Journal
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Volume 10, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jece.2022.107306
Keywords
Shale gas; Surfactant-free microemulsions; Oil-based cuttings; Cleaning; Drying
Categories
Funding
- China Postdoctoral Science Founda-tion [2020M673581XB]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Oil-based cuttings (OBCs) produced during shale gas exploration are classified as hazardous waste. This study demonstrates the use of surfactant-free microemulsions (SFMEs) for deoiling OBCs, achieving an oil content in the OBCs of less than 1%. The optimum conditions for cleaning OBCs with the SFME have been identified.
Oil-based cuttings (OBCs) produced during shale gas exploration are classified as hazardous waste, and are difficult and expensive to dispose of. Appropriate disposal of such OBCs has become a key issue requiring urgent attention. Here, we have applied surfactant-free microemulsions (SFMEs) to deoil OBCs. The deoiled OBCs, the recovered SFMEs, and the base oil have been characterized. Studies have shown that gentle stirring and mixing of n-hexane/tert-butanol/water (30:65:5 wt%) can form a cleaning agent that serves as an SFME. The oil content of the OBCs after deoiling by SFMEs was less than 1%, and the remaining solid phase showed no hazardous characteristics. The optimum conditions for cleaning OBCs with the SFME have been identified as 30-35 degrees C, a duration of 20 min, a solid-liquid mass/volume ratio of 1:4, and a stirring speed of 200 rpm. Thereafter, samples are optimally dried at 100 degrees C for 50 min. The recovered cleaning agent can be reused efficiently. The recovered base oil was essentially unchanged, except for some contamination with organic additives from the oil-based mud. The deoiling mechanism of OBCs with an SFME mainly depends on the strong solubilization ability of the SFME.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available