Temporal and Thermal Changes in Density and Viscosity of Marcellus Shale Produced Waters
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 12
Abstract
Subsurface processes alter the physical and chemical properties of fluid injected for hydraulic fracturing, with implications for its transport and fate in fractured or porous media. Models used to evaluate potential hydraulic fracturing–fluid migration lack formation-specific data to constrain temporal and thermal variation of the physical parameters that govern fluid movement. Density increases of 9.8% and viscosity increases of 26.5% were observed in produced water samples from three horizontally-drilled wells in the Marcellus shale, Pennsylvania, USA over a period of 11 months after hydraulic fracturing. Fluid density and viscosity rapidly increased during the first two weeks after fluid injection because of greater concentrations of dissolved inorganic ions, and plateaued within two months. When experimentally subjected to formation-relevant temperatures, mean density and viscosity decreased by up to 2.7 and 44.4%, respectively, between 20 and 60°C. These measurements yield new data to better constrain constitutive relations in flow and transport models evaluating the migration of hydraulic-fracturing fluid between a wellbore terminus and other subsurface locations.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded through National Science Foundation Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) Award #1247338 and the Subsurface Energy Resources Center at the Ohio State University. The authors thank the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and specifically Richard W. Hammack and Angela Hartsock with NETL, Elizabeth L. Rowan with the U.S. Geological Survey, and the authors’ industry partner for coordinating and facilitating sampling for this study.
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© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 19, 2014
Accepted: May 4, 2015
Published online: Jul 9, 2015
Published in print: Dec 1, 2015
Discussion open until: Dec 9, 2015
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