Nanocellulose - A Multi-Functional Additive for Drilling Fluid Applications

Global oil and gas industry has been drilling deeper, long horizontal, extended reach and multi-lateral wells in order to tap deeper reservoirs and to increase reservoir contact with the advent of technological breakthroughs as present hydrocarbon reservoirs are getting depleted. Exploration of new hydrocarbon reserves are generally found in challenging geological conditions which are associated with high pressure and high temperature environment. The conservative drilling fluid characteristically comprises of biopolymers such as cellulose, starch and/or xanthan gum for applications such as viscosifiers, filtration loss control additives and suspending agents. The working range of these additives are suitable for conventional drilling. Upon exposure to high pressure and high temperature environment drilling, these additives will undergo degradation and deterioration. Nano chemicals such as nanocellulose display outstanding thermal, physical and chemical properties owing to the well-ordered crystalline structure. Such property enhancements are essential to design a high performance water based drilling fluid systems. Regular acid-digestion procedure will remove the amorphous form of regular cellulose and retain only the nano-sized crystalline part of cellulose. Additional processing and chemical alteration of crystalline nanocellulose can yield to a variety of nano-based products such as polyanionic cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, etc. for several oil and gas drilling applications. In this paper, we have explained the research and development efforts around nanocellulose for oil and gas industry drilling applications including techno-economic analysis of nanocellulose and the capability for oil and gas industry applications.