TY - JOUR
T1 - Stable Dispersion of Coal Fines during Hydraulic Fracturing Flowback in Coal Seam Gas Reservoirs - An Experimental Study
AU - Awan, Faisal Ur Rahman
AU - Keshavarz, Alireza
AU - Akhondzadeh, Hamed
AU - Al-Anssari, Sarmad
AU - Al-Yaseri, Ahmed
AU - Nosrati, Ataollah
AU - Ali, Muhammad
AU - Iglauer, Stefan
N1 - Generated from Scopus record by KAUST IRTS on 2023-09-21
PY - 2020/5/21
Y1 - 2020/5/21
N2 - In subterranean coal seam gas (CSG) reservoirs, massive amounts of small-sized coal fines are released during the production and development stages, especially during hydraulic fracturing stimulation. These coal fines inevitably cause mechanical pump failure and permeability damage due to aggregation and subsequent pore-throat blockage. This aggregation behavior is thus of key importance in CSG production and needs to be minimized. Consequently, such coal fines dispersions need to be stabilized, which can be achieved by the formulation of improved fracturing fluids. Here, we thus systematically investigated the effectiveness of two additives (ethanol, 0.5 wt % and SDBS, 0.001 and 0.01 wt %) on dispersion stability for a wide range of conditions (pH 6-11; salinity of 0.1-0.6 M NaCl brine). Technically, the coal suspension flowed through a glass bead proppant pack, and fines retention was measured. We found that even trace amounts of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) (i.e., 0.001 wt %) drastically improved dispersion stability and reduced fines retention. The retention was further quantified by fractal dimensional analysis, which showed lower values for suspensions containing SDBS. This research advances current CSG applications and thus contributes to improved energy security.
AB - In subterranean coal seam gas (CSG) reservoirs, massive amounts of small-sized coal fines are released during the production and development stages, especially during hydraulic fracturing stimulation. These coal fines inevitably cause mechanical pump failure and permeability damage due to aggregation and subsequent pore-throat blockage. This aggregation behavior is thus of key importance in CSG production and needs to be minimized. Consequently, such coal fines dispersions need to be stabilized, which can be achieved by the formulation of improved fracturing fluids. Here, we thus systematically investigated the effectiveness of two additives (ethanol, 0.5 wt % and SDBS, 0.001 and 0.01 wt %) on dispersion stability for a wide range of conditions (pH 6-11; salinity of 0.1-0.6 M NaCl brine). Technically, the coal suspension flowed through a glass bead proppant pack, and fines retention was measured. We found that even trace amounts of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) (i.e., 0.001 wt %) drastically improved dispersion stability and reduced fines retention. The retention was further quantified by fractal dimensional analysis, which showed lower values for suspensions containing SDBS. This research advances current CSG applications and thus contributes to improved energy security.
UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c00045
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090047831&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c00045
DO - 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c00045
M3 - Article
SN - 1520-5029
VL - 34
SP - 5566
EP - 5577
JO - Energy and Fuels
JF - Energy and Fuels
IS - 5
ER -
