Publications

Hydrogen sulfide is an extremely hazardous substance. In the reservoir, hydrogen sulfide can be formed from biogenic formation and become a serious problem in oil and gas operations. The presence of H2S results in increased corrosion, higher operating costs, reduced revenue, and constitutes a serious environmental and health hazard (Hitzman et al., 1998). In previous study, Sayyadnejad et al (2008) used 14 to 25-nm zinc oxide (ZnO) particles with 44-56 m2/g specific surface area to remove H2S from water-based drilling fluid and results, the zinc compound showed a good performance for removing hydrogen sulfide in drilling fluid. However, the zinc compound has negative impact to environment, heavy metal pollutant that does break down through time (Davidson et al., 2004). Since these disadvantages, several studies in additives of drilling fluid for removing toxic gases had been conducted. Magnetite, one of iron oxide, is the new alternative for additives in drilling fluid which is nanoparticle-based, environmentally friendly and meets the standard requirement for removing H2S in drilling fluid. However, bulk magnetite not good enough to remove hydrogen sulfide in drilling fluid because it has low kinetic reaction. Thus, to obtain optimal hydrogen sulfide absorption results, magnetite nano-sized not only created but also need modification of the particle. Modifications of magnetite nanoparticle include uniformity of particle size and surface particle functionalization. This paper aims to preliminary study of the possibility nano-sized particle magnetite with modification to remove hydrogen sulfide effectively in drilling fluid and environmentally friendly.