Comparative Study of Impact of Zinc Oxide and Copper (II) Oxide Nanoparticles on Viscosity of Water Based Drilling Fluid

Abstract

Drilling fluids play very important roles in the oil and gas industry hence the need to get method of improving their rheological properties cannot be over emphasized. In this study how drilling fluid rheological property can be improved using zinc oxide and copper (II) oxide nanoparticles were investigated. To achieve these objectives, water based drilling fluids (WBDF) were prepared using the standard laboratory barrel (350 ml) method from bentonite, xanthan gum and water. The Zinc oxide and Copper (II) nanoparticles were introduced into the formulation in different proportions. Brookfield rotational viscometer was used to determine the rheological properties of the samples while Fourier Transformation Infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to determine the structural analysis of the interaction between the nanoparticles and the Xanthan gum. The results showed that Zinc oxide and CuO nanoparticle improved the rheological properties of the water based drilling fluid. The zinc oxide at equal proportion with xanthan gum at 60 rpm shear rate increased the viscosity from 834.7 to 1597.3 mPa.s while the copper (II) oxide nanoparticles at equal proportion with xanthan gum at 60 rpm shear rate increased from 834.7 to 1452.3 mPa.s at low temperature of 31.5^oC. The FTIR analysis of the nanoparticles and xanthan gum revealed that the interactions of the bonds between the nanoparticles and xanthan gum contributed to the improvement in the rheological properties of the drilling fluids. It is concluded that introduction of ZnO nanoparticles and CuO nanoparticles improved the rheological performance of water based drilling fluids with xanthan gum. The ZnO nanoparticles, however, exhibited better improvement than the CuO.