EVALUATION OF GREEN FLUID ADDITIVES TO CONTROL FLUID LOSS IN DRILLING MUD

ABSTRACT

In this project, the utilization of agricultural substances (banana peel and soya bean) as fluid loss control additives in the water-based drilling fluid was investigated. This was done in order to reduce the effects on environmental pollution and drilling costs occasioned by commercial drilling fluid additives such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and polyanionic cellulose (PAC). The American Petroleum Institute (API) standard of 25g bentonite to 350mL of water was used as the foundation for the mud composition. The filtration test, the viscosity test and the filter cake thickness was carried out for the prepared muds, according to API standards. Also, an FTIR spectroscopy analysis of the additives used was done to determine the functional groups present if it is harmful to the environment or not. The result showed that the fluid loss obtained in the filtration test in banana peel (40.8ml) at 20g is slightly higher than the value of carbon methyl cellulose (40.6ml) but didn’t meet the API standards. Only CMC (9.7ml) at 2g met the API standards. However, soya beans gave no positive results. The viscosity test gotten from the mud is very low according to API standard value (30cP) except CMC (26.5cP) at 2g which is close. The filter cake shows that both CMC and banana peel at different mass were greater than 2mm specified by API standards. The FTIR analysis showed banana peel may be compared to CMC because they have similar functional groups (O-H, C-O) which may be the reason why it was able to retain water, but soya beans may contain oil which may have not enabled it to retain water. This signifies that banana peel may be considered and not soya bean for fluid loss control additives.