The evaluation on physical property and fracture conductivity of a new self-generating solid proppant

Most fracturing treatments today require injecting solid proppants to keep hydraulic fractures open. However, traditional proppants have disadvantages such as causing the reduced propped-fracture volume and abrasion to the pumping equipments and tubulars. To solve these problems, a new self-generating solid proppant has been developed through liquid-solid transition of self-propping fracturing fluid under reservoir conditions. To select the best self-generating solid proppant and compare it with conventional ones, physical property and fracture conductivity tests were done. Experimental results show that two self-generating solid proppants, including S101 and S505, are firstly selected because of their low density, high strength and excellent fracture conductivity. The apparent density is 1.09 g/cm3 for S101 and 1.10 g/cm3 for S505. The crushing rate of S101 is 1.47% while that of S505 is 1.29%. These data illustrate physical properties of self-generating solid proppant are obviously better than those of conventional proppants. Under the same conditions, the larger the spherical particle size of S101 and S505, the higher the fracture conductivity. Non-uniform distribution of proppant pack can increase fracture conductivity. Fracture conductivities of S101 and S505 are higher than that of quartz sand, and even higher than that of ceramsite at low closure stresses. Based on the experimental results, the pumping rate and injecting proportion of self-propping fracturing fluid can be optimized during the fracturing process.