A new plugging agent in drilling engineering of waste rubber powder modified in-situ with radical pentacopolymer

ABSTRACT

In the drilling operations of oil and gas wells, the temperature resistance and adhesion of plugging agents play a crucial role in preventing the leakage of drilling fluid. In this study, waste rubber powder (WRP) was used as the base material, and styrene (St), 1,3-butadiene (BD), 3-(Trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate (KH570), N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP), and acrylic acid (AA) were copolymerized and grafted onto the surface and pores of WRP through in-situ free radical polymerization technology, successfully synthesizing a modified rubber powder plugging agent named WRP-K-N-A. WRP-K-N-A was characterized by FTIR, XPS, SEM, and TGA. Rock-soil bonding experiments were conducted to verify its adhesion. The plugging effect of WRP-K-N-A was evaluated through crack plugging simulation experiments. The experimental results showed that WRP-K-N-A has a high temperature resistance of up to 416.83°C and strong adhesion, which helps maintain the integrity of the filter cake structure. In the crack plugging simulation experiment, WRP-K-N-A exhibited excellent plugging ability, with medium pressure filtrate loss and invasion depth stabilizing at 9–11.4 mL and 7.5–12.7 cm, respectively. This study provides theoretical support for the modification of waste rubber powder and its further application in the field of oil well plugging.

KEYWORDS:

• Plugging agent
• free radical polymerization
• modified rubber powder
• temperature resistance
• adhesion

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (21975110), Natural Science Foundation Youth Program of Shandong (ZR2023QB173) and Postdoctoral Application Project of Qingdao (QHBSH20230102024). Prof. H. Tang gratefully acknowledges financial support from Taishan Youth Scholar Program of Shandong Province.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2024.2368497.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lihu Pang

Lihu Pang is a third-year graduate student in the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Qingdao University. Under the guidance of Professor Hua Tang, Associate Professor Chao Yang and Lecturer Xue Yao, he is conducting research on oil well plugging agents.

Liang Wu

Liang Wu is a second-year graduate student at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Qingdao University. Under the guidance of Professor Hua Tang and Associate Professor Chao Yang, he characterized some of the materials in this paper.

Ze Luo

Ze Luo is a second-year doctoral student in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Qingdao University. Under the guidance of Professor Hua Tang, he provided guidance on the synthesis and preparation of the materials in this paper.

Jingyu Sun

Jingyu Sun is a second-year graduate student at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Qingdao University. Under the guidance of Professor Hua Tang and Associate Professor Chao Yang, he modified some of the charts in this paper.

Xue Yao

Xue Yao graduated with a Ph.D from China University of Petroleum. She is a lecturer at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Qingdao University, mainly researching drilling fluid chemistry.

Chao Yang

Chao Yang graduated with a Ph.D from Qingdao University. She is an associate professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Qingdao University, mainly researching polymer composite materials.

Hua Tang

Hua Tang graduated with a Ph.D from Wuhan University of Technology. He is a professor at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Qingdao University, mainly researching environmental functional materials and semiconductor nanomaterials.