Wasted Drilling Mud Processing Solutions for Synthetic-based drilling fluid

Over the past few decades, oil and gas industry has been made every effort and taken various measures to try to minimize drilling waste generation in order to better protect the environment and public safety. Until recent years, the drilling waste management, also called drilling waste disposal, has made great success.

There are three phases in drilling operations which are environmentally beneficial to deal with waste disposal of drilling waste. In the first phase, the operator adjusts or replaces suitable drilling fluid instead of the drilling fluids tending to damage the environment, which is favorable to minimize the drilling process waste generation. This method will not only reduce waste disposal costs for the operator, but also achieve the purpose of environment friendly effect. The second phase focuses on drilling waste recycling on the basis of primary processed drilling mud. Third phase, through proper manner, deal with drilling waste which cannot be recycled.

Offshore drilling waste disposal is limited to take the methods of emissions, reinjection or shipping back to shore processing. In contrast, the operator has a large range of options when dealing with drilling waste in on shore drilling. Usually onshore drilling waste is treated on-site processing. In offshore platforms, most water -based mud and cuttings and synthetic-based mud and cuttings liquid is poured into the sea directly; some onshore drilling waste is transported to the outside of well site business waste disposal site. Offshore oil-based mud and cuttings must be shipped back to shore processing or at the well site place reinjection into the ground. In the 1990s, specialized and variety of new non- water-based drilling fluid is introduced by many drilling mud companies.

These liquids include internal olefins, esters, linear α- olefin, poly- α- olefins and linear paraffin. Synthetic-based drilling fluid mud has the characteristics of oil-based mud, but it does not contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Meanwhile, it is of low toxicity, rapid biodegradability and low bioaccumulative. Synthetic-based mud cuttings are not as pollutional as oil-based mud which causes environmental impact on the seabed. Compared to water base mud, synthetic base fluid mud is more stable, cleaner than water-based mud.

Several well-developed and fully-improved drilling waste management equipment are adopted in operation. For example, Vertical Centrifuge (VC) can reduce the OOC of drilling cuttings to be as low as 5% (which is currently the discharge limit) by weight or even less. The hi-g dryer can be used to recover drilling mud cuttings from water-based or oil-based drilling mud. Screw pump and screw conveyor are also auxiliary units for drilling waste disposal.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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