Salt-tolerant self-suspending proppants made without extrusion

1. A process for fracturing a geological formation comprising pumping into the formation an aqueous fracturing fluid containing a self-suspending proppant comprising a proppant substrate particle and a coating of a hydrogel polymer on the proppant substrate particle, wherein the hydrogel polymer is a gelatinized non-extruder-derived neutral starch.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein during the fracturing process the self-suspending proppant is exposed to water having a hardness of at least 1,000 ppm.

3. The process of claim 2 , wherein during the fracturing process the self-suspending proppant is exposed to water having a hardness of at least 20,000 ppm.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the self-suspending proppant has been made by mixing proppant substrate particles with a non-extruder-derived neutral starch which is gelatinized thereby causing the non-extruder-derived neutral starch to form separate coatings on the individual proppant substrate particles, and then drying the starch-coated proppant substrate particles so formed.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein during manufacture of the self-suspending proppant

(a) the proppant substrate particle is treated with an adhesion promoter,

(b) the non-extruder-derived neutral starch is crosslinked, or

(c) both.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the self-suspending proppant exhibits a volumetric expansion of ≥˜0.5 when exposed to

(a) a simulated hard water containing 80,000 ppm CaCO 3 ,

(b) a simulated hard water containing 350,000 ppm TDS (total dissolved solids), or

(c) both.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the total concentration of negative groups as well as the total concentration of positive groups in the non-extruder-derived neutral starch hydrogel polymer, as measured by the degree of substitution (“DS”) of each, is less than 0.08.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the self-suspending proppant has been made by coating proppant substrate particles with a non-extruder-derived neutral starch which has been gelatinized by subjecting a mixture of the non-extruder-derived neutral starch, water and an inorganic base to simple mixing, wherein the molar ratio of inorganic base to starch is 0.1 to 0.8.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the coating of a hydrogel polymer on the proppant substrate particles includes at least one additional hydrogel polymer which is different from the gelatinized non-extruder-derived neutral starch, and further wherein at least 50 wt. % of a hydrogel-forming polymer in this coating are based on monosaccharide units having a neutral charge.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein the self-suspending proppant comprises a proppant substrate particle, a first coating of a gelatinized non-extruder-derived neutral starch on the proppant substrate particle and a second coating on the first coating comprising a hydrogel polymer which is different from the gelatinized non-extruder-derived neutral starch forming the first coating.

11. The process of claim 10 , wherein the second coating is formed from a polyacrylamide.