A Geopolymer System for High Pressure Oil and Gas Well Cementing

There are some technical and environmental issues associated with the usage of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in well cementing. These concerns persuaded the researchers to search for alternative materials to overcome the technical challenges and to provide eco-friendly cement systems. The use of geopolymer technology is widespread across many industries, particularly the construction sector. Oil and gas well cementing hasn't yet seen a full-scale deployment of it, though. This work evaluates the possibility of using hematite to develop a heavy weight geopolymer system for cementing operations. The biggest challenge in this work was developing a flowable heavy weight geopolymer formulation with good rheological properties and sufficient thickening time. The evaluation included rheological properties, fluid filtrate, strength, petrophysical and dynamic elastic properties for the developed class F fly ash (FFA) hematite-based geopolymer formulation. The results showed that the developed high density geopolymer system possessed acceptable properties making it a possible candidate for different cementing applications.