Investigation of Filtration and Shale Inhibition Characteristics of Chitosan-N-(2-hydroxyl)-propyl trimethylammonium Chloride as Drilling Fluid Additives

Hydrated shale formations often lead to severe drilling problems and may lead to wellbore instability. These instabilities can result in issues such as bit balling, borehole collapse, formation damage, stuck pipe, and low drilling rates. Keeping these fundamental issues with drilling in shale formation in mind, this study is aimed at designing a water-based drilling fluid system for effective shale inhibition, ensuring enhanced wellbore stability and drilling efficiency. The designed mud system comprises a typical base fluid along with newly synthesized chitosan derivative chitosan-N-(2-hydroxyl)-propyl trimethylammonium chloride (HACC) as an additive. This additive was found to be soluble in water and conducive for shale inhibition. The derived product was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Various drilling fluid tests, including filtration and rheological experiments, were conducted to evaluate its proficiency as a drilling mud additive. The results showed improvement in rheological and filtration properties after hot rolling at 100 °C in comparison to a conventional shale inhibitor, polyethylenimine. As we increase the concentration of synthesized chitosan derivative from 0.3 to 1.5 w/v%, the filtration loss is reduced from 40% to 65% as compared to the base fluids. Shale recovery tests were also conducted using shale samples from an Indian field to assess its viability for field application. The addition of 0.3 to 1.5 w/v% chitosan derivative resulted in high shale recovery above 88% to 96% at 100 °C compared to polyethylenimine, which showed a change in recovery from 62% to 73%. HACC intercalates into clay platelets, reducing the interlayer spacing between particles and preventing clay from hydrating and swelling. This mechanism of inhibition is evaluated by X-ray diffraction, FTIR, and zeta potential analysis. This bolsters the hypothesis of using the synthesized chitosan derivative as a shale inhibitor.