At present, animal bone glue has been widely used in industry, but there are no relevant research reports on its application in the petroleum industry. In this paper, the rheological properties, inhibition, filtration, and temperature resistance performance of modified bone glue (Mbg) were evaluated in water-based drilling fluids, and the results showed that Mbg can significantly affect the performance of water-based muds with minimal dosage, and temperature resistance of Mbg could reach up to 130 °C. The inhibition mechanism of Mbg in drilling fluids was investigated by infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), zeta potential, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Results revealed that when 2% Mbg was added, a three-dimensional network structure was formed in an aqueous solution, which reduced the water content from 4.83% to 4.23%. FT-IR analysis showed that Mbg strongly adsorbed onto clay through hydrogen bonding, which reduced the clay particles in based muds from 1.251 µm to 0.789 µm and effectively controlled the filtration loss of the drilling fluids.
Keywords: bovine bone glue; clay swelling; epichlorohydrin; inhibition; water-based drilling fluids.