Salt Resistance Study of Different Monomer Combinations of Polyacrylamide-Based Slickwater Drag Reducers

作者：Gaofeng Fu, Xiping Ma, Zhipeng Hou, Ke Xu, Cunchuan Zheng · 发表于：SPE Journal · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.2118/224411-pa · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies、Heat Transfer Mechanisms、Plant Surface Properties and Treatments

Summary Slickwater fracturing fluids are commonly used in the extraction of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs. However, their efficacy is significantly diminished in the presence of elevated salt concentrations. A pivotal component of slickwater fracturing fluids, the salt resistance of a drag reducer determines its overall performance. In this paper, we focus on the salt resistance of different monomer combinations of polyacrylamide (PAM)-based slickwater drag reducers using a selection of common drag-reducer functional monomers, including acrylic acid (AA), 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS), and methacryloyloxyethyltrimethylammonium chloride (DMC). Reverse-phase emulsion polymerization was used to synthesize 30 PAM-based drag reducers of six types with different monomer combinations. The successful synthesis of the product was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The viscous averaged molecular weights were all greater than 2.4×106 g/mol, and the monomer conversion rate was greater than 90%. The dissolution experiments showed that the acrylamide (AM)/DMC monomer combination achieved the best dissolution performance at a dissolution time of 40 seconds. The steady-state shear viscosity test showed that in clean water, the monomer combination AM/AA had the best viscosity-increasing performance, with a viscosity of 328.9 mPa·s after steady-state shear. In salt solution, the monomer combination AM/AMPS/DMC showed the best salt resistanc...