Investigation of the use of various agricultural waste as lost circulation materials

Loss of circulation is one of the biggest problems during drilling operations and refers to the situation in which drilling mud passes from the well wall to the formation during a drilling operation. Loss of circulation can cause a number of difficulties, including borehole collapse, equipment damage and prolonged drilling time, decomposition and collapse of cuttings carried along with the circulating mud. All these problems also negatively affect drilling operation costs. For these reasons, the drilling operation must be planned carefully beforehand and necessary precautions must be taken to prevent circulation loss. Various methods are used to prevent or reduce circulation loss. Wellbore strengthening techniques, improving mud cake properties or increasing mud weight by adding anti-loss materials to the drilling fluid are well-known and common practices. The use of waste as loss prevention material in the petroleum industry has been a subject that has become much emphasized in recent years. In this study, KCl mud, which does not cause any problems in terms of both cost and well stability, was used. The usability of various food wastes and nutshells as anti-loss material in the prepared KCl sludge was investigated. As food waste, nutshells such as sunflower seeds, walnuts, Siirt pistachios, peanuts, hazelnuts, wheat straw, lemon peel and celery stalk powder were used. Experiments were carried out to determine the physical properties of the sludge, and the effects of the added materials on the rheological properties and filtration properties were examined. The effects of different substances, particle diameter, and substance amount and sludge type were studied. In addition, it was also examined what kind of changes adding different amounts of XCD, starch and pectin to the sludge caused in the sludge properties. In general, all added materials caused improvements in the rheological and filtration properties of the sludge. Increasing the amount of the examined substances added to the sludge not only increased the viscosity, breaking point and gel strength, but also increased water loss and filter cake thickness. Although some change was observed in gel strength values for all experimental conditions studied, there was no change in the general properties of the sludge. Black sunflower shell, lemon peel powder and celery stalk powder the more improved the rheological properties of the sludge than the others additive used in this study. Wheat straw and walnut shells, especially lemon peel powder, had an effect on improving the filtration properties of the sludge by creating both low water loss and a fine filter cake. Increasing the amounts of XCD, starch and pectin added to the sludge caused an increase in both rheological properties and filtration properties. Among these substances, the effect of adding XCD to sludge is very large.