Dewatering of silicate wellbore fluids
AssigneeM-I L.L.C.
InventorsAlan Gilmour, Arvind D. Patel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of treating silicate-based wellbore fluids that includes flocculating at least a portion of contaminants contained in a silicate-based wellbore fluid out of the fluid phase; and separating the flocculated contaminants from the fluid phase. Methods of recycling silicate-based fluids, methods of disposing used silicate-based fluid, and methods of disposing of wellbore fluid waste are also disclosed.
Claims21
A method of treating silicate-based wellbore fluids, comprising:
- flocculating at least a portion of contaminants contained in a silicate-based wellbore fluid out of the fluid phase;
- separating the flocculated contaminants from the fluid phase to create a separated fluid;
- and
- reusing the separated fluid in a wellbore operation.
A method of recycling a silicate-based wellbore fluid, comprising:
- adding a flocculant and a polyelectrolyte coagulant to a silicate-based wellbore fluid containing contaminants therein;
- flocculating at least a portion of the contaminants out of the fluid phase;
- separating the silicate-based fluid from the flocculated contaminants;
- and
- reusing the separated silicate-based wellbore fluid.
(canceled)
A method of disposing of a used silicate-based wellbore fluid, comprising:
- lowering a pH of the used silicate-based wellbore fluid;
- adding a flocculant to the silicate based wellbore fluid;
- flocculating silicate solids out of the fluid phase;
- separating the flocculated silicates from the fluid to form a separated fluid;
- and
- reusing the separated fluid.
(canceled)
(canceled)
A method of disposing of wellbore fluid waste, comprising:
- providing a silicate-based wellbore fluid;
- determining whether additional drilling with the wellbore fluid is desired;
- if additional drilling is not desired, adding a flocculant and an inorganic coagulant to the fluid;
- if additional drilling is desired, adding a flocculant and a polyelectrolyte coagulant to the fluid;
- separating flocculated solids from the fluid to form a separated fluid;
- and
- reusing the separated fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.