Hydrogen sulphide known for its smell of ‘rotten eggs’ is a very toxic and corrosive gas. Small concentrations in drilling mud as low as 10 ppm, can reduce significantly drill pipe life by decreasing mud pH. Porous magnetite can be an excellent raw material for H2S scavenging in oil drilling. From a pyrite roasting plant, two recycled iron oxide powders were obtained – magnetite from a cyclone fraction and hematite from a venturi washer. The reactivity of the magnetite fraction and the partially reduced hematite/magnetite fraction were tested for sulphide scavenging in mud drilling and compared to a commercial product named Ironite Sponge®.
BUHAUGJ. B.: ‘1-12S scavenging — chemical investigations of triazine and potential new scavengers’, AIChE Conference, 2001.
6.
BAGULEY et al.: ‘The conditions for the formation of lath and porous magnetite on reduction of hematite in H2/H20 mixtures’, Metall. Trans., 1983, 14B, 513–514.
7.
WENDTR. P.: The kinetics of Ironite Sponge®—H2S absorption’, Energy Technology Conference and Exhibition, Texas, 1978.
