Characterization of Malaysia Sand for Possible Use as Proppant

This paper presents results on literature and experimental works on Malaysia local sand for possible use as proppant specifically local sand resourced from Terengganu area. This project includes the study on the characteristics of proppants and research on the laboratory experiments in testing the characteristics of Terengganu sand as proppant. The sand sample from the desired area are tested by its; particle size distribution, density, roundness and sphericity, turbidity, mineralogy, crush resistance, permeability, and conductivity. The sand characteristics should meet the specifications set by American Petroleum Institute (API RP 56) or International Standard Organization (ISO 13503-5) for commercial proppant. The results obtained from the analyses are compared to the existing sand based proppant in the market. The size distribution, turbidity and bulk density of Terengganu sand agree with the commercial proppant. Even though Terengganu sand do not completely surpass the typical sand based proppant at certain characteristics (roundness, sphericity, crush resistance), they show promising results and meet some of the API and ISO requirements. Recommendations are also proposed in this paper for future improvement in increasing the quality of project results.