Composition and method for inhibition of sulfide scales

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10633573-B2
Application number	US-201615562852-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 1, 2016
Priority date	Apr 2, 2015
Publication date	Apr 28, 2020
Grant date	Apr 28, 2020

Abstract

The present invention provides a composition useful as a sulfide scale inhibitor for application in oilfield operations, comprising
1) at least one copolymer that comprises as monomers a) 0.1 to 10 mol-%, of structural units derived from vinylphosphonic acid and/or of a salt thereof, b) 40 to 80 mol-% of structural units derived from compounds of the formula (1)

c) 1 to 50 mol-% of structural units derived from compounds of the formula (2)

in which
X is OH or NR3R4, and R3 and R4, independently of one another, are H or C 1 -C 4 -alkyl,
2) at least one of tris (hydroxymethyl) phosphine or a tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium salt,
3) at least one surfactant,
4) at least one amine or ammonium salt.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A composition for inhibiting sulfide scale in oilfield operations, comprising
1) at least one copolymer that comprises as monomers
a) 0.1 to 10 mol-% of structural units derived from vinylphosphonic acid and/or of a salt thereof,
b) 40 to 90 mol-% of structural units derived from compounds of the formula (1)

c) 1 to 50 mol-% of structural units derived from compounds of the formula (2)

in which
X is OH or NR3R4, and R3 and R4, independently of one another, are H or C 1 -C 4 -alkyl,
2) at least one of tris (hydroxymethyl) phosphine or a tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)-phosphonium salt,
3) at least one surfactant, and
4) at least one amine or ammonium salt,
wherein the number average molecular weight of the at least one copolymer is from 100,000 to 10,000,000 g/mol, as determined by GPC against polyacrylic acid as the standard.

2. The composition according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one hydrogen sulfide scavenger as component 5).

3. The composition according to claim 2 , wherein the hydrogen sulfide scavenger is selected from the group consisting of
a) triazine compounds of the formula (13):

wherein
R 12 is independently selected from the group consisting of C 1 to C 2O straight alkyl groups, branched alkyl groups, and —R 13 OH, where R 13 is a C 1 to C 2O straight or branched alkylene group,
b) hemi-acetal compounds of the formula
R 14 R 15 C(OH)OR 16   (13a)

wherein
R 14 , R 15 or R 16 are hydrogen or C 1 to C 20 straight or branched alkyl groups,
c) hydantoins,
d) glyoxal, and
e) zinc carboxylates.

4. The composition according to claim 3 , wherein the scavenger is selected from the group consisting of 1, 3, 5 Hexahydrotriethanol-1, 3, 5 Triazine

(ethylenedioxy) dimethanol (EDDM)

and
and dimethyloldimethylhydantoin (DMDMH)

5. The composition according to claim 3 , wherein the amount of the hydrogen sulfide scavenger is from 1 to 20 wt.-%.

6. The composition according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one scale inhibitor and/or at least one corrosion inhibitor as component 6).

7. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the copolymer further comprises 1 to 10 mol-%, based on the total copolymer composition, of structural units of formula (3)

in which
n is 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.

8. The composition according to claim 7 , wherein the copolymer comprises from 1 to 10 mol-% of the structural units of formula (3).

9. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the copolymer further comprises 1 to 10 mol-%, based on the total copolymer composition, of structural units of formula (4)

in which
R 1 and R 2 , independently of one another, are hydrogen or C 1 -C 4 -alkyl.

10. The composition according to claim 9 , wherein the copolymer comprises 1 to 10 mol-% of the structural units of formula (4).

11. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the copolymer comprises less than 1 mol-% of monomers comprising an olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon substituted ammonium salt group.

12. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the copolymer comprises from 0.8 to 6 mol-% structural units of vinylphosphonic acid.

13. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the copolymer comprises from 45 to 70 mol-% of structural units according to formula (1).

14. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the copolymer comprises from 5 to 45 mol-% of structural units of the formula (2).

15. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein formula (2) represents acrylic acid and/or acrylamide.

16. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein formula (2) represents both acrylic acid and acrylamide, and wherein the proportion of acrylic acid is from 1 to 10 mol-% and the proportion of acrylamide is from 4 to 35 mol-%.

17. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the molecular weights (number average) of the copolymers are from 200,000 to 10,000,000 g/mol, as determined by GPC against polyacrylic acid as standard.

18. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein a tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium salt is used.

19. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the surfactant contains an aliphatic or an aromatic residue having 8 to 22 carbon atoms, and 5 to 20 ethoxy groups.

20. The composition according to claim 19 , wherein the surfactant is an ethoxylated aliphatic alcohol, an ethoxylated aromatic alcohol or an ethoxylated amine.

21. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the surfactant is an anionic surfactant selected from the group consisting of sulfosuccinates, phosphate esters, and alkyl ether sulfonates.

22. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the surfactant is a cationic surfactant selected from the group consisting of quaternary alkylammonium compounds.

23. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the surfactant is an amphoteric surfactant selected from the group consisting of betaines and sultaines.

24. The composition according to claim 1 , wherein the surfactant is a N-Alkyl-N-acylglucamine of the formula (8)

wherein
Ra is a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated C 5 -C 21 -hydrocarbon residue, and
Rb is a C 1 -C 4 alkyl residue.

25. The composition according to claim 1 , further comprising a hydrotrope selected from the group consisting of
a) water soluble glycol ethers of the formula (7)
HO[CR 10 CR 10 O] p R 11   (7)

wherein
R 10 are methyl, ethyl or preferably H, provided that the total number of carbon atoms per [CR 10 CR 10 O] group does not exceed 4,
R 11 is a lower hydrocarbon group such that the compound is water soluble,
p is from 1 to 20,

b) alkyl aryl sulfonates with C 1 to C 4 alkyl and C 6 to C 10 aryl groups, and
c) urea.

26. The composition according to claim 1 , further comprising a scale inhibitor selected from the group consisting of 1-hydroxyethane-1,1-diphosphonates, diethylenetriamine penta(methylene phosphonic acid), nitrilo(methylene phosphonic acid), methacrylic diphosphonate homopolymer, polymaleates, polyacrylates, polymethacrylates, polyphosphates, phosphate esters, acrylic acid-allyl ethanolamine diphosphonate copolymer, sodium vinyl sulfonate-acrylic acid-allyl ammonia diphosphonate terpolymer, acrylic acid-maleic acid-diethylene triamine) allyl phosphonate terpolymer and polycarboxylates.

27. The com

Assignees

• Clariant Int Ltd

Inventors

• Okocha Cyril Emeka
• Wylde Jonathan

Classifications

• C09K2208/20

  Hydrogen sulfide elimination · CPC title

• C09K8/532 Primary

  Sulfur · CPC title

• C02F2101/101

  Sulfur compounds · CPC title

• C02F2303/22

  Eliminating or preventing deposits, scale removal, scale prevention (C02F1/042, C02F1/4602, C02F5/00 take precedence) · CPC title

• C02F5/14

  containing phosphorus · CPC title