Lightweight proppants for deep-gas-well stimulation. Third annual report, July 1, 1981-June 30, 1982

Technical Report · Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6407850

Cutler, R A; Enniss, D O; Swartz, G C; Jones, A H

The need exists for lower-density, less-expensive proppants for use in hydraulic-fracturing treatments. Ceramics, fabricated as fully sintered or hollow spheres, are the best materials for obtaining economical proppants with adequate strength. Fabrication techniques are described for fabricating solid-porcelain proppants and hollow-ceramic proppants. Porcelain proppants made by mix-pelletization techniques have good characteristics for propping wells with closure stresses to 96.5 MPa (14,000 psi). The properties of porcelain proppants are compared with twelve commercially available or experimental proppants. Several of the proppants evaluated had adequate conductivity for most hydraulic-fracturing jobs and are less expensive than bauxite. A single-fluid nozzle, counter-current spray-drying technique was used to make hollow, spherical proppants. Alumina was used as the ceramic raw material for these spray-drying experiments, but the same technique can be used with other ceramic materials. Hollow proppants with strengths comparable to sand have been spray dried but further optimization of spray drying parameters is needed to achieve proppants with concentric voids and improved strength. Bauxite, mullite, alumina and mullite rods were fast fired in a plasma in order to see if it is feasible to sinter these materials rapidly. Fast firing appears to be an alternative method of sintering proppants and may reduce costs, thereby making proppants more cost competitive with sand. 42 figures, 20 tables.

• Research Organization: Terra Tek, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC19-79BC10038
• OSTI ID: 6407850
• Report Number(s): DOE/BC/10038-27; ON: DE83012462
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
BAUXITE
HYDRAULIC FLUIDS
ADDITIVES
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
MULLITE
PORCELAIN
PROPPING AGENTS
FABRICATION
MATERIALS TESTING
SAND
CERAMICS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
NATURAL GAS WELLS
SINTERING
SPRAY DRYING
WELL STIMULATION
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ALUMINIUM ORES
CHALCOGENIDES
COMMINUTION
DATA
DRYING
FLUIDS
FRACTURING
INFORMATION
INORGANIC ION EXCHANGERS
ION EXCHANGE MATERIALS
MATERIALS
MINERALS
NUMERICAL DATA
ORES
OXIDE MINERALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
STIMULATION
TESTING
WELLS
WORKING FLUIDS
030900* - Natural Gas- Artificial Stimulation
Plowshare- (-1989)
360203 - Ceramics
Cermets
& Refractories- Mechanical Properties