Water-Based Drilling Fluid

  Water-Based Drilling Fluids are environmentally friendly compared with oil-based drilling fluids; however their safe disposal can still be a challenge. There are normally no hydrocarbons present, except in fluids that have been used for drilling in production zones and cuttings from these zones, Water-based drilling fluids by their nature have high water contents plus a number of additives: clays, barytes, watersoluble organic polymers, biocides, etc. These organic polymers are problematic for the disposal of used muds/fluids, because they are difficult to remove from solution and contribute to the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the water. It is also necessary to remove these polymers from the drill cuttings prior to disposal.

The features and benefits of Global Advantech’s aqueous systems for remediating water-based drilling muds/fluids and cleaning drill cuttings include:
Dual purpose – able to remediate waterbased drilling muds/fluids and clean drill cuttings.
Mobile and static plant configurations available.
Throughput capacities: 1 tonne per hour to 20+ tonnes per hour.
Low environmental impact, with minimal emissions.
Hydrocarbon reduction with one cleaning pass of contaminated drill cuttings to less than 1.0% and two cleaning passes to 0.2%- 0.5%, depending upon porosity of rock fragments.
Non-thermal processing – operates at ambient temperature, therefore substantially lower energy consumption (<20%) compared to thermal desorption plant with similar processing capacity.
Water/process solution treated to meet demanding discharge consents, CODs of less than 100 achievable.