Munawar Zaman Shahruddin

Rheological study of nanosilica based drilling fluid

In drilling and well completion operations, drilling fluid is a crucial element as it is employed for the purposes of several functions. The main functions of drilling fluid are to control formation pressure, maintain the wellbore stability, transport the cuttings up to surface to clean the borehole bottom as well as to lubricate and cool the drill bit. Moreover, it is used to minimize the drilling damage to reservoir and suspend cuttings when the pumping is stop, hence it will not falling back down the borehole. The purpose of this study is to formulate new drilling mud formulation modified with nanosilica. Six samples of water based mud (WBM) were prepared using three types of polymers, (Xanthan Gum, Hydro Zan Plus and Hydro Star HT), starch and nanosilica. Basic rheological tests such as density, viscosity and pH were carried out. The density test was carried out using mud balance meanwhile the pH test was using pH meter. The plastic viscosity, yield point and gel strength tests were carried out using viscometer. Besides that, physical observation was also performed for as the stability test. The results concluded that water based mud incorporated with polymer Hydro Zan Plus and nanosilica can be a potential candidate to be commercialized as a smart nanodrilling fluid.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) foam stability dependence on nanoparticle concentration for enhanced oil recovery (EOR)

Foam flooding is an established approach in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) to recover a significant quantity of the residual oil left in the reservoir after primary and secondary recovery. However, foam flooding faces various problems due to low viscosity effect, which reduces its efficiency in recovering oil. Using surfactant to stabilize CO2 foam may reduce mobility and improve areal and vertical sweep efficiency, but the potential weaknesses are such that high surfactant retention in porous media and unstable foam properties under high temperature reservoir conditions. Nanoparticles have higher adhesion energy to the fluid interface, which potentially stabilize longer lasting foams. Thus, this paper is aimed to investigate the CO2 foam stability and mobility characteristics at different concentration of nanosilica, brine and surfactant. Foam generator has been used to generate CO2 foam and analyze its stability under varying nanosilica concentration from 100 - 5000 ppm, while brine salinity and surfactant concentration ranging from 0 to 2.0 wt% NaCl and 0 – 10000 ppm, respectively. Foam stability was investigated through observation of the foam bubble size and the reduction of foam height inside the observation tube. The mobility was reduced as the concentration of nanosilica increased with the presence of surfactant. After 150 minutes of observation, the generated foam height reduced by 10%. Liquid with the presence of both silica nanoparticles and surfactant generated more stable foam with lower mobility. It can be concluded that the increase in concentration of nanosilica and addition of surfactant provided significant effects on the foam stability and mobility, which could enhance oil recovery.

Supported graphene oxide hollow fibre membrane for oily wastewater treatment

Oil and gas industry deals with a large amount of undesirable discharges of liquid, solid, and gaseous wastes and the amounts can considerably change during the production phases. Oilfield wastewater or produced water is known to constitute various organic and inorganic components. Discharging the produced water can pollute surface and underground water and therefore the necessity to treat this oily wastewater is an inevitable challenge. The current technologies for the treatment of this metastable oil-in-water are not really effective and very pricey. As a result, there is a great interest from many parties around the world in finding cost-effective technologies. In recent years, membrane processes have been utilized for oily wastewater treatment. In these work, a graphene oxide membrane supported on a highly porous Al2O3 hollow fibre was prepared using vacuum assisted technique and its performance in treating oily wastewater was investigated. Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared using a modified Hummer’s me...

Polymeric Composite Membrane for CO2/CH4 Separation

Gas separation using polymeric membrane is associated with numerous benefits compared to other separation technologies. This research was conducted to study the separation performance of polymeric composite membranes and to characterize the membranes in terms of mechanical strength and thermal stability. For the purpose of this study, several types of membranes were fabricated by using N-methyl pyrrolidone (79–82 wt%), polysulfone (18 wt%), bentonite clay (0–3 wt%) and agarwood waste powder (0–3 wt%). Membranes were fabricated by solution blending and phase inversion methods. The separation performance of the prepared membrane was identified through gas permeation experiment. In addition, thermal stability of the membranes was analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Furthermore, mechanical strength of the prepared membranes was determined by conducting tensile test. Based on result, the addition of bentonite clay into polysulfone solution enhance the membrane performance in term of gas permeability, strength and thermal stability. In the case of agarwood however, systematic investigations conducted shows that membrane with 3 wt% agarwood waste powder has a lower thermal stability and selectivity. Meanwhile, the performance of the agarwood composite membrane such as mechanical properties and permeability is better compared to Psf membrane.

