Author Identifier
Faisal Ur Rahman Awan
Orcid : https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2394-0735
Alireza Keshavarz
Orcid : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8091-961X
Hamed Akhondzadeh
Orcid : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1056-258X
Sarmad Al-Anssari
Orcid : https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1545-1755
Ahmed Al-Yaseri
Orcid : https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9094-1258
Ataollah Nosrati
Orcid : https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2000-0107
Muhammad Ali
Orcid : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2446-3072
Stefan Iglauer
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Energy and Fuels
Publisher
ACS Publications
School
School of Engineering
RAS ID
31557
Funders
Edith Cowan University - Open Access Support Scheme 2020
Abstract
In subterranean coal seam gas (CSG) reservoirs, massive amounts of small-sized coal fines are released during the production and development stages, especially during hydraulic fracturing stimulation. These coal fines inevitably cause mechanical pump failure and permeability damage due to aggregation and subsequent pore-throat blockage. This aggregation behavior is thus of key importance in CSG production and needs to be minimized. Consequently, such coal fines dispersions need to be stabilized, which can be achieved by the formulation of improved fracturing fluids. Here, we thus systematically investigated the effectiveness of two additives (ethanol, 0.5 wt % and SDBS, 0.001 and 0.01 wt %) on dispersion stability for a wide range of conditions (pH 6–11; salinity of 0.1–0.6 M NaCl brine). Technically, the coal suspension flowed through a glass bead proppant pack, and fines retention was measured. We found that even trace amounts of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) (i.e., 0.001 wt %) drastically improved dispersion stability and reduced fines retention. The retention was further quantified by fractal dimensional analysis, which showed lower values for suspensions containing SDBS. This research advances current CSG applications and thus contributes to improved energy security.
DOI
10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c00045
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Awan, F. U. R., Keshavarz, A., Akhondzadeh, H., Al-Anssari, S. F., Al-Yaseri, A. Z., Nosrati, A., ... & Iglauer, S. (2020). Stable Dispersion of Coal Fines During Hydraulic Fracturing Flowback in Coal Seam Gas Reservoirs–An Experimental Study. Energy & Fuels, 34(5), 5566-5577. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c00045