Articles
  • High strength ultra-lightweight ceramic proppants prepared by double resin-coating process with fly ash

  • Shuiyun Lia, Yongshang Tiana,*, Xiaoliang Donga, Peng Liua, Xiang Jib and Xiongjie Huc

  • a College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Key Laboratory of Utilization of Non-Metallic Mineral in the South of Henan, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang 464000, China
    bSchool of Materials and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
    cLoyalty Enterprise Development (Xinyang) Co., LTd., Xinyang 464017, China

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Ceramic proppants is crucial in hydraulic fracturing for increasing oil and gas reservoirs. In this study, the ceramic particles and resin-impregnated ceramic particles were prepared with fly ash, and then ultra-lightweight ceramic particles (proppants) were obtained by double resin-coating process. Crystalline phase and microstructure of the ceramic particles were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. Effects of silicon carbide and epoxy resin concentrations on the phase, apparent density, and breakage ratio of the ceramic particles were all studied systematically. With increasing silicon carbide contents, the corundum phase transform to mullite phase, decreasing the apparent density and increasing the breakage ratios. The double resin-coated ceramic proppants featured smoother surface and less pores than the resin-impregnated samples, accompanying low apparent density (1.94 g/cm-3) and high strength (breakage ratio under 52 MPa, 1.69%) when silicon carbide was 3.0 wt.% and epoxy resin concentrations was 55 wt.%. The results suggest the particles by the effective double resin-coating process possess promising candidates for fracturing proppants in practical applications


Keywords: Fly ash, Double resin-coating process, Resin-impregnated ceramic proppants, Crystalline phase, High strength

This Article

  • 2021; 22(5): 538-542

    Published on Oct 31, 2021

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2021.22.5.538
  • Received on Mar 15, 2021
  • Revised on May 30, 2021
  • Accepted on Jun 3, 2021

Correspondence to

  • Yongshang Tian

  • College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Key Laboratory of Utilization of Non-Metallic Mineral in the South of Henan, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang 464000, China
    Tel : +86 0376 6390702 Fax: +86 0376 6390702

  • E-mail: tianyongshang423@163.com; tianyongshang@xynu.edu.c