Composition and method for hydraulic fracturing and evaluation and diagnostics of hydraulic fractures using infused porous ceramic proppant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11286418-B2
Application number	US-201916436582-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 10, 2019
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

A composition and method for hydraulically fracturing an oil or gas well to improve the production rates and ultimate recovery using a porous ceramic proppant infused with a chemical treatment agent is provided. The chemical treatment agent may be a tracer material that provides diagnostic information about the production performance of a hydraulic fracture stimulation by the use of distinguishable both water soluble and hydrocarbon soluble tracers. The tracer can be a biological marker, such as DNA. The porous ceramic proppant can be coated with a polymer which provides for controlled release of the chemical treatment agent into a fracture or well bore area over a period of time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making coated and infused porous particulates having a cured polymer coating, the method comprising:
providing a plurality of porous particulates, each having an internal interconnected porosity of from about 5% to about 35%;
heating the plurality of porous particulates;
cooling the plurality of porous particulates to a temperature from 430° F. to 440° F.;
contacting the plurality of porous particulates at the temperature of 430° F. to 440° F. with a chemical treatment agent;
cooling the plurality of porous particulates to provide infused porous particulates having a temperature from 410° F. to 420° F.;
contacting the infused porous particulates at the temperature from 410° F. to 420° F. with a phenol formaldehyde polymer to provide an infused porous particulate having a polymer coating; and
reacting the polymer coating with hexamine to crosslink the phenol formaldehyde polymer to provide the coated and infused porous particulates having a cured polymer coating.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cured polymer coating is a semi-permeable substantially non-degradable polymer configured to permit the chemical treatment agent to elute therethrough.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the chemical treatment agent comprises a scale inhibitor, a hydrate inhibitor, a hydrogen sulfide scavenging material, a corrosion inhibitor, a paraffin inhibitor, an asphaltene inhibitor, an organic deposition inhibitor, a biocide, a demulsifier, a defoamer, a gel breaker, a salt inhibitor, an oxygen scavenger, an iron sulfide scavenger, an iron scavenger, or a clay stabilizer, or a combination thereof.

4. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the phenol formaldehyde polymer has a viscosity of from about 1100 cps to about 1850 cps at 150° C.

5. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the chemical treatment agent comprises a chemical tracer.

6. The composition of claim 5 , wherein the chemical tracer comprises a biological marker.

7. The composition of claim 6 , wherein the biological marker comprises deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA).

8. A method of making infused porous particulates having an epoxy resin coating, comprising:
providing a plurality of porous particulates, each having an internal interconnected porosity of from about 5% to about 35%;
heating the plurality of porous particulates;
cooling the plurality of porous particulates to a temperature from 430° F. to 440° F.;
contacting the plurality of porous particulates at the temperature of 430° F. to 440° F. with a hydrocarbon soluble chemical treatment agent;
cooling the plurality of porous particulates to induce capillary action causing the chemical treatment agent to infuse into the internal interconnected porosity of the porous particulates without the use of a solvent to provide infused porous particulates having a temperature from 410° F. to 420° F.; and
contacting the infused porous particulates at the temperature of 410° F. to 420° F. with an epoxy resin, causing the epoxy resin to coat the infused porous particulates to provide the infused porous particulates having the epoxy resin coating.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the epoxy resin coating is a semi-permeable substantially non-degradable polymer configured to permit the chemical treatment agent to elute therethrough.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the chemical treatment agent comprises a paraffin inhibitor.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the chemical treatment agent comprises ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein chemical treatment agent melts upon contact with the porous particulates at the second temperature to achieve a viscosity of about 1,000 cps to about 5,000 cps prior to infusion into the internal interconnected porosity of the porous particulates.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of porous particulates comprise porous ceramic proppant.

Assignees

• Carbo Ceramics Inc

Inventors

• Duenckel Robert
• Conner Mark
• Cannan Chad
• Cady Daniel
• Leasure Joshua
• Lieng Thu
• Roper Todd
• Read Peter A

Classifications

• C09K8/80 Primary

  Compositions for reinforcing fractures, e.g. compositions of proppants used to keep the fractures open · CPC title

• C09K8/66

  Compositions based on water or polar solvents (C09K8/64 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C09K2208/10

  Nanoparticle-containing well treatment fluids · CPC title

• E21B43/267

  reinforcing fractures by propping · CPC title

• E21B43/26

  by forming crevices or fractures · CPC title