Preparation and application of a phosphorous free and non-nitrogen scale inhibitor in industrial cooling water systems

Abstract

A novel environmentally friendly type of calcium carbonate, zinc (II) and iron (III) scale inhibitor Acrylic acid- allylpolyethoxy carboxylate copolymer (AA-APEL) was synthesized. The anti-scale property of the AA-APEL toward CaCO₃, zinc (II) and iron (III) in the artificial cooling water was studied through static scale inhibition tests. The observation shows that both calcium carbonate, zinc (II) and iron (III) inhibition increase with increasing the dosage of AA-APEL. The effect on formation of CaCO₃ was investigated with combination of scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis and fourier transform infrared spectrometer, respectively. The results showed that the AA-APEL copolymer not only influenced calcium carbonate crystal morphology and crystal size but also the crystallinity. The crystallization of CaCO₃ in the absence of inhibitor was rhombohedral calcite crystal, whereas a mixture of calcite with vaterite crystals was found in the presence of the AA-APEL copolymer. Inhibition mechanism is proposed that the interactions between calcium or iron ions and polyethylene glycol (PEG) are the fundamental impetus to restrain the formation of the scale in cooling water systems.

Keywords

phosphorous free / calcium carbonate / stabilize zinc (II) / disperse iron (III) / cooling water

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Prospective Joint Research Project of Jiangsu Province (BY2012196); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51077013); Special funds for Jiangsu Province Scientific and Technological Achievements Projects of China (BA2011086); Program for Training of 333 High-Level Talent, Jiangsu Province of China (BRA2010033); Scientific Innovation Research Foundation of College Graduate in Jiangsu Province (CXLX-0134); and The Scientific Research Foundation of Graduate of South-east University (YBJJ1110).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg