Manufacture Hollow Glass Microsphere (HGS) in University Laboratory Scale (Phase 1)

Abstract

Hollow Glass Microsphere (HGS) can be used as an additive of drilling fluid to decrease the density and hydrostatic pressure without changing the chemistry characteristic to make underbalanced drilling condition. HGS is relatively easier to be mixed with the fluid without complicated equipment, can prevent formation damage, and can improve oil and gas production. There are various HGS commercial products that have been developed in the industry for various purposes with a density range 0.125-1.1 gr/cm3, grain size range 2-120 μm, and compressive strength up to 200 MPa. HGS has been successfully used in underbalanced drilling operation in several oil and gas fields in Indonesia. HGS costs less than UBD and the application shows good results with the improvement of oil and gas production. However, the cost of commercial HGS products in the market is very expensive. Petroleum Engineering Study Program Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) performed the HGS research in three phases. The first phase reported in this paper was to manufacture HGS in the university laboratory scale. HGS was manufactured based on various chemical compositions and temperature and time variation of the burning process. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis were performed to identify and characterize the raw chemical material and manufactured HGS. HGS was successfully manufactured with the following characteristics: low density (<0.8 gr/cm3) and low grain size (20-40 μm). These characteristics show that HGS can compete with commercial industry HGS products that have been successfully used in the underbalanced drilling operation. The second phase is to scale-up manufacture HGS from university laboratory scale to industrial scale. The third phase is to test the manufactured HGS with drilling fluid according to the American Petroleum Institute (API) Spec. 13A and API Spec. 13B-1.