Evaluation of pH of Drilling Fluid Produced from Local Clay and Additives

Abstract

Maintaining the pH of drilling fluid with suitable additives is one of the important operation for efficient drilling operations. However, commercial hydroxides are mostly used to control the pH of the drilling fluid. This paper evaluates locally sourced pH additives of burnt plantain heads (BPH), burnt ripe burnt ripe plantain peels (BRPP), and burnt banana plantain peels (BBPP) in comparison with conventional potassium hydroxide (KOH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as suitable agents to control pH of drilling fluid. The drilling fluid as prepared with bentonite and local clay in different concentrations of KOH, NaOH, BPH, BRPP and BBRPP including Traona. The result of the study showed that pH of the drilling improved with respective use of conventional KOH, NaOH, BPH, BRPP and BBRPP as additives. In addition, KOH showed the maximum percentage of degree (%) of improvement on the drilling fluid with 38.46-45.45% compared with 27.2-40% for NaOH. On the other hand, BRPP achieved 27.2-41.2%, followed with 20-33% and 20-29.4% for BPH and BBPP respectively. Thus, the locally sourced additives could be used to enhance the pH and properties of drilling fluid.