Crosslinked Coated Proppants for Flowback Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for preventing proppant flowback and fines migration in hydraulic fracturing often require expensive special proppants or resin cementing, which can reduce porosity and conductivity, and are difficult to use in remedial treatments due to resin accumulation in pores, and fail to capture fines effectively.
Innovation Solution
The use of crosslinked zeta potential altering coated proppants with aggregating and crosslinking compositions that form deformable coatings on proppant surfaces, increasing aggregation and agglomeration propensities to create stable clusters or pillars, which are consolidated using metal salts, enhancing thermal and mechanical properties and preventing flowback and fines migration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If resin cementing is used to prevent proppant flowback, then proppant flowback is reduced, but porosity and conductivity are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses crosslinked polymeric coatings that form porous structures on proppant surfaces, allowing fluid flow through the coating while maintaining proppant consolidation. This resolves the contradiction by providing flowback prevention through the porous coating structure while preserving conductivity through the porous network that allows fluid passage.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates composite proppant structures by coating proppant particles with crosslinked polymeric materials. The composite structure combines the mechanical strength of the proppant core with the adhesive and consolidating properties of the polymeric coating, achieving flowback prevention while maintaining conductivity through proper coating design.
2Strength
If resin cementing is used to consolidate proppant, then proppant pack strength is improved, but fines migration control is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the chemical parameters of the coating material to include zeta potential altering compositions that specifically address fines migration. By adjusting the surface charge properties through crosslinked polymeric coatings with appropriate zeta potential, the invention simultaneously achieves proppant pack strength and fines migration control.
Solution Approach 2:
The crosslinked polymeric coating serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides mechanical strength for flowback prevention, creates a consolidated proppant pack structure, and alters zeta potential to control fines migration. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by addressing both strength and fines migration control with a single coating system.
3Reliability
If special proppants are used to prevent flowback, then flowback control is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses cost-effective crosslinked polymeric coatings that can be applied to standard proppant materials rather than requiring expensive special proppants. The coating provides the necessary flowback control functionality at lower material cost, resolving the contradiction between flowback control reliability and treatment cost.
4Stability of the object's composition
If in situ consolidation with liquid thermoset resin is used, then proppant binding is achieved, but conductivity is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The invention employs porous crosslinked polymeric coatings that maintain open structures allowing fluid flow. The porous architecture provides proppant binding through consolidation while preserving conductivity channels, resolving the contradiction between binding stability and productivity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach effectively consolidates proppant packs, prevents proppant flowback, and reduces fines migration, maintaining high fracture conductivity and allowing higher drawdown rates, while being cost-effective and suitable for remedial treatments.
Implementation Method 1
zeta potential altering coated proppants with aggregating and crosslinking compositions that form deformable coatings on proppant surfaces, increasing aggregation and agglomeration propensities
Implementation Method 2
consolidated using metal salts, enhancing thermal and mechanical properties
Data Source
AI summary
Compositions include (1) aggregating compositions capable of forming deformable partial or complete coatings on formation surfaces, formation particle surfaces, downhole fluid solid surfaces, and/or proppant surfaces, where the coatings increase aggregation and/or agglomeration propensities of the particles and surfaces to form particles clusters or pillars having deformable coatings, and (2) aggregation stabilizing and/or strengthening compositions capable of altering properties of the coated clusters or pillars to form consolidated, stabilized, and/or strengthened clusters or pillars. Methods for stabilizing aggregated particle clusters or pillars include (1) treating the particles with an aggregating composition to form aggregated clusters or pillars and (2) treating the aggregated particle clusters or pillars with a stabilizing or strengthening composition to form consolidated, stabilized, and/or strengthened clusters or pillars.