STUDY OF ZEOLITE IN MITIGATING FORMATION DAMAGE DUE TO INORGANIC SCALING

Formation damage causes the reduction of reservoir permeability and therefore reducing
the productivity and injectivity of wells. One of the root causes of formation damage is
the formation of scale which is either inorganic or organic precipitation. Inorganic
scaling can occur in the well tubing and near well bore formations of production and
injections wells. Two different types of zeolite which are clinoptilolite and chabazite
were used in this study to mitigate the inorganic scaling which causes the formation
damage. The objective of this study is to analyze the potential of clinoptilolite and
chabazite to remove barium and sodium ions via adsorption. The effect of effective
permeability of fluids before and after treatment with zeolite was also investigated. The
degree of ions sorption of zeolite will be measured based on the value of the ions
concentration measured by Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer. Bench Top
Permeability System was used to measure the effective permeability of the fluids. The
results obtained were analyzed to assess the potential use of zeolite in mitigating the
inorganic scale. Results from the present project indicate that both clinoptilolite and
chabazite has the capability to adsorp sodium ions. However those types of zeolite do
not have the capability to adsorp barium ions. After the zeolite treatment, there were no
significant effects that shown the reduction of the effective permeability of the fluids.
This study found that raw natural zeolite such as clinoptilolite and chabazite do not
exhibit high degree of potential in mitigating the formation of inorganic scales.