IADC/SPE 155578

Biodiesel-based Drilling Fluids

Meishan Wang, Senior Engineer, CNPC Technical Service Company; Mingbo Sun, Professor, China University of
Petroleum(Western China); Hongyan Shang, Professor, China University of Petroleum(Western China);
Songlin Fan, Senior Engineer, Petroleum Engineering Research Institute of Dagang Oilfield Company(CNPC);
Meiquan Liu, Engineer, CNPC Technical Service Company; Fupeng Liu, Engineer, Petroleum Engineering
Research Institute of Dagang Oilfield Company(CNPC).
Copyright 2012, IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology Conference and Exhibition

This paper was prepared for presentation at the IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology Conference and Exhibition held in Tianjin, China, 911 July 2012.

This paper was selected for presentation by an IADC/SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not
been reviewed by the International Association of Drilling Contractors or the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily
reflect any position of the International Association of Drilling Contractors or the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any
part of this paper without the written consent of the International Association of Drilling Contractors or the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is
restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of IADC/SPE copyright.


Abstract
The rheological properties of biodiese and white oil were compared at normal temperature and high temperature in this paper.
The ability of biodiesel to inhibit shale expansion was investigated. The results showed that the rheological properties of
biodiese were better than white oil. Biodiese also showed better resistance to high temperature and shale expansion. Organo-
lignite and vegetable pitch were used to reduce the filtration in biodiesel-based drilling fluids system. The optimum
formulation of biodiesel-based drilling fluids was determined by experiments. In order to simulate the contamination of
calcium and dry soil, CaSO
4
2H
2
O and sodium-based bentonite were added to the system, and the experimental results
showed that the tolerance of biodiesel-based drilling fluids to the contamination of calcium and dry soil is desirable.

Introduction
At present, environmental protection is very important worldwide. Thus environmental friendly drilling fluids are popular
with people. In this thesis, biodiesel-based drilling fluids are developed. The biodiesel is synthesized by interesterification.
Oil crops, wild oil-bearing crops, engineering micro algae, animal fats, and hogwash oil all can be used as the raw materials
of the interesterification. Biodiesel is renewable and can replace mineral diesel. The main component is fatty acid methyl-
ester (FAME). The characteristics of biodiesel are as following
[1,2]
: (1) Maximum of moisture content is 30% ~ 45%, water
can reduce oil viscosity and improve stability
[3,4]
; (2) Relative density is 0.8724 ~ 0.8886
[5]
; (3) Good lubrication
performance; (4) It has excellent environmental friendly characteristics: low sulfur content; low sulfur dioxide and sulfides
emissions; biodegradation rate is high to 98% which is twice to mineral diesel; it can effectively reduce accidental leakage
pollution
[6]
; (5)Good safety performance: high flash point, the transportation, storage and use are safety
[7]
.
The advantages of Oil-based drilling fluids system include excellent lubrication performance desirable, shale expansion
inhibition, good borehole stability and high temperature resistance
[8]
. On the other hand, the disadvantages of nvironmental
pollution, easy to catch fire and higher preparation cost also limit the use of oil-based drilling fluids. However, these
problems can be sovled when biodiesel is used to replace crude oil or mineral diesel in oil-based drilling fluids. Biodiesel-
based drilling fluid not only exceeds the performances of normal oil-based drilling fluids but also show excellent
environmental compatibility. (1) Environmental friendly: low sulfur content, without aromatic alkane, easily biodegradable.
(2) Good safety performance; because flash point is high, biodiesel is not hazardous article. (3) Biodiesel can renewable
which meet the requirements of the strategy of sustainable development
[9,10]
.

Apparatus and procedures
Key rheological parameters, such as plastic viscosity, yield point, 10-min gel strength, and 6-rpm reading were measured
with a six speed rotating viscometer(ZNN-D6). Shale dilatometer(CPZ-) to investigate the inhibitive ability of shale
expansion in biodiesel. Filtration (FL) was measured by the atmospheric filtration instrument (ZNS-2) at room temperature.
The stability of the biodiesel-based drilling fluid at high temperature was characterized by evaluating the performances of the
drilling fluid after aging at 180
o
C for 16h.


