Target Drilling inc.

Plugging In-Mine Boreholes and Surface CBM Well Laterals with Reformulated Polymer Gel
and Target’s New Gel Unit

After plugging or sealing over 76 miles of in-mine borehole and surface CBM Well coal laterals, including sidetracks, with over 424,000 gallons of Concrete Construction Materials’ (CCM) original formulation of poly acrylimide gel culminating in the safe mine-through of the gelled boreholes, the original gel formulation was found to be ineffective when used to gel several CBM well laterals when mined into. Chemical analysis of the fluid found in the mined into coal laterals determined that the high concentration Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) (> 20,000 ppm) and the volume of water with high concentration of TDS prevented the gel mixture injected into the coal laterals to cure. Consequently, CCM reformulated the polymer gel to be TDS “proof” increasing the concentration of polymer and other chemicals in the gel mixture. In addition, Target redesigned and fabricated a new gel mixing and pumping unit that can mix and circulate 2,000 gallons of gel ingredients while simultaneously pumping 180 gallons per minute of mixed gel from another tank. Protocol was established to gel an in-mine or surface CBM well’s coal laterals treating every borehole or lateral to be gelled as “site specific or unique.” Using the new gel unit to mix and pump 34,628 gallons of reformulated gel, five (5) in-mine boreholes and the bottom 1,000 feet of a surface CBM well lateral were gelled totaling 27,506 feet including sidetracks and subsequently mined into by the continuous miner or longwall face without incident. The sections below detail the results of the gelling the in-mine boreholes and the bottom of the right lateral of a CBM well with the reformulated gel mixture.

 

See Also: Plugging CBM Wells with Polymer Gel

See Also: Plugging In-Mine Boreholes with Polymer Gel