TITLE:
Effect of Cassava Starch and Sodium Carbonate on the Properties of Local Drilling Mud: Beneficiation to Improve the Rheological and Flow Properties of Locally Formulated Mud
AUTHORS:
Andrew Odeh, Redemption Edegbe, Eghe Oyedoh
KEYWORDS:
Drilling Mud, Bentonite Clay, Beneficiation, Cassava Starch, Rheological Properties, Characterization, Oil and Gas Reservoir
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science,
Vol.12 No.1,
January
7,
2022
ABSTRACT: Drilling mud is a key component in drilling
operations and in accessing oil and gas reservoirs. Bentonite is applied as a
viscosifier, fluid loss control agent, and as a weighting material in
water-based drilling mud. The type of bentonite used in drilling mud
formulation is sodium bentonite due to its high dispersion properties and high
swelling capacity. Nigeria has a huge bentonite clay deposit resources which
can be evaluated and enhanced in order to be utilized as drilling mud. However,
bentonite clay from different parts of Nigeria was investigated and found to be
calcium bentonite which is not suitable for drilling mud, because it has low
swelling capacity and poor rheological properties. In this study, local
bentonite obtained from Afuze, Edo state was used to formulate different
samples of drilling mud with each treated using thermo-chemical beneficiation
process with sodium carbonate and cassava starch, and then undergo
characterization to identify the changes in physical properties and finally, draw
comparison with API values for standard drilling mud. The results obtained from
this study indicates that, the flow and rheological properties of the
beneficiated drilling mud developed through thermo-chemical treatment, showed
significant improvement compared to the untreated mud. Therefore, pure calcium
bentonite from natural deposits in Nigeria can be modified to sodium bentonite
and sufficiently used in drilling mud formulation.