Characterization of natural sand proppant used in hydraulic fracturing fluids

Natural sand was the first material introduced as a proppant to hydraulic fracturing operations to keep induced rock fractures both open and conductive. It has remained the most commonly used proppant for this process, since its economic advantages are obvious. In this context, the growth of the unconventional gas industry in Algeria has raised many environmental and economical concerns in terms of local sand valorization for a possible use as proppant agents. This paper deals with the physical analysis of 10 sand samples of two types: quarry sand samples and Aeolian dune sand samples, from different geographic locations in Algeria according to ISO 13503-2 which provides standard testing procedures for evaluating certain physical properties of proppants used in hydraulic fracturing and gravel packing operations. These assessments should enable to compare the physical characteristics of the various tested sands and to select the useful ones to evaluate their interaction with one chemical (SP breaker) in fracturing fluid system by sorption under several operating conditions (temperature, proppant dosage, SP breaker concentration).