Customized lubricator

Oil field downhole drilling

When used in drilling fluids, sodium pentaborate can:

• Enhance the performance of some polymer-based fluid-loss additives

• Improve lubricating characteristics

• Help control the pH of water-based fluids

• Help inhibit corrosion to protect steel tubing, casing, and pipework

• Reversibly cross-link viscosity-modifying polymers in water-based fluids, especially when drilling deviated or horizontal wells

• Work with salts or mono- and oligosaccharides to stabilize shale or clay strata in the reservoir formation rock

Oil well cement set retardant

Sodium pentaborate can be added to cement reinforcements that stabilize drilled well bore walls. Borates adsorb into the surfaces of cement grains, reacting with the available calcium ions to form calcium borate coatings that are a barrier to grain hydration and cement setting.

Nuclear energy

Sodium pentaborate can be used as a precursor for making isotopically enriched boron-10 materials that are necessary to ensure the safety within nuclear power stations.