Currently there are mainly three types of proppant categories in the market: quartz sand, resin coated sand and ceramic proppant.
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Properties of different proppants:
Quartz sand is the earliest application of fracturing proppant, though with lower cost, yet the strength is also relatively low (5000-10000psi), only for shallow wells, which is easily broken in the process of transport and handling. Also the quality of the sand differs a lot because of the diverse mine resources.
Resin coated sand is coated on the basis of the original sand to enhance the compressive strength, but the fracking gap is easily plugged by adhesive resin at a certain temperature and pressure, thus reducing the conductivity. In addition, the fracturing equipment is easily wore out because of even shape, thus its service life is greatly reduced.
The ceramic proppant is made by high temperature sintering technology with uniform shape, high compression strength (10000-20000psi) and strong flow conductivity, which can significantly improve the oil well production and recovery.
From HSE point, the silica element of quartz sand has a negative impact on the environment. The pollution during resin coated sand production process and fracturing process also cannot be underestimated. In contrast, as the main raw material of ceramic proppant, bauxite is high temperature-sintered, with stable performance, which can be described as from nature to nature.
Without considering the economic costs, how to choose the right proppant among different types if you are the customer? Of course, to decide the proppant type according to its oil and gas output, compared with long term conductivity of each type. The main factors affecting proppant conductivity are particle size, sieving distribution, strength (crushing rate), and shape (sphericity, surface smoothness), etc.
As a professional ceramic proppant supplier, Wanli focus on the R & D, production and sales of ceramic proppant with over twenty years. Wanli continues to step foreward in scientific research, developing the difference among the various proppant. From below indicators case, let’s compare the difference between diverse proppant.
- Sphericity and surface smoothness
Ceramic proppant has a better sphericity with smoother surface, which can reduce the wear of fracturing equipment when pumping. But the shape and sphericity of quartz sand changes a lot with the increase of pressure, the wear of fracturing equipment is four times higher than that of ceramic proppant, which will ultimately affect the long-term conductivity and reduce the oil and gas production.
2.Strength (crushing rate)
From figure 2 we can see that both the quartz sand and coated sand has a poor stability, because the crushing rate has increased rapidly with the increase of pressure, which are prone to collapse.
3.Sieving Distribution
During the process of ceramic proppant sintering, the sieve distribution can be controlled strictly, and the particle size distribution is more concentrated, which can increase the conductivity.
From the conductivity data of three different kinds of proppant of the same size, as shown in Figure 4, we can see that the conductivity of the ceramic proppant is far better than the quartz sand and coated sand. In addition, the production of the oil well is much better than that of quartz sand by using ceramic proppant. Therefore, ceramic proppant is the most ideal fracturing proppant with the lowest cost from the long-term cost and benefits.(see Figure 5 and Figure 6). But under the current market conditions, the operators have to choose the lowest price of quartz sand as a support agent in order to save cost. Yet, we believe that the operators will make the most rational choice when the market warms up or the price and performance of the proppant having a new breakthrough.
Case Study: Natural Sand VS Wanli Ceramic Proppant
Bakken Case Study
Decline per Frac Stage Sand vs. Wanli Ceramic Proppant
Price, price, still price
Since the second half of year of 2014 the oil price began falling fiercely, from 120$/barrel to 28$/barrel, now the motivation of exploring oil&gas is their price, at fracturing process, when the operators choose proppants and other equipment, products, firstly comes to their mind is cost, cost, still cost. How to survive on the current depressing oil price condition, is a problem the entire industry is concerning.
As a manufacturer of ceramic proppant, of course we know now many fracturing activities are choosing silica sand which costs less instead of ceramics or resin coated sand, the ceramic proppant industry is facing the crisis they have never met before, but crisis also means opportunity, how to survive, breakthrough and change in crisis is a pressing matter of the moment of ceramic manufacturing enterprises.
Wanli substitution type ceramic: (can be substitution of silica sand)
Wanli started from the purpose of meeting demand of current clients, strengthened the work of scientific research, using new materials, and after hundreds of thousands of dosing improvements and technology changes, successfully developed a kind of ceramic proppant which functions closely to normal ceramic proppant and much superior than silica sand, while can compete on silica sand for price. We believe this product can help us gaining more customers. Who wouldn’t like to spend the almost same price of silica sand to purchase ceramics which function much better? Survival of the fittest in natural selection. Those who can survive in such a harsh market conditions and innovate themselves will have the qualification to laugh in the end.
