Ospanov Yerlan Kanatovich, Kudaikulova Gulzhan Abdullaevna
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Satbayev University, Almaty 050000, Kazakhstan.
Polymers (Basel). 2025 Mar 31;17(7):949. doi: 10.3390/polym17070949.
Shale formations pose significant challenges to traditional drilling fluids, including issues such as fluid invasion, cutting dispersion, and shale swelling, contributing to wellbore instability. While oil-based drilling fluids (OBM) effectively address these challenges, concerns over their environmental impact and cost limit their widespread adoption. Nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as a promising frontier for enhancing the performance of water-based drilling fluids (WBDFs) in shale applications. This study examines the effectiveness of water-based drilling fluids (WBDFs) enhanced with a nanocomposite of graphene oxide (GO) and nanocellulose (NC) compared to that of conventional WBDFs. The combination of GO and NC is chosen for its synergistic effects: GO provides enhanced mechanical strength and barrier properties, while NC serves to stabilize the dispersion and improve the compatibility with WBDF matrices. The modification with NC aims to optimize the interaction between GO and the drilling fluid components, enhancing performance in regards to shale inhibition and fluid loss control. This research involved the successful synthesis and characterization of a GO/NC nanocomposite, which underwent examination through FTIR, PSD, and SEM analyses. We also evaluated the filtration properties of water-based drilling fluids (WBDF) enhanced with a graphene oxide/nanocellulose (GO/NC) nanocomposite and compared the results to those for conventional WBDF. Filtration performance was assessed under both low-temperature, low-pressure (LTLP) and high-temperature, high-pressure (HTHP) conditions, and contact angle measurements were conducted to examine the wettability of the shale. The results demonstrated that incorporating GO/NC into the WBDF reduced the filtrate volume by 17% under LTLP conditions and by 23.75% under HTHP conditions, indicating a significant improvement in filtration control. Furthermore, the GO/NC-WBDF increased the hydrophobicity of the shale, as shown by a 61° increase in the contact angle. These findings suggest that GO/NC enhances the performance of WBDF, particularly in unconventional shale formations, by reducing fluid loss and improving wellbore stability.
页岩地层对传统钻井液构成了重大挑战，包括诸如流体侵入、岩屑分散和页岩膨胀等问题，这些都会导致井筒不稳定。虽然油基钻井液（OBM）能有效应对这些挑战，但其对环境的影响和成本问题限制了它们的广泛应用。纳米颗粒（NPs）已成为提高水基钻井液（WBDFs）在页岩应用中性能的一个有前景的前沿领域。本研究考察了与传统水基钻井液相比，用氧化石墨烯（GO）和纳米纤维素（NC）的纳米复合材料增强的水基钻井液（WBDFs）的有效性。选择GO和NC的组合是因其协同效应：GO提供增强的机械强度和阻隔性能，而NC用于稳定分散并改善与水基钻井液基质的相容性。用NC进行改性旨在优化GO与钻井液组分之间的相互作用，提高在页岩抑制和滤失控制方面的性能。本研究成功合成并表征了一种GO/NC纳米复合材料，通过傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）、粒度分布（PSD）和扫描电子显微镜（SEM）分析对其进行了检测。我们还评估了用氧化石墨烯/纳米纤维素（GO/NC）纳米复合材料增强的水基钻井液（WBDF）的过滤性能，并将结果与传统水基钻井液的结果进行了比较。在低温低压（LTLP）和高温高压（HTHP）条件下评估了过滤性能，并进行了接触角测量以考察页岩的润湿性。结果表明，在水基钻井液中加入GO/NC在LTLP条件下使滤液体积减少了17%，在HTHP条件下减少了23.75%，表明在滤失控制方面有显著改善。此外，GO/NC - WBDF增加了页岩的疏水性，接触角增加了61°。这些发现表明，GO/NC通过减少滤失和提高井筒稳定性来增强水基钻井液的性能，特别是在非常规页岩地层中。
