properties, density, sand content, PH and filtration loss of the
formulated mud samples were tested and compared. The results of the
experiment showed that the formulated nano-modified emulsion drilling
mud with limonene as the dispersed phase followed Herschel-Bulkley
rheological Model with low gel strength and yield point which are
desirable mud property for turbulent flow at low pump pressure for
effective hole cleaning. Also, there is reduction in filtration loss and mud
cake compared to the conventional water-based drilling mud which will
lead to reduction in torque and drag, reduction in pipe sticking, reduction
in hole enlargement and less bit balling.
Keywords
T Technology (General), TN Mining engineering. Metallurgy, TP Chemical technology