Patent ID: 9404033
Filing Date: 2016-08-02
CPC Classification: C09K,E21B,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. A process for reducing hydrodynamic friction of a turbulent brine stream during an oil field pumping operation comprising: injecting into the turbulent brine stream a finely divided free flowing friction reducing powder, wherein the friction reducing powder comprises an acrylamide-containing polymer having a number average molecular weight in the range of 1000 to 30,000,000 g/mol and being derived from at least one of the monomers acrylamide, acrylic acid, acrylate salts, dimethylacrylamide, dimethylacrylic acid, and dimethylacrylate salts, wherein at least 80% of particles by weight in the powder have an average particle diameter between 10 and 100 microns, wherein the brine stream comprises water with at least 90,000 ppm total dissolved solids, wherein the total dissolved solids include at least 30,000 ppm sodium cations, at least 10,000 ppm calcium cations, and at least 1,000 ppm magnesium cations, and wherein the brine stream has an electrical conductivity of greater than 50.0 mS/cm at 25° C.