A Study on the Effects of Starches on the Properties of Alkali-Activated Cement and the Potential of Starch as a Self-Degradable Additive

Huijing Tan, Xiuhua Zheng, Limenglu Ma, Haixiao Huang and Bairu Xia
Additional contact information
Huijing Tan: School of Engineering and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Xiuhua Zheng: School of Engineering and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Limenglu Ma: School of Engineering and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Haixiao Huang: School of Engineering and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Bairu Xia: School of Engineering and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: An urgent problem of geothermal energy source development is how to cut down the production costs. The use of temporary sealing materials can reduce the costs associated with the circulation lost by plugging, and increase the production by self-degradation. Based on the utilization of starches as self-degradable additives in the medical field, this paper investigated the effects of three kinds of starches, namely corn starch (CS), hydroxypropyl starch (HPS) and carboxymethyl starch (CMS) on the properties of alkali-activated cement (AAC). In addition, the thermal properties of starch, the compressive strength and microstructures of the cement with starch were tested, to evaluate the potentiality of starch as self-degradable additive for geothermal cement. The analysis showed that: (1) all the starches have the effect of increasing the apparent viscosity, prolonging the setting time and reducing the static fluid loss of alkali-activated cement; (2) the addition of starch increased the number of pores in 200 °C-heated cement, facilitated the leaching process, and thus promoted the self-degradation; and (3) among the three starches, CMS has the most potential as a self-degradable additive.

Keywords: alkali-activated cement; starch; self-degradable additives; geothermal wells (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/7/1048/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/7/1048/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:7:p:1048-:d:105312

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().