Fly Ash as a Weighting Agent: An Experimental Investigation on Fly Ash to use it as a Possible Replacement of Barite and Ilmenite

Barite (Barium Sulphate) is the most commonly used weighting agent during drilling operation. It is abundant in nature as well as in the market. Global Barite production is about 6 million tons and these all are traded worldwide. But it’s been observe that prices have increased rapidly in the last few years due to the transportation issue. Ilmenite is another weighting agent currently used in drilling fluids, but due to its high abrasiveness and issues with the mud cake removal industry is looking for a more suitable alternative. Fly ash is a waster product from coal feed thermal plants. Million tons of Fly ash is produced every year from these thermal plants and due to the lack of proper disposal methods it spreads in the environment and causes pollution. In this work we are trying to use Fly ash as a weighting material in drilling fluid. Comparable results are obtained from the samples having Fly ash. This justifies that Fly ash can be a replacement for Barite and Ilmenite.