What Is Ceramic Proppant Made Of

It is usually sand grain or a man made proppant that includes high strength ceramic materials like resin coated sand.

What is ceramic proppant made of.

Ceramic proppant agents include sintered bauxite intermediate strength proppant and lightweight proppant. Man made proppants include materials such as resin coated sand or strong ceramic materials. Proppant is a solid material that is designed to keep a hydraulic fracture open during treatment. One job can require a few thousand tons of this proppant material.

View chapter purchase book. Ceramic proppants are another type of manmade proppant often chosen for its superior strength under the high pressures found in deeper formations. A proppant is a solid material typically sand treated sand or man made ceramic materials designed to keep an induced hydraulic fracture open during or following a fracturing treatment. While most are made from bauxite kaolin aka china clay or a blend of the two materials a variety of other materials may be used including magnesium silicate and fly ash.

In addition there may be unconventional fracking fluids. Fluids make tradeoffs in such material properties as viscosity where more viscous fluids can carry. Completion designs today utilize either naturally occurring crystalline silica sand or an engineered proppant material including ceramic. It is added to a fracking fluid which may vary in composition depending on the type of fracturing used and can be gel foam or slickwater based.

There are several different types of materials used as proppant. Because of their use in super high pressure environments often 10 000 feet below the surface proppants are highly crush resistant to hold fractures open for as long as possible helping to increases the productivity of the well. Proppants come in a variety of different sizes and spherical shapes for a variety of different situations. These proppants are optimal for stimulating deep wells greater than 8 000 ft where in situ stresses are very high.

Recently demand for proppants has increased as oil and natural gas wells are being made to yield more oil and gas using hydraulic fracturing.