Summary The rotating disk apparatus (RDA) is used to study reaction kinetics. However, the current equations used to interpret the results from the RDA make oversimplifying assumptions. Some of these assumptions are not met in practice, yet no work has been done to study their impact on the mass transfer of the proton (H+) to the disk. The objectives of the current work are threefold: study flow regimes under the rotating disk in the RDA for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids, investigate the impact of the reactor boundaries on the mass transfer of H+ to the disk in Newtonian fluids, and identify the dimensions of the reactor that minimize this impact. The mass transfer of the H+ was compared between different dimension reactors. Contrary to information reported in the literature, both the diameter of the reactor and the axial distance between the base of the disk and the bottom of the reactor have an impact on the rate of mass transfer of H+ to the disk. Moreover, the velocity profiles in the reactor showed three flow regimes: fully axisymmetric, fully asymmetric flow, and intermediate flow. These different regimes varied depending on the axial distance between the base of the disk and the bottom of the reactor, the diameter of the reactor, the rotational speed of the disk, and the kinematic viscosity of the reacting fluid.

Slickwater fracturing has been phenomenally successful in unconventional shale formations due to their unique geomechanical properties. Nevertheless, these treatments consume large volumes of water. On average, hydraulic fracturing treatments use up to 13,000,000 gallons of water in unconventional wells. In an effort to reduce the use of freshwater, research has focused on developing friction reducers (FR) that can be used in high salinity brines such as seawater and produced water. However, commonly used friction reducers precipitate in high salinity brine, lose their friction reduction properties, and cause severe formation damage to the proppant pack. Consequently, this work proposes the use of common surfactants to aid the FR system and achieve salt tolerance at water salinity up to 230,000 ppm. This paper will (a) evaluate five surfactants for use in high salinity FR systems, (b) evaluate the rheological properties of these systems, and (c) evaluate the damage generated from using these systems. Four types of tests were conducted to analyze the performance of the new FR at high salinity brine. These are (a) rheology, (b) static proppant settling, (c) breakability, and (d) coreflood tests. Surfactants with ethylene oxide chain lengths ranging from 6 to 12 were incorporated in the tests. Rheology tests were done at temperatures up to 150°F to evaluate the FR at shear rates between 40-1000 s-1. Proppant settling tests were performed to investigate the proppant carrying capacity of the new FR system. Breakability and coreflood tests were conducted to study the potential damage caused by the proposed systems. Rheology tests showed that using surfactants with high ethylene oxide chain length (>8) improved the performance of the FR at water salinity up to 230,000 ppm. Anionic surfactants performed better than cationic surfactants in improving FR performance. The ammonium persulfate was used as a breaker and showed effectiveness with the proposed formula. Finally, the retained permeability after 12 hours of injecting the FR was over 95%. This shows that after using this system, the productivity of the formation is minimally affected by the new FR system. This research provides the first guide on studying the impact of using different ethylene oxide chain lengths of surfactants in developing new FR systems that can perform well in a high salinity environment. Given the economic and environmental benefits of reusing produced water, this new system can save costs that were previously spent on water treatments.

Reaction kinetics between calcite and acid systems has been studied using the rotating disk apparatus (RDA). However, simplifying assumptions have been made to develop the current equations used to interpret RDA experiments to enable solving them analytically in contrast to using numerical methods. Experimental results revealed inadequacy of some of these assumptions, which necessitates the use of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to investigate their impact on the RDA results. The objectives of the current work are threefold: (1) develop a CFD model to simulate the reaction in the RDA, (2) Identify the error associated with the assumptions in the original equations, and (3) develop a proxy model from the results that can accurately represent the reaction in the RDA. In developing the CFD model, the averaged-continuum approach was used to simulate the chemical reaction on the disk surface. Both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids were studied to investigate the adequacy of the equations’ assumptions. To validate the model, simulations were compared with experimental results. Experiments were run at 0.25, 0.5, 1, and 1.25M HCl with marble using the RDA at 250°F. Rotation speeds of 200, 400, 600, and 1,000 rpm were tested at each acid concentration. The diffusion coefficient was then calculated. Parameters of the CFD model were then adjusted to match the rock dissolved throughout the RDA experiments. The rock dissolved in the disk from the CFD model matched the results from the RDA experiments. The transition from mass-transfer to the kinetics-limited reaction behavior was captured by the CFD model. The velocity and viscosity profiles for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids showed the effect of the container's boundaries on the flow. Results indicate that this effect is pronounced in the case of Newtonian fluids at high rotational speeds. Moreover, the impact of varying viscosities in the case of non-Newtonian fluids resulted in errors in estimating the reaction kinetics. Finally, a proxy model was obtained to reduce the computational time involved in accurately simulating the experiments. The present work developed the first CFD model to accurately evaluate reaction kinetics and diffusion coefficient in the RDA with minimum assumptions. More specifically, the model relaxes the infinite acting, constant fluid properties, and constant reaction surface area assumptions. Finally, the proxy model obtained results in reduced computational time with minimal compromise on accuracy.