Preparation Of High Strength Petroleum Fracturing Proppant From High - Iron Bauxite

Oil fracturing proppant is a solid particulate matter which is used to support hydraulic fractures to keep the cracks open state so that the oil effluences from the stratum.Its strength and sphericity have grately influence on the quality of oil fracturing proppant.In this study, high-iron bauxite produced in Yunnan province and its flotation mine for iron removal were applied to prepare samples of oil fracturing proppant as main raw material respectively. After different programs about ingredient, the samples were made into pellets in a coating machine and were sintered at different temperatures. The influence of various materials content and sintering temperature on the crystallization of oil fracturing proppant was studied by investigating the bulk density, breakage ratio, phase composition and micro structure of the products.The results showed that:(1) when the coating machine was working for granulator, proper moisture content of the total should be controlled at 12%,disk speed was 40r/min, the particle sizes reached -0.038mm accounted for 97% of the raw materials, added bentonite was 3%.(2) Selecting the bauxite after flotation as based materials, the experimental program could applied as drying 1.5h,heating at a rate of 6.3℃/min and insulating 2h at the target temperature of 1420℃.(3)With the increase of the iron content in the raw material, corundum phase of proppant samples decreased, the glass phase was increasing yet, its strength and supporting the role of corundum phase skeleton weakened also,and the sintering temperature was gradually reduced. With the increase of the flux content, lower temperature eutectic composition could be generated, while high temperature liquid filled open porosity, it made its surrounding crystal dissolved and corroded, so that the strength of the proppant declined. With the increase of the silica content, products could generate more mullite, when mullite content was a little, its fibrous structure could play a role in improving the toughness of the product as radial whiskers, when mullite content was more, it would make the strength of products decreased significantly. With the increase of the ρ-Al2O3 content, corundum phase of products gradually increased,and more of corundum made its skeleton action improve significantly, strength and bulk density of the sample were also high.