Hydraulic fracturing treatment is the first choice for improving productivity of tight gas reservoirs. However, conventional frac-fluids cause delayed fracture closure and insufficient cleanup which leads to inefficient fracture operation. The solution is to replace existing water-based fluids with alternative fluids to overcome technical challenges in tight and ultra-tight gas reservoirs for better proppant placement and fracture conductivity. In addition, the environmental issues such as excessive water consumption and wastewater disposal can be minimized. In this regard, light alkanes are proposed as alternative frac-fluid. To model the temperature, pressure, and composition dependent behavior of light alkanes for hydraulic fracturing, multiphase multicomponent thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled numerical simulator was developed and verified. The application of developed model to case study of a tight gas reservoir in Germany and sensitivity analysis showed that the alternative fluid results in quick fracture closure and rapid flowback resulting in better borehole-fracture connectivity and minimizing phase trapping while limiting the water consumption. Moreover, a new numerical model was implemented for production optimization with proppants of different shapes. The application of rod-shaped proppants can further enhance well productivity compared to spherical proppants due to higher porosity and permeability of cylindrical proppant pack.weiterlesen