Effect of Change in Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance (HLB) on the State of Stable Invert EMulsion Drilling Fluid
Date
2015-01-21
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Abstract
The purpose of this project is to modify the wettability of emulsion from being oil-wet to water wet to improve drilling waste management. The adopted strategy is to use the Hydrophilic- Lipophilic Balance (HLB) to alter the affinity of emulsifiers towards the continuous phase of an emulsion system. Invert emulsions with 90:10 ratios of mineral oils (either Drisol or Distillate 822) to deionized water were prepared using HLB numbers ranging from 4.3 to 14.4. Desired HLB values were achieved by corresponding combinations of Span 80 (HLB 4.3)/Tween 80 (HLB 15.0). The emulsions were aged and centrifuged. Emulsion stability was measured by visual phase separation. Invert emulsion with HLB 4.9 showed the highest stability. Corrected Emulsifier Combinations (CEB) with HLB numbers ranging from 10.2 to 14.4 were added to the stable invert emulsions of HLB 4.9 and different properties of the emulsion (phase separation, optical density and viscosity) were studied. The results showed that increase in HLB lead to increase in droplet size which is a desirable effect towards destabilizing the invert emulsion.
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Engineering--Petroleum
Citation
Ezeofor, C. O. (2015). Effect of Change in Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance (HLB) on the State of Stable Invert EMulsion Drilling Fluid (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25793