Biomimicry Surface-Coated Proppant with Self-Suspending and Targeted Adsorption Ability

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Petroleum Engineering
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Proppants are crucial for unconventional oil and gas production, requiring long migration distances within fracture networks.
• Current resin-coated proppants offer good migration and self-suspending abilities but exhibit random distribution.
• Targeted adsorption design is needed to optimize proppant distribution in fractures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and investigate a novel proppant with targeted adsorption capabilities.
• To evaluate the performance of phenolic resin-coated ceramic proppants doped with Fe3O4 nanoparticles.
• To enhance the uniform distribution and efficiency of proppants in unconventional resource extraction.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of ceramic proppants coated with phenolic resin doped with Fe3O4 nanoparticles.
• Evaluation of proppant adsorption on magnetic components within fracture networks.
• Assessment of self-suspending ability, migration distance, and liquid conductivity.

Main Results:

• The novel coated proppant demonstrated adsorption onto magnetic parts of the fracture network, ensuring uniform distribution.
• Self-suspending ability was five times higher compared to uncoated proppants.
• Liquid conductivity increased by 30% at a closure pressure of 6.9 MPa.

Conclusions:

• The developed magnetic proppant facilitates uniform distribution in fracture networks, overcoming limitations of random distribution.
• Enhanced self-suspending ability and migration distance contribute to improved proppant placement.
• The study provides new insights into functional proppant design for optimizing unconventional petroleum and gas production.