Synthetic process on hydroxyl-containing polydimethylsiloxane as a thickener in CO₂ fracturing and thickening performance test

ABSTRACT

Silicone shows an excellent performance of thickening CO₂ and becomes a well-known CO₂ thickener due to the low price and environmentally friendly. Siloxane copolymers could be synthesized via the copolymerization and other reactions. Optimal preparation parameters were temperature 90°C, the aminopropyltriethoxysilane-to-methyl triethoxysilane molar ratio of 2:1, the amount of catalyst 0.09 g. The yield of production coordinated well with the predicted yield of 83.72%. The structure of production is analyzed by FTIR. Adding 3% w.t. 7.2 order of magnitude could be realized at 0.3 mL·min⁻¹ flow rate by using the silicone present at concentrations of 3 wt% at 35°C and 12 MPa. Moreover, Greenhouse effect could be improved due to the application of CO₂ fracturing.

KEYWORDS:

• Capillary viscometer
• CO₂ fracturing
• response surface methodology
• silicone copolymer
• thickener

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Shandong Province foam fluid efficient exploitation of oil and gas engineering research center in China University of Petroleum (East China).