Liquid additives control waste and reduces landfill dumps

The essence of this work is to show students how to reduce landfill dumps in onshore drilling and cementing operations by close looped monitoring of additives. While liquid additives are used in offshore & international cementing operations, land-based operations use a bulk-drybatch-mixed process. Additives control cement volumetric yield, thickening time, compressive strength, free water, rheology, and fluid loss control. Computerized closed-loop control of liquid additives 1) allow unused, uncontaminated cement to be hauled off location after an operation, 2) promote environmental responsibility by reducing the volume of waste cement hauled to a landfill, and 3) provide better quality control of slurries pumped "on-the-fly" due to better distribution of additives in the slurry and tighter computerized tolerances. Students are challenged to always work towards environmentally friendly processes and use of flow regime equations to vary viscosity. Laboratory tests are carried out to verify the predictions made through the regime equations. Surface slurries utilizing liquid sodium silicate in API Class C Cement were designed to meet or exceed Texas Railroad Commission Rule 13 requirements for "zone of critical cement" "extended cement" systems. Slurries were tested for thickening time, free water, compressive strength, and rheology for various combinations of weight, water, yield, additive concentration, and adherence to TRRC (Texas Railroad Commission) Rule 13 specifications.