Seeking to Build a Better Proppant
The movement of a maple leaf as it tumbles gave insight to one of the winners of Statoil ASA and GE Oil & Gas’ first Open Innovation Challenge into the ideal shape for a proppant.
Finding ways to reduce the amount of sand trucked to unconventional oil and gas fields for hydraulic fracturing was the goal behind the recent Open Innovation Challenge.
GE and Statoil named Hoowaki and four other companies and institutions winners of the challenge. GE and Statoil recently announced they were taking entries for the second Open Innovation Challenge, a crowdsourcing endeavor that seeks innovative new ideas for treating or recycling water.
The idea behind an X-shaped proppant came from an idea by a Royal Dutch Shell plc official of the conceptual model that governs proppant settling based on “Stokes Law” – referenced in a Society of Petroleum Engineers paper – that drag is a variable that the invention community had not exploited to improve proppant transport, said Ralph Hulseman, company president and co-founder of Hoowaki, in a statement to Rigzone.
Shell made the suggestion to Hoowaki officials after meeting with them in late 2011, thinking that Pendleton, S.C.-based Hoowaki’s expertise in micro-surface design technology might be used to improve proppant. After exchanging proposals throughout the spring of 2012, the companies began working on the product in mid-2012.
Existing approaches have focused on lower particle density or carrier fluid viscosity, said Hulseman.
“The industry thinking when we started was that ideal proppant particle was a uniformed-size sphere. Proppants need to settle slowly in water, then support a high load in the rock formation crack.”
During the R&D stage, Hoowaki thought about the physics at play at each stage of the use of the proppant particle, then made and tested several different particle designs. Hoowaki’s analysis showed that a sphere wasn’t the optimum shape for any of the stages of use.
“Thus, we needed extensive work to find the optimum shape,” Hulseman explained.
To find that shape, Hoowaki used finite element structural analysis to optimize the ability of the proppant particle to support a load in the crack, and yet have the maximum open void volume.
“Reducing settlement time was harder, as it is difficult to model turbulent tumbling drag flow of a shaped particle,” Hulseman noted. “There was little information available in the scientific literature about how to slow the settling of particles, so we needed to conduct experimentation.”
“We knew that maple leaves both tumble end over end and flutter in broad circles to slow the rate of falling,” Hulseman said. “We tested many shapes until we found the ones that worked best to achieve this effect. The X shape emerged from these studies.”
Before this collaboration, Hoowaki had no experience working on proppants – the company had been focused on medical devices, and automotive and industrial seals.
“Our business is to move tough friction and surface tension problems by designing micro and nano-surfaces to solve these problems,” said Hulseman. “We add those surfaces to extrusion or molding tooling so that our customers can make their improved products and high volume. At the intersection of the physics of surface tension and lubricated friction is fluid drag phenomena.”
12
View Full Article
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- ExxonMobil Racks Up Discoveries in Guyana Block Eyed by Chevron
- Oil Market Sentiment Has Improved Significantly
- EU, US Eye Collaboration on Nuclear Materials
- USA Driving Activity to Increase to All-Time Highs
- EU Electricity Export to Ukraine Up 94 Percent in Two Years
- China Coal Output Falls for First Time since Government Ordered More
- TC Energy to Sell Prince Rupert Gas Pipeline Project to First Nation
- BP Pulse Buys One of Europe's Largest Truck Stops
- UK CCUS Plans Outdated: Think Tank
- I Squared Eyes Full Ownership of Europe Gas Storage Firm
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- EIA Drops 2024 Henry Hub Gas Price Forecast
- EIA and Standard Chartered Offer Up Latest Oil Price Predictions
- Red Sea Region Sees Another Watershed Incident
- Chevron Oil Project in Kazakhstan to Cost $48.5B
- OPEC Voices Encouragement after IEA Affirms Support for Oil Security
- Biden Govt Bares Strategy for Freight Charging, Hydrogen Fueling Infra
- Ukraine Hits Third Russian Refinery In Escalating Drone Strikes
- Rystad Looks at the Buzz Around White Hydrogen
- VIDEO: Missile Attack Kills Crew Transiting Gulf of Aden
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- What Is the Biggest Risk to Offshore Oil and Gas Personnel in 2024?
- Is Peak Oil Demand Close?
- Vessel Sinks in Red Sea After Missile Strike
- JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Reveal Latest Oil Price Forecasts
- Exxon Rights in Stabroek Do Not Apply to Hess Merger with Chevron: Hess
- Rystad Forecasts Net Production of Top Permian Producers in 2024
- Analysts Reveal Latest Oil Price Outlook Following OPEC+ Cut Extension