Development of Coconut Husk Based Drilling Fluid
The significance of using coconut husk in drilling fluid lies in its ability to provide an effective, sustainable, and cost-efficient solution for lost circulation and related challenges. The project purely focused on the development of different variants of coconut husk-based drilling fluid (based on the concentration and sizes of the husk) and a comparative study of the same to use them as a Loss Circulation Material (LCM) in drilling operations. Different lab experiments were conducted on the prepared mud samples and the comparative study was performed by analyzing different properties such as Fluid Loss, Shear Stress vs. Shear Rate, Gel strength, Viscosity, etc.
The purpose of this study was to determine the suitability of using coconut husk as a loss circulation material in drilling operations, as well as its cost-benefit over standard industrial loss circulation materials.
In total, 13 different water based drilling fluid were prepared each containing a different combination of the husk size and concentration. Then each sample of the drilling fluid were tested in the lab and different properties like Fluid Loss, Gel Strength, Viscosity etc. were analyzed and studied.
In nutshell, the study helped achieve following goals:
- To assess the efficiency of coconut husk as a loss circulation material for managing fluid losses.
- To examine the influence of particle size distribution of coconut husk as loss circulation material on effective fluid loss mitigation.
- To investigate the best suitable particle size of coconut husk to achieve lost circulation prevention in cost-effective manner.