2 IADC/SPE 155578
Results and discussions
Rheology behavior.
Usually, white oil is used as base oil in oil-based drilling fluids system. Therefore, the rheology behavior of biodiesel was
studied at room temperature and high temperature compared with 5# white oil. Apparent viscosity (AV), plastic viscosity
(PV) and yield point (YP) of white oil (WO), biodiesel (BO), aged white oil (WO#) and aged biodiesel (BO#) are given in
Table 1. The viscosity of biodiesel is lower than white oil, which is beneficial to the preparation of high density drilling fluid.
The variation of the viscosity of biodiesel before and after aging is smaller than white oil, which indicates good stability of
biodesel at high temperature, so biodesel can be used as base oil of drilling fluids for drilling at high temperature formations.
Inhibitive performance measurements.
The inhibitive ability of biodiesel and deionized water to shale swelling is shown in Fig. 1. The inhibitive ability of
biodiesel is as good as white oil used in oil-based drilling fluids. From this aspect, biodiesel is feasible to be used as base oil
of drilling fluids.
Optimization of filtrate reducer.
The filtration of biodiesel-based drilling fluids is large, since the viscosity of biodisesel is smaller than white oil.
Experiments are carried out to optimize the composition of biodiesel-based drilling fluids with lower filtration. The
composition of 4 samples is shown as follow:
Sample 1: biodiesel 300mL, mass fraction of organo-bentonite is 3%, different mass fraction of organo-lignite(WGF);
Sample 2: biodiesel 300mL, mass fraction of organo-bentonite is 3%, different mass fraction of vegetable pitch(VP);
Sample 3: biodiesel 300mL, mass fraction of organo-bentonite is 3%, different mass fraction of organo-lignite, different
mass fraction of vegetable pitch;
Sample 4: biodiesel 300mL, mass fraction of organo-bentonite is 3%, mass fraction of organo-lignite is 3%, mass fraction
of vegetable pitch is 4%;
The results are shown in Table 2. All the data are measured after aging at 180
o
C for 16h. From the results, it can be found
that vegetable pitch play an important role in reducing the filtration of the system. The effect of organo-bentonite is
appreciable in reducing filtration. The combination of organo-lignite and vegetable pitch can reduce the filtration of
biodiesel-based drilling fluids to an acceptable scale. The optimum formulation of biodiesel-based drilling fluid is: the
fraction of organo-bentonite to biodiesel is 3% by weight, organo-lignite 3% and vegetable pitch 4%. The API filtration of
this fluid is 10 mL whith meets the requirements of the field application. The rheological behavior of biodiesel-based drilling
fluids is good. The PV is small, but YP is comparatively large. Sample 4 shows that the performance of this system is perfect
at high temperature, so it can be used under complicated conditions.
Tolerance to contaminations.
Dry soils contamination to drilling fluids is inevitable in field application. In this experiment, different mass fractions of
Na-bentonite are added into the sample containing biodiesel 300mL, organo-bentonite 3% by weight, organo-lignite 3% and
vegetable pitch 4%.The results are shown in Table 3. The apparent viscosity and plastic viscosity of the system increases
with the mass of the Na-bentonite added into biodiesel-based drilling fluid, but the yield point is almost irrelevant to the soil
contamination without obvious variation. Therefore, we can deduce that the performance of biodiesel-based drilling fluid to
dry soil contamination is stable.
Fatty calcium salt and lecithin are usually used as the emulsifiers in oil-based drilling fluids. The present of divalent salt
is beneficial to form w/o emulsion. In addition, formation water may contain a lot of calcium ion. Here the calcium
contamination is simulated by adding different masses of CaSO
4
2H
2
O to sample as follows: biodiesel 300mL, organo-
bentonite 3% by weight, organo-lignite 3% and vegetable pitch 4%. The results are shown in Table 4. The experimental
results show that the rheologies of drilling fluids are slightly affected, and the tolerance of this system to calcium
contamination is outstanding.

Conclusions
1. Apparent viscosity and plastic viscosity of biodiesel are lower than white oil. The rheological behavior of biodesiele is
good after aging at 180
o
C for 16h. Biodiesel can be used as the base oil to prepare oil-based drilling fluid with high density
for drilling at high temperature formations.
2. The optimum formulation of biodiesel-based drilling fluid is: the fraction of organo-bentonite to biodiesel is 3% by
weight, organo-lignite 3% and vegetable pitch 4%. The API filtration of this fluid is 10 mL whith meets the requirements of
field application.
3. The tolerance of biodiesel-based drilling fluid to dry soil and calcium contamination is good, and the rheological
parameters and filtration are not obviously affected by adding dry soil and calcium into the system.

