The use of grass as an environmentally friendly additive in water-based drilling fluids

Excellent drilling fluid techniques are one of the significant guaranteed measures to insure safety, qual- ity, efficiency, and speediness of drilling operations. Dril- ling fluids are generally discarded after the completion of drilling operations and become waste, which can have a large negative impact on the environment. Drilling mate- rials and additives together with drill cuttings, oil, and water constitute waste drilling fluids, which ultimately are dumped onto soil, surface water, groundwater, and air. Environmental pollution is found to be a serious threat while drilling complex wells or high-temperature deep wells as these types of wells involve the use of oil-based drilling fluid systems and high-performance water-based drilling fluid systems. The preservation of the environment on a global level is now important as various organizations have set up initiatives to drive the usage of toxic chemicals as drilling fluid additives. This paper presents an approach where grass is introduced as a sustainable drilling fluid additive with no environmental problems. Simple water- based drilling fluids were formulated using bentonite, powdered grass, and water to analyze the rheological and filtration characteristics of the new drilling fluid. A particle size distribution test was conducted to determine the par- ticle size of the grass sample by the sieve analysis method. Experiments were conducted on grass samples of 300, 90, and 35 μm to study the characteristics and behavior of the newly developed drilling fluid at room temperature. The results show that grass samples with varying particle sizes and concentrations may improve the viscosity, gel strength, and filtration of the bentonite drilling fluid. These obser- vations recommend the use of grass as a rheological modifier, filtration control agent, and pH control agent to substitute toxic materials from drilling fluids.