There are primarily three types of fracturing proppants: natural sand, resin-covered sand, and ceramic proppant. You can easily buy ceramic proppant from online proppants stores.
Properties Of Different Proppants
Natural sand is the primary kind of fracturing proppant used in hydraulic fracturing procedures with lower prices. According to the API and ISO standard, you can only apply it to the shallow wells of which the closure pressure is between 4,000 psi to 10,000psi. You can easily crush Natural sand during carriage and damages the pump due to the low roundness and sphericity. The quality of the natural sand differs a lot due to the different sand mine locations in various countries.
Resin-covered sand is coating on the surface of natural sand to improve the compressive strength. However, at the actual temperature and pressure, the resin is sticky, and you can crush the sand inside; these can plug the fracking cracks, which will decrease the long-term conductivity and the output of the mines.
The raw material of ceramic proppant is bauxite, which manufacturers sinter with high temperature, so the sphericity and roundness are better. Simultaneously, the compression strength can range 30,000psi, and it has high conductivity, which can significantly advance oil and gas production.
The silica of natural sand harms the environment. The pollution while resin-covered sand production process and fracturing process is evident. On the other hand, the primary raw material of ceramic proppant is bauxite which comes from nature. You can use the character; injected to the surface to keep the ground rock from crumpling by filling these cracks. After the sintering step, the ceramic proppant has higher strength and is more stable to support these cracks.
For a purchaser, how to select the suitable proppant depends on the output and long-term welfares. The proppant with long span conductivity and using life is the first choice.
A few factors may affect the proppant conductivity, sieving distribution, particle size, strength, i.e., crushing rate, shape, i.e., sphericity, surface smoothness, and many more.
