Abstract
The research has shown successful application of ionic liquids (ILs) as drilling fluid additives for modifying the mud rheology. Ionic liquids are tuneable solvents comprising of hundreds of combination of various cations and anions. The cationic portion mainly comprises of a side alkyl chain which plays an important role in altering the drilling fluid properties. This review mainly focusses on finding the impact of alkyl chain length on yield point, plastic viscosity and filtration properties of water based mud at room temperature. The paper also incorporates the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis carried out on various ionic liquids by different research groups which confirms how the intercalation between ionic liquid and Na-Bt (Sodium Bentonite) changes the structure of clay and thus alters the rheology of the mud. It can be concluded that ionic liquids act as rheology modifiers by intercalating between the clay layers and thus changing the d-spacing of the clay. Moreover, the hydrophobicity, polarity and solubility of alkyl chain play an important role in altering the wettability and dispersion behavior of clay which modify the filtration as well as rheological properties of the mud.
Highlights
In carrying a successful and optimized drilling operation, the most crucial factor is the design of the drilling mud (Junqueira et al 2003; Barton 2014)
Many researchers are utilizing the application of ionic liquids as a drilling fluid additive for improving the mud rheology
“Ionic liquids as drilling fluid additives” section will discuss in detail the effect of alkyl chain length of ionic liquids on yield point, plastic viscosity and filtration properties of the drilling mud
Summary
In carrying a successful and optimized drilling operation, the most crucial factor is the design of the drilling mud (Junqueira et al 2003; Barton 2014). Rheology generally deals with the non-Newtonian fluids such as drilling mud which shows shear thinning behavior (Kulkarni et al 2019; Welahettige et al 2019). Ionic liquids due to their various applications are being used as a drilling fluid additives as rheology modifiers (Luo et al 2017a, b). Many researchers are utilizing the application of ionic liquids as a drilling fluid additive for improving the mud rheology. The survey on the literature of the utilization of Ionic liquid as a drilling fluid additive for rheology modifier has led to the conclusion there is not much work done in this domain. In this paper, application of ionic liquid as a function of its alkyl chain length for WBM (water-based mud) has been reviewed from the very limited literature available
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