Inadequate hole cleaning often leads to challenges in drilling and well completion operations such as low rates of penetration, pipe sticking, losing tools, difficulties in liner/casing placements, etc. Designing a drilling fluid with improved rheological properties would be a solution to increase cuttings transportation efficiency. This study investigates the performance of nanosilica water-based drilling fluids for the hole cleaning process in directional drilling operations. Different inclination angles have been considered in a flow loop system with different rotational speeds (0 and 150 rpm) to simulate the drilling conditions in a wellbore. The performance of nano-enhanced drilling fluids in the cuttings removal process was compared with conventional water-based drilling fluids, and it was found that silica nanoparticles increased the cuttings transport efficiency in all experiments. The results indicated that the presence of nanosilica in the mud increased the colloidal interactions with cuttings and contributed to the improvements in cuttings transportation efficiency by 30.8 to 44% for different nano-enhanced water-based drilling fluids used in this study. The implementation of nanosilica in water-based drilling fluids showed promising results in the hole cleaning process which demonstrates the feasibility of using them in extended reach drilling operations.

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Deployment of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) technologies to mitigate climate change and overturn CO2 emissions growth would require transformational changes comprehensively. The primary focus of this manuscript is on the impurities standards and limitation that can ensure project feasibility in the long run. There is a need in the industry for guidance on purity analysis prior to capture, shipment, and storage of carbon dioxide. This is because the cost to capture and separate the stream is proving to be very costly that can make the project to be unfeasible to operate. Following this further, this manuscript discusses the previous research and best practices that establish standards for acceptable impurities that might present in the stream and its effects towards the CCUS system. Consequently, this manuscript also provides better understanding on the impurities effects towards CCUS technology system in general. Understanding these limitations, may provide cost effective solution for CCUS problems that revolves around the impurities in CO2 stream. Impurities can affect some components of the carbon capture and storage process. It is clear that even a little number of impurities can cause the carbon dioxide stream properties to change. There are two primary factors discussed in this manuscript that affect how a CCUS system responds to a CO2 stream that contains impurities: a physical and chemical effects.

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