An Investigation into the Combustion of Mixed Fuel Consisting of Bituminous Coal and Crude Bio-oil

The combustion of bituminous coal, bio-oil, and their slurry mixtures were performed under air atmosphere using Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). All samples were run from room temperature to 110°C and held for 10 minutes before the temperature was ramped to 1100°C and held again for 10 minutes at 1100°C at the heating rate of 10°C/min and gas flow rate of 50mL/min. Kinetic evaluation was conducted using a simple Arrhenius-type kinetic model with first-order decomposition reaction. Apparent activation energy, Ea, and pre-exponential factor, A, were calculated from the modelling equation. Results reveal that the reactivity of CBS fuel is higher than a single coal fuel to which the addition of bio-oil helps to increase the combustion performance of the blends. The optimum fuel ratio appears at 50:50 ratio with equal contribution of coal and bio-oil properties that contribute to the increase in volatile matter causing maximum combustion rate achievable at much lower temperature compared to single coal fuel.

The Effects of Temperature on Rheology Properties and Filtrate after Using Lemongrass as Lost Circulation Materials for Oil Based Drilling Mud

Lost circulation materials (LCM) are used to combat mud loss to the reservoir formation which can cause problems during drilling operation. Difficulties in handling and costly are those challenges faced by drilling operator. Mostly LCM can work better in water based mud compared to oil based mud due to characteristic of LCM itself. Nowadays, most of operator interested in the ultra-deep water due to the limitation of reservesand deals with high temperature and high pressure conditions.Oil based mud (OBM) is more preferable in high temperature conditions compared to water based mud hence a laboratory study was carried out to investigate the effect of temperature on the performance of lemongrass with different sizes in oil based mud. The oil based mud was formulated and tested with three different temperatures which are 250oF, 275oF and 350oF. The lemongrass LCM was prepared with three different sizes which are 150 microns, 250 microns and 500 microns. The sizes distribution of LCM is one of the main contributors to the success of LCM in the formation. The oil based mud samples were tested using Fann Viscometer to determine rheology properties and HPHT Filter Press to investigate the amount of filtrate. It was found that different temperatures and sizes have great effects on the lemongrass LCM in the oil based mud. The optimum temperature for lemongrass LCM is 275oF and with the sizes of 250 microns.

The use of response surface methodology (RSM) in experimental design of membrane treatment in treating PW from oil and gas field

Produced Water (PW) is a byproduct in the production of oil and gas. With various types of heavy metals and pollutants, it may harm human being and marine life. The objectives of this study are; 1) to study the performance of the fabricated membranes and 2) to verify the results by using the experimental design. The PW samples which is from Dulang field is treated using Polysulfone membranes that prepared by casting solutions consisting of polysulfone (PSf), N-methyl pyrrolidone (nmp), Bentonite, and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP). The influence of PVP (0-7wt%) and Bentonite (0-7wt%) addition were investigated in terms of PW Flux (mL/cm2h) and TDS rejection rate (%). The amount of TDS in PW sample is 12g/L and the PSF membrane successfully reduced it up to 14%. The experimental results then used in Central Composite Model (CCM) under RSM which designate parameters (X) as Operating Pressure (bar), PVP (wt%) and Bentonite (wt%) to compute the optimum response condition (Y) as PW Flux and and TDS rejection rate in Design Expert software. The optimum condition achieved by PSf membrane is where the composition of 4.5wt% PVP, 6.0wt% Bentonite and Operating Pressure of 5.0 bar were used. Both methods showed the value of TDS decreased up to 14% after run through the membranes for several hours. Experimental and predicted result (DoE) for optimum condition is then compared to verify the error. The percent error calculated is 2.4% and 25.5% for PW Flux and TDS Rejection Rate respectively.