Except for saving cost for the customer, after lots of communication with different kinds of clients, Wanli is also pretty clear about the development trend of ceramic proppant------Super high strength ceramics and Functional ceramics.
Super high strength ceramics:
For the future fracturing process in deep ocean, super high strength ceramics will be used, the old ceramic proppant which can stands pressure of 15000psi might be not able to meet the requirement any more. According to this developing trend, Wanli improved the dosing of ceramics, controlled the strength of products by adopting materials with bauxites cantain higher ratio of AlOand Kaoli and adjusting the sintering temperature and sintering time. Of course the improvement of raw materials and technologies surely would make the price higher than conventional ceramics.
Functional ceramics asfollows.
Self suspended ceramic proppant:
Using special polymer to coat the normal ceramics(process environmental and material can be degraded). After the water absorption its own portion weight lower down, changed the composition of water, making it owns a certain suspension performance in the sand carrying fluid. The suspended ceramic grains exist in a uniform way among clear water, therefore they have better mobility in the formation fracturing process, which won’t lead to partial accumulation and sand blocking phenomenon. Meanwhile, the operation process of self suspended ceramic is sample enough to shorter the fracturing cost and time. Currently Wanli had achieved a significant effect on the research and development of self suspended ceramic, after some modification they can be commercial produced immediately.
Adsorption ceramics:
For the adsorption ceramics Wanli had developed, the internal pores occupy 20%-25% of the total volume, with a lower bulk density, the adsorption amount (absorption of chemicals) can reach up to about 15%, the closure pressure within 7500psi can be withstanded. After the adsorption of the chemicals they will be baked dry, then mixed together with ceramic proppant at a certain ratio, and be pumped down below the wells to prop the fractures. The chemicals absorbed in the proppants can be released gradually during the fracturing process to prevent the oil well plugging, prolong the service life of the oil well, and reduce the operation cost of the second times chemical adding. The products have different sizes and shape, Wanli has been producing in small amount, can meet the special needs of customers.
All along, the customers hope the appearance of a kind of proppant which owns a density close to water (extremely low density), to reduce the use of fracturing fluid, lower down cost and make the process more environmental. Although there is no evident breakthrough currently, Wanli has been paying attention on it.
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The road of developing new products is long, the process would be tough, however, we are keep working hard and never give up easily. We believe Wanli can bring new proppants categories to the global fracturing market very soon and provide more options for customers. Shouldered with the divine mission of servicing the oil industry, Wanli will keep growing up with China oil industry and world oil industry.
Wedged In
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Credit: Momentive
The stars have aligned for a product that is used deep in the earth. Hydraulic fracturing methods for natural gas recovery, which took off in 2007, have increased demand for proppants—grainy materials that increase the flow of natural gas and oil by propping up fissures in rock.
Suppliers of proppants and the resins used to coat them have been rapidly expanding capacity to keep up with the demand. Several types of companies are supplying the proppant market, including resin makers such as Georgia-Pacific Chemicals and Momentive Specialty Chemicals, industrial minerals firms, ceramics producers, and even nanotech start-ups. Many of them are using chemistry to make proppants that increase the flow of gas and oil while holding up against extreme pressures and temperatures.
In the oftentimes heated discussions about the materials used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, proppants have not received the attention that fracturing fluids have attracted. The fluids—a mixture of water and chemicals including thickeners, friction reducers, surfactants, salts, and acids—are used to suspend and carry large quantities of proppants into the far reaches of a gas or oil well.
Great Grains
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Credit: Momentive
In the fracking process, the fluid-proppant mixture is pumped at high pressure into shale deposits, often a mile or more beneath the surface. The pressure causes fractures to open in the rock. Once the pumping stops, the fluid flows back out of the well, but the proppant grains stay behind to hold the fractures open and let the gas or oil seep out. This task has grown more challenging as drillers have increased the depth and horizontal reach of their wells.
Proppants can be materials as simple as silica sand, mined from ancient sandstone deposits of smooth, spherical quartz grains in places like Saskatchewan and Wisconsin and sieved into different sizes. But as drillers have gone after reserves that are more difficult to access, they are turning to tougher, resin-coated sand; stronger, more precisely sized ceramic proppants; and even new ceramic forms based on nanotechnology.
“The combination of horizontal drilling and fracturing of unconventional resources has been nothing short of a paradigm shift in the amount of proppant used,” observes Brian D. Olmen, president of Kelrik, a consultancy that specializes in minerals used in the energy industry. According to the American Petroleum Institute, up to 80% of natural gas wells drilled in the next decade will require hydraulic fracturing.
