Method of making particles having a ridge portion for use as proppant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9932519-B2
Application number	US-201514945795-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2015
Priority date	Nov 19, 2015
Publication date	Apr 3, 2018
Grant date	Apr 3, 2018

Abstract

A method for forming particles having a ridge portion includes inducing flow of a slurry of particles and a reactant through one or more orifices, detaching an amount of the slurry from the slurry flow following exit from the one or more orifices, the detached amount forming a slurry body, forming the slurry body into a particle shape, contacting the particle shaped slurry body with a coagulation solution to form a stabilized particle having the ridge portion, and drying and/or sintering the particle having the ridge portion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for forming particles having a ridge portion comprising:
inducing flow of a slurry comprised of particles and a reactant through one or more orifices;
detaching an amount of the slurry from the slurry flow following exit from the one or more orifices, the detached amount forming a slurry body;
forming the slurry body into a particle shape;
contacting the particle shaped slurry body with a coagulation solution to form a stabilized particle having the ridge portion form a single ring around an entire circumference of the particle, wherein the ridge portion has an average size of from 0.1 mm to 1 cm, and the ridge portion having a curvature of a surface on one side of the ring that is greater than the curvature of a surface on an other side of the ring; and
drying and/or sintering the particle having the ridge portion.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ridge portion is formed by the slurry body floating on a surface of the coagulation solution following the forming into a particle shape.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the inducing flow of the slurry is performed by applying a load to a piston in a container housing the slurry to force the slurry through the one or more orifices associated with an exit of the container, increasing pressure in the container housing the slurry to force the slurry through the one or more orifices associated with an exit of the container, decreasing a volume of the container housing the slurry to force the slurry through the one or more orifices associated with an exit of the container, or pumping the slurry from the container housing the slurry to force the slurry through the one or more orifices associated with an exit of the container.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises forming the slurry prior to inducing flow of the slurry by mixing the reactant and the particles.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the detaching comprises controlling a flow rate of the slurry to permit the detaching to occur as a result of a weight of the amount of the slurry exited from the one or more orifices.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the detaching comprises applying a vibration energy to the one or more orifices to separate the amount of the slurry from the slurry flow.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the forming the slurry body into a particle shape comprises having the slurry body fall a height between the one or more orifices and the coagulation solution.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the particles are alumina-containing particles.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reactant is an alginate and the coagulation solution comprises a calcium salt.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more orifices comprise one or more nozzles or one or more openings of a membrane.

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Huang Jiangshui
• Ortega Andrade Jose Alberto
• Lungwitz Bernhard Rudolf

Classifications

• C09K2208/08

  Fiber-containing well treatment fluids · CPC title

• C09K8/80 Primary

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

• B29L2031/772

  Articles characterised by their shape and not otherwise provided for (closed loop B29L2031/709; ring-like B29L2031/7096; corrugated B29L2016/00, flat B29L2007/00; hollow B29L2022/00; screw-threaded B29L2001/00; toothed B29L2031/775; corrugated tubes B29L2023/18) · CPC title

• C09K8/62

  Compositions for forming crevices or fractures · CPC title

• B29C47/0011

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic