Nanoemulsion for oil-contaminated oil-based drill cuttings removel in lab

This paper demonstrates a new nanoemulsion NA-R, is an oil-in-water emulsion. It shows the natural distribution of <100 nm particle size. NA-R is able to provide ultralow surface tension of 33 mN/m and ultralow interfacial tension of 1.35 mN/m. When using it to remove the oil from the cuttings, it is able to reduce the contact angle and capillary force on the cuttings particle surface, subsequently, allowed water to penetrate and wet the particle surface and accessible pores. Once the particles surfaces are water-wet, oil will instantly repel from it and easily segregate through centrifuge force. It was found that the oil removal rate in the cuttings after treatment with nanoemulsion cleaning process was able to reach 95.7%.