Fundamentals of Microwave Heating and Drying of Drilled Cuttings

Drilled cuttings contaminated by non aqueous drilling fluids are the major waste from oil well drilling activities. More restrictive environmental legislation has led to the search for alternative technologies to promote cuttings decontamination according to the law. The mixture of cuttings and fluid returning from the well goes through a set of separation equipments, called solids control systems, in order to recover the drilling fluid for reuse. The cuttings from the solids control system must be decontaminated before they can be discharged into the sea. Microwave heating has been studied over the past few years as an alternative to promote the decontamination of this waste and has been shown to be a promising technology. This work aimed to investigate fundamental aspects of microwave heating and drying of drilled cuttings. The heating curve of two different drilling fluids commonly employed in well-drilling operations was obtained. The kinetics of drying of cuttings contaminated with these drilling fluids was also investigated. It was evaluated the behavior of organic phase and water removal in the microwave drying process.