Gellants

Oil-base muds are composed of oil as the continuous phase, water as the dispersed phase, emulsifiers, wetting agents, and gellants. There are other chemicals used for oil-base mud treatment such as degellants, filtrate reducers, weighting agents, etc. 

Reticulated bacterial cellulose may be used in place of a conventional gellant or in combination with conventional gellants to provide enhanced drilling muds [1837]. The addition of relatively small quantities of reticulated bacterial cellulose to wellbore drilling muds enhances their rheologic properties. 

Patel, A.D. and Salandanan, C.S. "Thermally Stable Polymeric Gellant for Oil-Base Drilling Fluids," SPE paper 13560, 1985 International Symposium on Oilfield and Geothermal Chemistry, Phoenix, April 9 11. 

Preparation of the solid components (gellant and/or metal powder)... 

The magnitude of the yield stress depends on the type of gellant used, its concentration, and the solids content. If the gellant is of the particu-... 

Miscellaneous Additives. These include lubricants, surfactants, thickeners, gellants, defoamers, and preservatives. 

The second type comprises pigment-containing nail enamels. The coloring tints, pigments, pearls, and lakes are suspended with the aid of an organophilic, thixotropic gellant, such as stearalkonium hectorite in a non-aqueous vehicle, containing butyl acetate, ethyl acetate, and isopropyl alcohol solvents in which the primary plasticized nitrocellulose and toluene sulfonamide—formaldehyde resin film formers are dissolved. Nail enamel is an excellent example of a permanent suspension in a non-aqueous vehicle. 

As stated above, a grease contains two basic components an oil, which has the flow properties of a liquid and a thickener or gellant, which is a solid insoluble in the oil. It will be shown later that the... 

The basic model of a grease, then, is that of a self-supporting structure of interlocked fibers or aggregates of gellant, within which liquid is held by capillary forces. This model is consistent with the two characteristics most typical of grease resistance to change of... 

Figure 18-9. Roll testing of grease consistency. Gellants A. Lithium stearate. B. Lithium 12-hydroxystearate. C. Calcium tallow soap. D. Sodium tallow-stearate. E. Aluminum stearate. From data by Woods and Trowbridge [23].

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