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US 12,618,001 B2Granted
Ultra-lightweight proppants
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorsIaroslav Rybkin, Maxim Orlov, Rajendra Arunkumar Kalgaonkar
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Abstract
A system and method for making and using proppant particles includes an exemplary proppant particle which includes a composite of a precipitated polymer matrix and a plant-based material, wherein the precipitated polymer matrix includes a thermoplastic, and wherein the plant-based material includes microparticles.
Claims13
A method for using a composite proppant, comprising:
- grinding a plant material to form particles;
- dissolving a polymer in a solvent;
- mixing the particles into the solvent;
- injecting the solvent into a microfluidic chip;
- injecting a polymer precipitating phase into the microfluidic chip;
- forming emulsified solvent droplets in the polymer precipitating phase in the microfluidic chip;
- and
- collecting particles of proppant after the polymer has precipitated.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.