Investigating the effect of palm kernel shell powder on the rheological and filtration properties of water based mud

Abstract

During drilling operations, the use of drilling fluid plays a critical role, and over time, there has been considerable interest in enhancing drilling fluid characteristics in order to improve performance, reduce costs, and prevent environmental pollution. Deviating from conventional additives, recent studies have explored the use of alternative materials, as drilling fluid additives. In line with this trend, this study focuses on the laboratory investigation of the rheological and filtration properties of water-based drilling fluid treated with Palm Kernel Shell Powder (PKSP) with high viscosity polyanionic cellulose (PAC HV), used as control. To assess the impact of PKSP in water-based mud, experiments were carried out using concentrations spanning from 0.5g to 2.5g, temperatures of 27°C, 40°C, 60°C, and 80°C, and aging of 24, 48, and 72 hours. From the results the plastic viscosity of mud samples treated with PKSP were temperature dependent and also with increasing aging. The addition of PKSP showed improved performance in terms of reducing the filtrate volume as well as the cake thickness with increasing concentration of the additives, and the concentration that gave the best results across all aging duration was 2.5g. The mud weight and pH of all samples remained relatively constant, with no significant changes observed. However, PAC HV showed better results in all the cases of fluid loss and mud cake thickness. It could be attributed to the soluble contents in the PAC HV which increased the viscosity significantly and thus, kept the solid particles in suspension.