Experimental Investigation of Limonene-based Environmental-Friendly Emulsion Drilling Mud

The use of emulsion drilling mud in the oil and gas industry has gained wide acceptance. However, the disposal of drill cuttings and the waste of such emulsion drilling mud usually poses environmental concern. Hence, there is the need to seek oil from biodegradable sources as an alternative to the current conventional diesel oil which constitute environmental threat. In this study, limonene obtained from dried peel of sweet orange was used as the dispersed phase in the formulation of nano-modified emulsion drilling mud. A Design Of Experiment (DOE) approach was employed to investigate the extraction of limonene and the results analysed. Three different mud samples were formulated; the conventional water-based drilling mud, nano-modified emulsion drilling mud with diesel oil and limonene as the dispersed phase respectively. The rheological properties, density, sand content, PH and filtration loss of the formulated mud samples were tested and compared. The results of the experiment showed that the formulated nano-modified emulsion drilling mud with limonene as the dispersed phase followed Herschel-Bulkley rheological Model with low gel strength and yield point which are desirable mud property for turbulent flow at low pump pressure for effective hole cleaning. Also, there is reduction in filtration loss and mud cake compared to the conventional water-based drilling mud which will lead to reduction in torque and drag, reduction in pipe sticking, reduction in hole enlargement and less bit balling.