Microwave Drying of Drilled Cuttings in the Context of Waste Disposal and Drilling Fluid Recovery

摘要

The use of drilling fluids in oil drilling process generates solid-liquid mixtures that must be separated. One of the aims of this process is compliance with environmental laws regarding to disposal of waste from drilling activities. The present study aims to investigate the microwave drying of contaminated drilled cuttings. The aspects investigated are: cuttings size and shape, bed height, composition of the drilling fluid, and application of a sweep gas. The results show that mixtures of cuttings containing rounder and larger parti- cles lead to greater removal of drilling fluid than mixtures that consist of less-round and finer particles. The increase of the bed height leads to higher efficiency in terms of n-paraf-fin removal. The use of a sweep gas increases the n-paraffin removal from 75 to 90%. The higher the water content on the drilling fluid, the greater the removal of organic phase. The microwave heating does not cause significant changes in the organic phase recovered.