PETE 4059

DRILLING FLUIDS LAB REPORT

Experiment No. 1

Yield of Bentonite and Attapulgite Clays

Team 3/Section#3 Daniel Bonadona

Marco Battistel

Date performed: 09/13/16 Date report submitted: 09/20/16

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering
Fall 2016

A. Results

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 Clay Content(%) Bentonite Apparent Attapulgite Apparent
In Freshwater Viscosity at 600 rpm Viscosity at 600 rpm
3 5 3.5
6 17.5 14
8 28.5 35.25

Clay Content(%) in Brine Bentonite Apparent Attapulgite Apparent

Viscosity at 600 rpm Viscosity at 600 rpm
6 5.5 9.795

Density (ppg)
8% Bentonite 8.70
8% Attapulgite 8.70
Freshwater 8.30

Funnel Viscosity water: 26 s

From the chart above, it is apparent that bentonite has a lower apparent
viscosity than attapulgite at large quantities. This is most likely due to the
fact that Bentonite absorbs water by aquagel, has a lowe filtration rate, and
it has a thin filter cake. Attapulgite has a higher viscosity because it is made

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 up of rod like particles (zeogel) that do not hydrate or absorb water. It also
has a thick porous filter cake, and it does not contribute to reducing filtrate
loss.

B.
Comparing our graph to 2.15 in the book in Chapter 2, it is clear that ours is
similar in nature in that the Attapulgite follows the sort of exponential trend
as in the book. Ours differs in that our Bentonite tren is more linear than
exponential. This could be due to human reading errors, but is most likely
due to not enough sample points tested experimentally.

C.
Yield of Bentonite and Attapulgite in Freshwater:
Bentonite: ((350)/(1-.0525))*(0.0525) = 19.39 g
Attapulgite: ((350)/(1-0.0625))*(0.0625) = 23.33 g
To convert to proper units:

Bentonite:(19.39 g * 1.1 * 10-6 ton/g)/(350 mL * 6.3*10-6 bbl/mL) = 0.00967

ton/bbl
Attapulgite: (23.33 g * 1.1 * 10-6 ton/g)/(350 mL * 6.3*10-6 bbl/mL) = 0.0116
ton/bbl

If we were to have 1 ton of Bentonite and 1 ton of Attapulgite, the yield of

the two clays is the following:

Bentonite = 1 / 0.00967 ton/bbl = 103.41 bbl/ton

Attapulgite = 1 / 0.0116 ton/bbl = 86.2 bbl/ton

From the information we obtained during our experiment, the yield for salt
water cannot be computed. We did not obtain enough data points to know
the clay content percentage at 15 cp. With only one data point of
information, we cannot know this number or even try to extrapolate this
number.

D.
Freshwater (cp) 16000 mg/L Brine (cp)
Bentonite 17.5 5.5
Attapulgite 14 9.75

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 By the looks of the graph above, the salinity in the water affects the
apparent viscosity of Bentonite greatly as the viscosity went from 17.5 cp in
freshwater to 5.5 cp in the brine. The viscosity of Attapulgite went from 14
cp in freshwater to 9.75 cp in the brine. Overall, salinity in water decreases
the apparent viscosity in both clays. It affects the bentonite more, though.

E. Book Problems
2.2: Find H+ and OH- concentration of a solution with a pH of 11.6

H+ = 10-pH = 10-11.6 = 2.512 x 10-12 M/L

OH- = (1x10-14)/H+ = 0.003981 M/L

2.20: Find the yield of a clay that requres the addition of 35 lbm/bbl of clay to
1 bbl of water to raise the apparent viscosity of water to 15 cp.

Density of clay = 910 lbm/bbl

(1 bbl water + (35lbm/910 lbm/bbl))/(35 lbm/bbl) * 2000 lbm/ton = 59.3
bbl/ton

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