Abstract
Steelmaking is an energy-intensive process that generates considerable amounts of by-products and wastes, which often pose major environmental and economic challenges to the steel-making industry. One of these by-products is steel dust that is produced during the separation of impurities in the smelting and refining of metals in steel-making furnaces. In this study, electric arc furnace (EAF) dust has been evaluated as a potential, low-cost additive to increase the viscosity and weight of drilling muds. Currently, the cost of drilling operations typically accounts for 50 to 80% of the exploration costs and about 30 to 80% of the subsequent field development costs. Utilization of steelmaking waste in drilling fluids formulations is aimed to produce new and optimized water-based drilling formulations, which is expected to reduce the amount of bentonite and other viscosifier additives used in the drilling formulations. The results showed that in a typical water-based drilling fluid of 8.6 ppg (1030.51 kg/m3), the amount of standard drilling grade bentonite could be reduced by 30 wt.% with the addition of the proposed new additive to complete the required mud weight. The mixture proved to be stable with no phase separation.
Highlights
The steel-making process produces large amounts of steel dust, which are reported to be as high as2–4 tons for each ton of steel produced [1]
The proposed formula with the utilization of steel-making waste in drilling fluids is expected to reduce the amount of bentonite and other costly additives used in the drilling formulations
Stabilityofofthethe drilling fluids formula is an essential parameter to the maintain original
Summary
The steel-making process produces large amounts of steel dust, which are reported to be as high as. The mud circulation serves as hole cleaner by lifting rock cuttings, providing a reasonable hydrostatic pressure to suppress the overburden pressure of the formation and preventing formation fluids from flowing into the well while drilling [46,50] This mud shares about 50% of the drilling cost, in addition to the overall field development cost due to mud related problems [51]. The proposed formula with the utilization of steel-making waste in drilling fluids is expected to reduce the amount of bentonite and other costly additives used in the drilling formulations. 90 to 100 kg of steel slag per ton of steel during the refining of hot metal from the blast furnace This generates alkaline solid residues about 10 wt.% to 15 wt.% of the produced steel, depending on the characteristics of the manufacturing process. The steelmaking by-products have been evaluated to make up to 30 wt.% of the drilling fluid base formulation
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