Synthesis and Optimization of 2-ethylhexyl Ester as Base Oil for Drilling Fluid Formulation

Abstract

A stable ester was synthesized to overcome the ester hydrolysis problem during the drilling of oil or gas wells using a conventional ester-based drilling fluid. The thermal and hydrolytic stability of the produced ester was high owing to the transesterification method employed in this study. The reaction was performed using 2-ethylhexanol and methyl laureate esters in the presence of sodium methoxide as a catalyst. In order to obtain the optimum synthesis conditions, a response surface methodology (RSM) was appraised based on the central composite design (CCD). The optimum conditions were determined as follows: 0.6 wt.% catalyst, 70 o C reaction temperature, 1:1.5 molar ratio and 11.5 min of reaction time. The results of 77 wt.% 2-ethylhexyl ester illustrated a high agreement between the experimental and RSM models. The reaction product contained 77 wt.% 2-ethylhexyl ester and 23% 2-ethylhexanol. The kinematic viscosity was 5 mm 2 /sec @ 40°C and 1.5 mm 2 /sec @ 100°C; the specific gravity was 0.854, flash point was 170°C and pour point was -7°C. The produced product showed similar properties to Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:09 03 June 2015 2the available commercial prouct. However, it was observed that the mud formulation using the synthesized base oil had superior rheological properties at 121°C.

Review of synthesis, characteristics and technical challenges of biodiesel based drilling fluids

“…Habib et al (Abdul Habib et al 2014) studied 2-Ethylhexyl oleate based drilling fluid which showed excessive viscosity. On the other hand, 2-Ethylhexyl laurate-based drilling fluid exhibited better drilling fluids performance after 16 hours of dynamic ageing at 250 °C (Jassim et al 2016).…”

“…and 10 min.) were in lbf/100 ft 2 , plastic and apparent viscosity were in cP and fluid loss was in ml) Most of the above mentioned studies faces one common issue that the formulation of drilling fluids usually contains lime to activate the emulsifier Muller H, Herold C, Von Tpavicza S, Grimes DJ, Braun J-M 1992;Jassim et al 2016). If lime content increases to 3 g per 350 ml of mud, the EBDF will have unstable properties due to ester's hydrolysis .…”

“…, Patel et al suggested that hydrocarbon-based synthetic oil should have a viscosity in the range of 1.5 -3.4 cSt (Patel AD, McGlothlin RE, Bleier RD 1993). Generally, esters should have the same kinematic viscosity as hydrocarbon-based synthetic oil (olefins or paraffin) to exhibit good drilling fluids performance (R. A. Ismail, Kamis, and Saik Foo 2000; A. R Ismail, Kamis, and Foo 2001;Amin et al 2010;Abdul Habib et al 2014;Jassim et al 2016;Magathevan T, Nur'aini S, Yusuf R, Nik R 2014;Lyons, Plisga, and Lorenz 2015;Goncalves JT, De Oliveira MF 2007)…”

Enhancing AW/EP tribological characteristics of biolubricant synthesized from chemically modified cotton methyl-esters by using nanoparticle as additives

“…Then, 0.5 ml of N, O-Bis (trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide was added into the vial and mixed this mixture thoroughly. Before injecting into the GC machine, this prepared sample was first heated at 40°C for 10 min and then cooled to normal room temperature (Jassim et al , 2016).…”

Synthesis of ester base fluids for drilling mud formulation using different catalysts

“…Synthetic based muds are tailored to mirror the superior technical performance of oil based muds while eliminating the environmental hazards associated with the later. Furthermore, synthetic base fluids from which these muds are formulated contain zero percent aromatic hydrocarbons [7], they can be discharged into the environment without any deleterious effect [8]. This is in addition to the fact that their reduced irritant properties lead to improved workers' safety [9].…”