The amount of proppant used in a well depends on the number of stages, or fracturing points, that will have material pumped into them along the horizontal length of the well. Wells routinely reach more than a half-mile laterally and have 10 to 20 stages or more, each taking an average of 300,000 lb of proppant. That can quickly add up to 3 million to 10 million lb, Olmen says.
In the Marcellus Shale wells of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, drillers may use 10 million to 20 million lb of proppants in wells that reach 1.5 miles down and another 1.5 miles across, says Jerry Borges, vice president of Momentive’s oil-field technology business. He points out that 20 million lb is equal to 100 railcars of sand, and all of it goes down a wellbore pipe only 5.5 to 7 inches in diameter.
Not all proppants are appropriate for all wells. “The specific site and drilling operation dictate the kind of proppant best suited for the job,” explains Michael R. Roberts, a vice president at Georgia-Pacific Chemicals, which sells coating resins to proppant makers. “For instance, noncoated sand may work in shallow drilling operations, but coating provides needed resistance to the increased underground pressure at greater drill depths.” Resin-coated sand is less likely to be crushed and release well-clogging fine particles.
Of the proppants used in 2010, more than 88% were sand or sand coated with resin. Demand for resin-coated sand has been growing compared with other types of proppants, with volumes increasing more than 25% annually for the past five years, according to Olmen.
The other 12% of demand was mainly for ceramic proppants, which are more spherical, have stronger crush and heat resistance, and can provide higher flow capacity compared with sand, particularly at temperatures and pressures that, in some wells, can exceed 300 °F and 10,000 psi.
Not surprisingly, companies that specialize in resins for coated proppants are expanding production. Georgia-Pacific is increasing capacity at its Lufkin, Texas, facility. The company does not disclose the chemistry of its resins, but like Momentive, it is known for manufacturing phenol-formaldehyde and urea-formaldehyde resins used to make plywood and other construction materials.
For its part, Momentive is quickly ramping up production of specialty curable resin coatings at its Brady, Texas, facility. “We developed the curable resins not only to strengthen the sand but to make it stick together,” Borges says. The curing occurs under the high temperature and pressure of the well. “When the curable-resin-coated proppant gets stuffed into that crack, it bonds together and becomes like a rock—it’s a very high permeability pipeline that stays intact because it is held together with the resins we use,” he explains.
Meanwhile, leading ceramic proppant maker Carbo Ceramics has completed a fourth manufacturing line at its plant in Toomsboro, Ga., and added resin-coated proppants to its portfolio.
Carbo is a public company, and its second-quarter results give some insight into growth in the industry. The firm saw revenues increase 34% to $150 million, compared with last year’s second quarter, because of increased sales volumes and prices of its proppants. The average selling price of 1 lb of ceramic proppant was 36 cents, up 11% from the prior year. Carbo told investors it will have 1.75 billion lb of capacity by the end of 2011.
At nanotech start-up Oxane Materials, the ceramic proppants cost more per pound, but on the other hand, they weigh less. Oxane was spun off from Rice University, where researchers exploited the overlap between nanotechnology innovations and their Houston location, in the heart of the gas and oil drilling industry.
Oxane founder Andrew R. Barron, a materials science professor at Rice, says traditional proppants are strong, but also heavy, and they do not flow all the way to the end of the rock fracture. His team makes lighter spheres using nanotechnology. “One of my students worked out how to make hollow ceramic beads, like very small Ping-Pong balls.” The hollow sphere of aluminum oxide was “incredibly strong,” Barron says. In addition, every sphere in each batch was exactly the same size.
Barron realized the particles could be used as proppants, and Oxane was spun off in 2002. The company bought a plant in Van Buren, Ark., and has been making its OxFrac proppants. These proppants are suited for West Texas wet gas wells, which contain both gas and oil. The company has announced plans to expand.
Olmen says proppant makers must stay on top of changes in demand as drilling expands into areas such as the Eagle Ford Shale formation in South and East Texas and the Bakken formation in Montana and North Dakota, which contain both gas and oil and require coarser proppants.
Momentive’s Borges says his company is already adapting. “We are working on new chemistries, mostly for oil-field development. It takes a lot of resin know-how and applications know-how to make a resin perform at the various temperatures and depths we operate in.”
Contact us to discuss your requirements of ceramic coated proppant factories. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
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