EFFECT OF CORNCOB CELLULOSE NANOPARTICLES ON SILICATE-BASED MUD AT HIGH TEMPERATURE

Silicate muds have been successfully used in drilling operations in shale formations. However, the application of silicate muds has shown challenges in controlling their rheological behavior. In this work, a low cost, environmentally friendly and high-performance silicate-based drilling fluid was developed using cellulose nanoparticles (CNPs) extracted from corncob. The study investigates the potential effect of corncob CNPs for improving critical drilling mud properties: rheology and filtration loss at high temperature. The extracted CNPs were characterized by a combination of spectroscopic and chemical techniques, such as FTIR, TEM, SEM and Zeta potential. The concentrations of CNPs were varied from 0.1 to 0.5 wt% by the weight of the drilling mud at different temperatures from 150 degrees C to 170 degrees C. The experimental results show that CNPs in silicate-based mud substantially improve both filtration and rheological properties. The CNPs not only improved the rheological properties and reduced the filtration loss behavior, but also bolstered the temperature resistance of the drilling mud formulation. In addition, the shear-thinning behavior of the silicate-based drilling mud with CNPs was measured using Bingham-Plastic, and Herschel-Bulkley models. The results show that the Herschel-Bulkley model adequately describes the shear-thinning relationship between the shear stress and shear-strain rate of the CNP silicate-based mud.