Jatropha Curcas L. oil derived biodiesel as ester based drilling fluid

Abstract

Waste fluid from drilling operations especially from oil based mud (OBM) has always been a major concern on the environment. The increase in environmental legislation and stringent regulations has sparked the use of a more environmentally friendly fluid such as ester derived from vegetable oil as the base for drilling muds. This study was conducted by using Jatropha curcas L. oil derived biodiesel (JDB), Sarapar and a blending of 20% JDB 80% Sarapar as the base of the drilling mud. Experiments were conducted to study its physical fluid properties, rheological mud properties, rubber compatibility and marine toxicity. JDB shows good physical fluid properties except for kinematic viscosity. JDB also exhibit good rheological mud properties except for plastic viscosity. However, the issue can be solved by blending with low kinematic viscosity oil such as Sarapar to reduce JDB?s viscosity property. For the rubber compatibility test, Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR) was exposed to the drilling muds for 1 and 2 weeks consecutively. Swelling volume and tensile strength was tested before and after exposure. Overall however, JDB mud shows a huge effect on the NBR after the time period and at high temperature. As for the LC50 toxicity test, Guppy fish (Poecilia reticulate) was used as test organisms. The LC50 obtained for JDB was more than 100 000 ppm indicating JDB based mud is non-toxic. The overall result shows JDB is a promising alternative to be used as an environmentally friendly drilling mud with further enhancement on its properties.