References
[1] LV Ya, LI Jun, OUYANG Fu-sheng. Effect of biodiesels blending on their low-temperature fluidity [J]. Journal of Fuel Chemistry and
Technology, 2011, 39(3): 189-193.
[2] LIU Wen-feng, DU San-wang, ZHAO Jing. Comparative the Properties of Biodiesel and Mineral Diesel [J]. Chemical of Guangdong,
2010, 37(210): 82-91.
IADC/SPE 155578 3
[3] WU Miao-xin, Wu Guo-ying, XUAN Hui, WANG Da, ZHONG Chang-zhen, WANG Jun-de. Influencing factors of low-temperature
flowing properties of soybeanoil [J]. Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology, 2011, 39(3): 189-193.
[4] WANG Hai-bo, XU Qun-ying. Preparation of several biodiesels and analysis of their rheological behavior [J]. Journal of Fuel
Chemistry and Technology, 2008, 36(5): 570-576.
[5] DONG Fang, DING Ling-ran. Study of Lubricating Property of Biodiesel Blend Fuels [J]. Lubrication Engineering, 2010, 35(6): 112-
120.
[6] JIANG Qing-yang, SUN Ping. A Study on the Environment and Energy Effects of Biodiesel [J]. Journal of Jiangsu University( Natur al
Science), 2002, 23(4): 8-11.
[7] CHEN Xiu, YUAN Yin-nan, LAI Yong-bin. Ignitability of Biodiesel [J]. Journal o f the Chinese Cereals and Oils Association, 2010,
25(3): 73-76.
[8] YAN Jie-nian. Drilling fluid technology [M]. Dongying: China University of Petroleum Press, 2001. 236-261.
[9] SYLVAIN-D IDIER B.KOUAME. Comparative characterization of Jatropha, soybean and commercial biodiesel [J]. Journal of Fuel
Chemistry and Technology, 2011, 39(4): 259-264.
[10] CHEN Xiu, YUAN Yin-nan, WANG Li-ping, LAI Yong-bin. Impact of fatty acidmethylester upon cold flow properties for biodiesel
[J]. Journal of Jiangsu University( Natur al Science), 2010, 31(1): 31-39.


Table 1 Rheological parameters of biodiesel and white oil before and after aging at 180
o
C for 16h

Sample
AV
/ mPas
PV
/ mPas
YP
/Pa
BO
BO#
WO
WO#
6.5
7
13
14
7
7
14
13.5
0
0
0
0

Table 2 Optimized dosage of WGF and vegetable pitch in biodiesel-based drilling fluids system

sample
w
/%
AV
/ mPa s
PV
/ mPa s
YP
/Pa
FL
/mL
1#





2#



3#





4#
1%WGF
2% WGF
4% WGF
6% WGF
8%WGF
10%WGF
2% VP
4% VP
6% VP
8% VP
2%WGF+2% VP
2%WGF+3% VP
3%WGF+2% VP
3%WGF+3% VP
3%WGF+4% VP
4%WGF+4% VP

10
11.5
16
20
25
26
12
19
22
27
19
25
25
25.5
31
35
40
5
7
10
13
19
19
6
12
14
20
12
18
19
19
22
26
35
5
4.5
6
7
7.5
7
6
7
8
7
7
7
6
7.5
9
9
5
68
65
62
55
55
54
25
20
12
11
24
18
23
15
10
10
16

Table 3 Effect of dry soil on the biodiesel-based drilling fluids system

w
/%
AV
/ mPa s
PV
/ mPa s
YP
/Pa
FL
/mL
1
2
6
8
10
26
27
30
32
34
18
18
22
23
26
8
9
8
9
8
8
7
8
8
7

Table 4 Effect of calcium ion on the biodiesel-based drilling fluids system

CaSO
4
2H
2
O
/g
AV
/ mPa s
PV
/ mPa s
YP
/Pa
FL
/mL
1
3
5
26
30
32.5
19
25
28
7
5
4.5
8
7
8


4 IADC/SPE 155578
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time/h
S
h
a
l
e

i
n
f
l
a
t
i
o
n
/
%

Figure 1 Inhibitive performance of biodiesel
biodiesel water