Experimental Study of Sulfonate Gemini Surfactants as Thickeners for Clean Fracturing Fluids

Shanfa Tang, Yahui Zheng, Weipeng Yang, Jiaxin Wang, Yingkai Fan and Jun Lu
Additional contact information
Shanfa Tang: Hubei Cooperative Innovation Center of Unconventional Oil and Gas in Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China
Yahui Zheng: School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China
Weipeng Yang: McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA
Jiaxin Wang: School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China
Yingkai Fan: School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China
Jun Lu: McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Hydraulic fracturing is one of the important methods to improve oil and gas production. The performance of the fracturing fluid directly affects the success of hydraulic fracturing. The traditional cross-linked polymer fracturing fluid can cause secondary damage to oil and gas reservoirs due to the poor flow-back of the fracturing fluid, and existing conventional cleaning fracturing fluids have poor performance in high temperature. Therefore, this paper has carried out research on novel sulfonate Gemini surfactant cleaning fracturing fluids. The rheological properties of a series of sulfonate Gemini surfactant (DSm-s-m) solutions at different temperatures and constant shear rate (170 s −1 ) were tested for optimizing the temperature-resistance and thickening properties of anionic Gemini surfactants in clean fracturing fluid. At the same time, the microstructures of solutions were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The experimental results showed that the viscosity of the sulfonate Gemini surfactant solution varied with the spacer group and the hydrophobic chain at 65 °C and 170 s −1 , wherein DS18-3-18 had excellent viscosity-increasing properties. Furthermore, the microstructure of 4 wt.% DS18-3-18 solution demonstrated that DS18-3-18 self-assembled into dense layered micelles, and the micelles intertwined with each other to form the network structure, promoting the increase in solution viscosity. Adding nano-MgO can increase the temperature-resistance of 4 wt.% DS18-3-18 solution, which indicated that the rod-like and close-packed layered micelles were beneficial to the improvement of the temperature-resistance and thickening performances of the DS18-3-18 solution. DS18-3-18 was not only easy to formulate, but also stable in all aspects. Due to its low molecular weight, the damage to the formation was close to zero and the insoluble residue was almost zero because of the absence of breaker, so it could be used as a thickener for clean fracturing fluids in tight reservoirs.

Keywords: sulfonate gemini surfactant; thickener; temperature-resistance; clean fracturing fluid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/11/3182/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/11/3182/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:11:p:3182-:d:183342

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().