Beneficiating weighting agents

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10167419-B2
Application number	US-201515112906-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2015
Priority date	Dec 7, 2015
Publication date	Jan 1, 2019
Grant date	Jan 1, 2019

Abstract

Beneficiating particulate additives by removing contaminants or minerals that impact the quality and specific gravity of the particulate additives may be achieved via dry solids separation technologies. For example, an air classifier, an electrostatic separator, and a combination thereof may be used to produce a beneficiated particulate additive comprising less than 40% of drill solids by weight of the beneficiated particulate additive.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
centrifuging a wellbore fluid to produce a slurry, wherein the wellbore fluid comprises an oleaginous fluid, a particulate additive, and a drill solid;
removing the oleaginous fluid from the slurry to produce a dried particulate composition comprising the particulate additive and the drill solid;
introducing the dried particulate composition into a dry solids separation system that comprises an air classifier and an electrostatic separator in series; and
separating a quantity of the drill solid from the dried particulate composition thereby producing a beneficiated particulate additive, wherein a first portion of drill solid is separated via the air classifier and a second portion of drill solid is separated via the electrostatic separator; and
wherein the separating with the dry solids separation system that comprises the air classifier and the electrostatic separator in series results in the beneficiated particulate additive:
i) comprising less than 40% of drill solids by weight of the beneficiated particulate additive, and
ii) having a specific gravity greater than the specific gravity of the dried particulate composition.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the beneficiated particulate additive has less than 10% of the drill solids by weight of the beneficiated particulate additive.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oleaginous fluid is an invert emulsion.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the air classifier is a first air classifier, and wherein the dry solids separation system comprises the first air classifier and a second air classifier in series.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dry solids separation system comprises one air classifier and one electrostatic separator, and wherein the one air classifier is upstream of the one electrostatic separator.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dry solids separation system comprises one air classifier and one electrostatic separator, and wherein the one air classifier is downstream of the one electrostatic separator.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
deagglomerating the dried particulate composition before the step of separating.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
heating the dried particulate composition to a temperature sufficient to reduce an amount of the oleaginous fluid before the step of separating.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
heating the beneficiated particulate additive to a temperature sufficient to reduce an amount of the oleaginous fluid after the step of separating.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wellbore fluid is a first wellbore fluid and the method further comprises:
producing a second wellbore fluid with the beneficiated particulate additive.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wellbore fluid is a first wellbore fluid, the wellbore is at a first well site, and the method further comprises:
transporting the beneficiated particulate additive to a second well site; and
producing a second wellbore fluid at the second well site with the beneficiated particulate additive.

Assignees

• Halliburton Energy Services Inc

Inventors

• Newman Katerina V
• Jamison Dale E
• Chauvin Earl Joseph
• Ayapbergenov Yerzhan
• Jackson Brice Aaron

Classifications

• C09K8/03 Primary

  Specific additives for general use in well-drilling compositions · CPC title

• C02F1/385

  by centrifuging suspensions (centrifuges B04B) · CPC title

• B03C3/47

  flat, e.g. plates, discs, gratings · CPC title

• E21B21/065

  Separating solids from drilling fluids · CPC title

• B07B9/02

  Combinations of similar or different apparatus for separating solids from solids using gas currents · CPC title