METHOD OF PRODUCING CERAMIC MAGNESIUM SILICATE PROPPANT Russian patent published in 2025 - IPC C09K8/80 C04B35/20 

FIELD: manufacturing technology; chemical or physical processes.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to production of high-strength proppant material (proppant) based on magnesium silicate raw material, which is used in oil industry to increase efficiency of wells with application of hydraulic fracturing (HF) technology. Method of producing ceramic magnesium silicate proppant, including preparation of initial charge, where components of the initial charge are crushed, granulated, dried and sieved to obtain a given fraction of the proppant-crude, the granules are annealed to obtain a proppant. As initial charge, magnesium silicate raw material is used, obtained from a mixture of dunite rock with a lizardite fraction of 80–85%, containing up to 12 wt.% of constitutional water, in amount of 50–70 wt.% with quartz sand 29–49 wt.% and binder in form of bentonite clay in amount of 1.0–2.0 wt.%, grinding initial mixture to obtain fraction of not more than 25 mcm, granulated material is dried at temperature of 180–200 °C for 1.5–2 hours, and the obtained raw proppant is annealed at temperature of 1,150–1,300 °C with a heating rate of 10 °C/min, held for 30–60 minutes and forcedly cooled at rate of 200–1,200 °C/min.

EFFECT: obtaining high-strength ceramic magnesium silicate proppant without using preliminary high-temperature annealing of starting material, which contains magnesium hydrosilicates due to regulation of temperature-time conditions of roasting mode, allowing to remove constitutional water before sintering process and cooling, which helps to reduce the negative effects of polymorphic transformations of magnesium metasilicate.

3 cl, 3 ex, 1 tbl