Cellulose nanomaterials in oil and gas industry: Current status and future perspectives

Abstract

With the increase in global fossil fuel consumption and growing demand for sustainability, the advancement of novel technologies and green materials in the oil and gas industry are becoming critically essential. Given the merits of abundance, cost-effectiveness, and renewability, together with high specific surface area, tunable surface chemistry, and exceptional mechanical, barrier, thermal and rheological properties, cellulose nanomaterials (CNMs) have received enormous interest in oil and gas industry, in an effort to make the oil and gas development more sustainable and environmentally-friendly. In particular, three families of CNMs, i.e., cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), and bacterial cellulose (BC), can be produced via a series of top-down and bottom-up strategies. Lignocellulosic nanomaterials, i.e., lignocellulosic nanofibers (LCNFs) and lignocellulosic nanocrystals (LCNCs), exhibit similar morphology with CNMs, but some tiny globular-shaped lignin nanoparticles can be retained in similarly production to CNMs. Due to the variation in production approaches and parameters, CNMs exhibit distinctive morphology, crystallinity, and surface chemistry, leading to different final product performance. Herein, the classification, production, and properties of CNMs are summarized, aiming to provide a better understanding of the production-structure–property relationships and thus make it possible to more efficiently use CNMs in the oil and gas industry. Then, we overview the recent advances of CNMs in three major sectors of oil and gas industry, i.e., i) upstream - exploration and production, ii) midstream - transportation and storage, and iii) downstream - refining and purifying. Finally, the opportunities, challenges, as well as future perspectives of CNMs and their application in oil and gas industry are outlined.