Relationship between Foamability and Nanoparticle Concentration of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Foam for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

Foam stability can be uttered in foamability measurement and bubble size dispersal. The higher the foamability, the more stable it is. The addition of nanosilica particle to the foam system will further improve the rigidity of the lamellae interface by providing stickiness force between foam lamellae and its surface, halting the film thinning and prevent it from rupture. This paper aims to investigate the stability of CO2 foam with addition of nanoparticle, to find the optimum surfactant and nanoparticle concentration that achieved higher foam stability, to determine the relationship between the foamability and the nanoparticle concentration within the carbon dioxide foam system and also to analyze the effect of crude oil on foam stability. For this experiment, foam generator was used. The concentrations of surfactant were prepared at ranges from 500 ppm to 5000 ppm. The foam stability test was conducted at constant pressure, temperature and flowrate. The nanoparticle was used with set of different concentrations such as 1000 ppm, 3000 ppm and 5000 ppm. It was found that the increases in both surfactant and nanoparticle concentration have boosted up the stability of the foam produced from 92% to 100% foamability and foam durability extended to maximum of 5 hours. The optimum concentration of both surfactant and nanoparticle was 5000 ppm. It is important to determine the relationship between foamability and nanoparticle concentration, so that foam stability, mobility and the morphology of the foam produced can be forecasted with the newly breakthrough nanoparticles technology.

The Viability of Composite Membrane in Treating Produced Water from Oil and Gas Field in Malaysia

As the oil and gas industry grows rapidly worldwide over the years, the production of produced water is also increasing. Million barrels of water are produced each day worldwide. This situation has become a major problem and a to the environment and ecosystem. Produced water contains many constituents such as dispersed oil, metals and chemicals that have a high toxicity and very harmful to the marine life. Therefore, it must be treated prior disposal to the environment or reinjection into the well and formation. There are many methods of treatments such as liquid-liquid hydrocyclone, floatation technology and membrane technology. Membrane technology is quite a new technology for the treatment of produced water in oil and gas industry. This paper is focused on the viability of using composite membranes which are Polysulfone (PSU), Polysulfone-bentonite (PSU-bentonite), PSU-PVP (Polysulfone-Poly vinyl pyrrolidone) and Polysulfone-Poly vinyl pyrrolidone-bentonite (PSU-PVP-bentonite) for the treatment of produced water. The objectives of this study are; 1) to characterize the produced water, 2) to prepare and cast the composite membrane and 3) to investigate the membrane performance in treating the produced water. The performance of the composite membrane were tested by using the produced water as wastewater feed and the best composite membrane is determined by the membrane performance. In the membrane preparation process, a method have been used namely phase inversion method. This research found that technically composite membrane have a good potential to be used in treating produced water from Malaysian oil and gas field. Thus, further technical and economic study on this treatment method is suggested for industrial scale application.

Thermal behaviour of slurry prepared from clermont bituminous coal and oil palm empty fruit bunch bio-oil

Investigation on the pyrolysis behaviour of coal-biooil slurry (CBS) fuel prepared at different ratios (100:0; 70:30; 60:40;0: 100) were conducted using a Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). The selected coal sample was Clermont bituminous coal (Australia), while Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) was used as source of bio-oil that was thermally converted by means of pyrolysis. Thermal degradation of CBS fuel was performed in an inert atmosphere (50mL/min nitrogen) under non-isothermal conditions from room temperature to 1000°C at heating rate of 10°C/min. The proportions of CBS fuel at 70:30 and 60:40 blends were observed to have influenced the fuel properties of the slurry. The addition of bio-oil will shift the temperature region towards early devolatilization. Meanwhile, the thermal profiles of the blends, showed potential trends that followed the characteristics of an ideal slurry fuel where highest degradation rate was found at the blend ratio of 60:40 biooil/coal. These findings can be useful to the development of a slurry fuel technology for application in the vast existing conventional power plants.