Novel material to enhance the integrity of CCUS cement sheath: Exploration and application of calcium aluminate cement

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are being reduced using the technique known as CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage). At present, cementing cement paste based on ordinary silicate cement (OPC) and compounded with CO2 corrosion-resistant materials are often used in CCUS wells. CAC cement is characterised by low alkaline hydration content and its study in CCUS wells has rarely been reported. Therefore, CAC cement will be a new cement material for CCUS wells. In this study, we have developed an experimental device to simulate the working conditions of CCUS based on the actual well conditions of CCUS and investigated the effects of stress-coupled CO2 corrosion environment on the performance of CAC cement. According to the experimental findings, CAC cement's compressive strength degraded at a rate of 30.6% after 60 days of CO2 corrosion, which was lower than that of OPC cement (38.3%). When compared to OPC cement, the peak strain and stress of CAC cement increased by 57.2% and 7.85%, respectively. Furthermore, compared to OPC cement sheath, the CAC cement sheath's bearing capacity increased by 8 MPa after stress corrosion, and the crack area of the CAC cement sheath after failure was considerably smaller at 275 mm3 than at 735 mm3. Additionally, after being subjected to stress-coupled CO2 corrosion, the integrity of the CAC cement sheath was much superior to that of the OPC cement sheath, offering a fresh viewpoint for building CCUS cement slurry systems.