Utilization of steel-making dust in drilling fluids formulations

Steelmaking is an energy-intensive process that generates considerable amounts of byproducts and wastes, which often pose major environmental and economic challenges to the steelmaking industry. One of these by-products is steel dust that is produced during the separation of impurities in the smelting and refining of metals in steel-making furnaces. In this study, electric arc furnace (EAF) dust has been evaluated as a potential, low-cost additive to increase the viscosity and weight of drilling muds. Currently, the cost of drilling operations typically accounts for 50 to 80% of the exploration costs and about 30 to 80% of the subsequent field development costs. Utilization of steelmaking waste in drilling fluids formulations is aimed to produce new and optimized waterbased drilling formulations, which is expected to reduce the amount of bentonite and other viscosifier additives used in the drilling formulations. The results showed that in a typical waterbased drilling fluid of 8.6 ppg (1030.51 kg/m3), the amount of standard drilling grade bentonite could be reduced by 30 wt. % with the addition of the proposed new additive to complete the required mud weight. The mixture proved to be stable with no phase separation.