Effects of imidazolium- and ammonium-based ionic liquids on clay swelling: experimental and simulation approach

Md Tauhidur Rahman,Berihun Mamo Negash,Ahmed Abdulla Elryes,Alamin Idris,Ibrahim Adamu Umar,David Kwaku Danso

doi:10.1007/s13202-021-01410-z

Md Tauhidur Rahman, Berihun Mamo Negash + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13202-021-01410-z

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Abstract

Water-based fracturing fluids without an inhibitor promote clay swelling, which eventually creates wellbore instability. Several ionic liquids (ILs) have been studied as swelling inhibitors in recent years. The cations of the ILs are crucial to the inhibitory mechanisms that take place during hydraulic fracturing. Individual studies were carried out on several ILs with various cations, with the most frequently found being ammonium and imidazolium cations. As a result, the goal of this study is to compare these two cations to find an effective swelling inhibitor. A comparison and evaluation of the clay swelling inhibitory properties of tetramethylammonium chloride (TMACl) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (EMIMCl) were conducted in this work. Their results were also compared to a conventional inhibitor, potassium chloride (KCl), to see which performed better. The linear swelling test and the rheology test were used to determine the inhibitory performance of these compounds. Zeta potential measurements, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and contact angle measurements were carried out to experimentally explain the inhibitory mechanisms. In addition, the COSMO-RS simulation was conducted to explain the inhibitory processes and provide support for the experimental findings. The findings of the linear swelling test revealed that the swelling was reduced by 23.40% and 15.66%, respectively, after the application of TMACl and EMIMCl. The adsorption of ILs on the negatively charged clay surfaces, neutralizing the charges, as well as the lowering of the surface hydrophilicity, aided in the improvement of the swelling inhibition performance.

Highlights

The exploration and development of unconventional sources have received a lot of interest due to the rising energy demand and the depletion of conventional reserves
tetramethylammonium chloride (TMACl) retained its superior performance with FF in this case as well, which indicates the better compatibility of TMACl with FF. Both ionic liquids (ILs) (EMIMCl and TMACl) showed superior performance to KCl with the FF. These results indicate that the studied ILs are compatible with the fracturing fluids
This is extremely detrimental to effective shale gas extraction due to the formation damage and production constraints

Summary

Introduction

The exploration and development of unconventional sources have received a lot of interest due to the rising energy demand and the depletion of conventional reserves. Shale gas is a key energy source among these unconventional resources due to its large reserve volume. Shales are sedimentary rocks made up of clay minerals (smectite, illite, kaolinite, chlorite, and vermiculite), as well as other minerals like quartz, calcite, and feldspar (Lyu et al 2015). The permeability of these reservoirs is extremely low (10–12 to 10–6 μm2) (Liu et al 2018). Due to the exceptional geophysical properties, the production of oil and gas from shale is not similar to that from conventional sources. With the advancement of technologies such as horizontal drilling and fracturing, the industry is shifting toward shale hydrocarbon production (Danso et al 2020, 2021; Miah et al 2018; Fujian et al 2019; Biswas et al 2020, 2021)

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