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Publisher Society of Petroleum Engineers Document ID 80221-MS Content Type Conference Paper Title Analytical Methods for Maintaining Quality Assurance of Recycled Fracturing Fluids Authors R. Hanes, M. Parker, B. Slabaugh, J. Weaver, H.G. Walters, Halliburton Source International Symposium on Oilfield Chemistry, 5-7 February 2003, Houston, Texas ISBN 978-1-55563-955-6 Copyright 2003. Society of Petroleum Engineers Preview Abstract Water-based hydraulic fracturing fluids typically use guar or derivatized guar to produce the properties required for proppant transport and fluid-loss control during fracturing operations. Guar is a high molecular weight polysaccharide that is water-soluble, generates good viscosity at low concentrations, and is economical. Lowviscosity base solutions are crosslinked easily with a variety of metal ions to generate highly elastic fluids that have excellent proppant suspension capability. After a fracturing treatment is completed, this highly viscoelastic fluid must be degraded to a near water-thin liquid to facilitate fluid recovery. To accomplish this, the polysaccharide is extensively degraded through the use of a variety of chemical additives that were included in the fracturing fluid formulation. The resulting flowback fluid is not useful, and generally requires disposal. A new hydraulic fracturing fluid, whose rheology is reversible and is controlled by pH, eliminates the need for polymer degradation. Because of this uniform viscosity reversal, the recovered frac fluid volume after well flowback approaches 100%. More importantly, since degrading agents are not required, the recovered fluid can be reused for subsequent fracturing treatments. This process results in reduced environmental demand by decreasing the volume of chemicals required for a fracturing campaign, the volume of water required, and reduced disposal cost. To reuse recovered fracturing fluid, several nonconventional fluid analyses are required to ensure fluid stability and performance quality. This paper describes the onsite analytical procedures developed to analyze key chemical variables required for fluid reconstitution, making frac fluid reuse a reality. Introduction Hydraulic fracture stimulation is a mature process. The first fracturing treatments were performed more than half a century ago and used oil as the fluid. Many innovations in fracturing fluid technology have occurred since that time, evolving into the modern, efficient, conventional polymer fluid systems based on guar gum. Fracturing fluids must accomplish three primary objectives: create a fracture, distribute proppant within the created fracture, and flow back from the well leaving the proppant in the fracture. Much scientific endeavor has gone into creating fluids that optimize these objectives. The principal ingredient of conventional fracturing fluids is guar gum or derivatives of guar. Guar gum is a polysaccharide isolated from the endosperm of guar bean, which is grown in semi-arid regions. The polysaccharide is a linear polymer of mannose with single unit branches of galactose. Mannose units are connected via 1,4- acetal linkages, while the galactose branches are connected via 1,6- acetal linkages as shown in Fig. 1. Typical average molecular weight is about 2.2 million Daltons with an average mannose to galactose ratio of [s1] about [JW2]1:7. Guar gum is a good choice for a fracturing fluid because it is water-soluble, tolerant of the ionic composition of the water, and economical. It provides sufficient viscosity at low concentrations so that proppant can be transported through mixing equipment and pumped downhole. Guar solutions are easily crosslinked with a variety of materials to yield network polymer gels, which have excellent proppant transport properties that suspend and deliver proppant deep into the fracture. The guar gum gels are degraded back to thin fluids by including gel breakers in the fluid system. These breakers generally work by hydrolyzing acetal linkages between the monomer units and breaking the three-dimensional polymer network. Common breakers are acids, enzymes, and oxidizers. Breakers facilitate the removal fluid after the fracture treatment by breaking the gel structure and reducing the viscosity. This polymer-breaking process however occurs during the entire fracturing treatment, causing the fracture fluid rheology and fluid-loss control properties to be in a constant state of change. In many cases, this process limits fracture treatment design. File Size 1,915 KB Number of Pages 8 Language English DOI 10.2118/80221-MS

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