Research on treatment of oil-based drill cuttings based on ionic liquids synergistic solvent extraction

Abstract

The method of solvent extraction has a good application prospect in the treatment of oil-based drill cuttings, but the existing extractants have the high potential safety hazards of a low flash point and volatility. Therefore, this article proposes to use an ionic liquid with improved safety and strong extraction capacity to treat oil-based drill cuttings through a collaborative solvent extraction method. The extraction effect of different extractants and different ionic liquid synergistic extractants were studied, respectively. The research results showed that [IM18, H2]Br ionic liquid has a good synergistic effect with n-butanol, and the extraction rate could reach 99.14%. The experimental conditions were that the mass ratio of [IM18, H2]Br to n-butanol was 1:10, extraction time was 40 min, and the mass ratio of drill cuttings to extractant was 1:3. Under these experimental conditions, the mixed extractants can be recycled 3 times. The closed flash point of extractants increased from 35 °C to 53 °C, and the boiling point of extractants decreased from 117 °C to 90–107.3 °C. Based on this, the mechanism of ionic liquids synergistic solvent extraction was discussed.

Keywords:

• Solvent extraction
• synergistic effect
• security assessment

Data availability statement

Data is available on request from the authors. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [author initials], upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Open Fund (PLN201826) of the State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation (Southwest Petroleum University) and The Scientific Research Starting Project of Southwest Petroleum University (No. 2018QHZ019).