Ahmed Ashraf, Onaizi Sagheer A, Elkatatny Salaheldin
College of Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, 31261 Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Chemical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Research Center for Hydrogen and Energy Storage, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, 31261 Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
ACS Omega. 2022 Aug 7;7(32):28361-28368. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c02890. eCollection 2022 Aug 16.
The release of the lethal hydrogen sulfide (HS) gas during the drilling of sour subterranean formations is of huge health and safety concern. Additionally, the contact of this corrosive gas with handling equipment might result in severe damages and significant economic losses. Accordingly, effective in situ scavenging of HS while drilling is very crucial. Thus, we report herein the addition of monoethanolamine (MEA) to water-based mud with the objective of improving the HS-scavenging efficacy of the mud. The HS-scavenging capacity was evaluated for the MEA-containing mud and compared with the base mud and fluids containing the commercial scavengers, SourScav and triazine. Also, the key mud characteristics including rheology, filtration properties, alkalinity, and corrosion rate were investigated in the presence and the absence of MEA, and the obtained results were compared to those of SourScav and triazine. The obtained experimental results revealed that the addition of MEA to the base mud significantly improved the HS adsorption capacity of the base mud by 117%, compared to 50 and 74% with the SourScav and triazine. Additionally, the pH value of the MEA-containing mud complied with the practical recommendations for drilling in a sour environment. Moreover, the plastic viscosity was increased by 13% to 37 cP with the MEA-containing mud with an insignificant impact on the yield point. Furthermore, the MEA-containing mud showed a favorable zero corrosion rate, as was the case for SourScav and triazine muds. However, unlike SourScav and triazine, MEA did not substantially enhance the filtration performance. Nonetheless, the filtration characteristics of the MEA-containing mud were still better than the base mud and within the recommended practical range for water-based muds. Overall, the results presented in this study reveal that the addition of monoethanolamine to water-based muds improves the mud characteristics and, more importantly, provides a superior HS-scavenging performance relative to SourScav and triazine scavengers, suggesting the commercial relevance of MEA for drilling applications.
在钻探含硫地下地层时释放出的致命硫化氢（HS）气体，对健康和安全构成了巨大威胁。此外，这种腐蚀性气体与处理设备接触可能会导致严重损坏和重大经济损失。因此，在钻探过程中对HS进行有效的原位清除至关重要。因此，我们在此报告在水基泥浆中添加单乙醇胺（MEA），目的是提高泥浆对HS的清除效果。对含MEA的泥浆的HS清除能力进行了评估，并与基础泥浆以及含有商业清除剂SourScav和三嗪的流体进行了比较。此外，在有和没有MEA的情况下，研究了包括流变学、过滤性能、碱度和腐蚀速率在内的关键泥浆特性，并将所得结果与SourScav和三嗪的结果进行了比较。所得实验结果表明，与SourScav和三嗪分别提高50%和74%相比，向基础泥浆中添加MEA可使基础泥浆的HS吸附能力显著提高117%。此外，含MEA泥浆的pH值符合在含硫环境中钻探的实际建议。此外，含MEA泥浆的塑性粘度增加了13%，达到37 cP，对屈服点的影响不显著。此外，含MEA泥浆的腐蚀速率为零，SourScav和三嗪泥浆也是如此。然而，与SourScav和三嗪不同，MEA并没有显著提高过滤性能。尽管如此，含MEA泥浆的过滤特性仍优于基础泥浆，且在水基泥浆推荐的实际范围内。总体而言，本研究结果表明，向水基泥浆中添加单乙醇胺可改善泥浆特性，更重要的是，相对于SourScav和三嗪清除剂，MEA具有卓越的HS清除性能，这表明MEA在钻探应用中具有商业价值。
