Spherical pellets containing common clay particulate material useful as a proppant in hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells

a technology of clay particulate material and spherical pellets, which is applied in the direction of sealing/packing, other domestic articles, and borehole/well accessories, etc., can solve the problems of high transportation cost of said proppants, difficulty in manufacturing process, and inability to use ceramic proppants as commonly, so as to achieve more efficient and cost-effective production

a technology of clay particulate material and spherical pellets, which is applied in the direction of sealing/packing, other domestic articles, and borehole/well accessories, etc., can solve the problems of high transportation cost of said proppants, difficulty in manufacturing process, and inability to use ceramic proppants as commonly, so as to achieve more efficient and cost-effective production

US20140274818A1Inactive Publication Date: 2014-09-18BROWNWOOD CLAY HLDG
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  • Spherical pellets containing common clay particulate material useful as a proppant in hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells
  • Spherical pellets containing common clay particulate material useful as a proppant in hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells
  • Spherical pellets containing common clay particulate material useful as a proppant in hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells

Examples

Experimental program
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examples i-iv

[0059]For Example III, a dry ceramic mix of:[0060]4,400 grams of common red clay obtained from Brown County, Texas deposit (“BCH”); and[0061]1,100 grams of three aluminosilicate network modifiers;

were blended for two minutes in the pan of a mixer / granulator (may use Eirich Machines, Inc., Model RV02) with the cylindrical container rotating at about 30 hertz. The pan and rotor were engaged with a fast pan speed and a rotor speed of 40 hertz. Pan rotation was clockwise and rotor rotation was counter-clockwise. The impacting rotor impeller had vanes or deflecting blades of two sizes, 125 mm and 185 mm long. A mixture of 700 grams of water and binder, selected from among cornstarch, CMC, or PVA, was added over a period of about one minute. Speed was increased, immediately after the water and binder were added, to 70 hertz. At 4 minutes, pan is reduced to slow speed and 250 grams of dry retained mixed material were added. At 5 minutes total mixing time, the rotor speed was decreased to 5...

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Abstract

Ceramic propping agents include a plastic clay, aluminosilicate network modifier, strength enhancing agent, and binder. Usable strength enhancing agents can include nepheline materials having 0.1 to 5 percent iron oxide by weight. A resin coating can be used to encapsulate particles of the ceramic propping agent. The propping agent can be produced by grinding the components to the same approximate particle size, nucleating the particles by adding water, growing the resulting spherical pellets by adding additional particles that adhere to the surface of the spherical pellets, and vitrifying the pellets to form the propping agent.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the priority benefit of the prior-filed, co-pending United States Application for Patent having the application Ser. No. 13 / 924,049, filed Jun. 21, 2013, which in turn claims priority to the United States Provisional Application for Patent having the Application Ser. No. 61 / 664,591, filed Jun. 26, 2012. Both of the above-referenced applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present disclosure relates, generally, to the field of hydraulic fracturing, and more particularly, to propping agents (e.g., “proppant”) and related methods.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Hydraulic fracturing, often referred to as “fracking” in the energy industry, is a stimulation technique utilized to increase the productivity of an oil and / or natural gas well.[0004]The fracturing process involves injecting a fluid into rock formations at a high rate and pressure to widen existing ope...

Claims

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Application Information

Patent Timeline
18 Sep 2014
Publication
US20140274818A1
IPC
C09K8/80
CPC
C09K2208/00; C09K8/80; C04B33/04; C04B33/13; C04B35/10; C04B35/18; C04B35/62635; C04B35/62695
Inventors
GEARY, BRYAN DELL; SORRELL, CARLTON FRAZIER