The study of a highly efficient and environment-friendly scale inhibitor for calcium carbonate scale in oil fields

Abstract

A highly efficient and environment-friendly scale inhibitor (MA-VA-VS) was synthesized via free radical solution polymerization method, where maleic anhydride (MA), vinyl acetate (VA) and vinyl sulfonate (VS) acted as monomers, while ammonium persulfate was used as initiator. The inhibition performance and the structure as well as properties was characterized using static jar measurement and dynamic test, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The surface morphology and composition of scale formed in the solution were examined using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. The binding energies of inhibitor with calcite (104) face were calculated using Materials Studio 2017 (MS) at 323 K.

The results show that the inhibition efficiency gradually increases with increasing inhibitor concentration. While as the Ca²⁺ concentration increases, the efficiency first increases and then decreases. With the increase in temperature or pH, the efficiency generally decreases. It is confirmed that the inhibition efficiency can reach 91.4% when 150 mg/L MA-VA-VS is used in a flow condition. Both the calculated binding energy and inhibition performance evaluation results demonstrate that the scale inhibition performance of MA-VA-VS is better than a commercial scale inhibitor (HPMA). The excellent inhibition performance of this inhibitor is due to its chelation and dispersion properties.

Keywords

Copolymer / Scale inhibitor / Calcium carbonate

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by 111 Project [D18016]; Application and Fundamental Research of Sichuan Province [grant number 2017JY0171]; and Scientific and Technological Innovation Team for the Safety of Petroleum Tubular Goods in Southwest Petroleum University [grant number 2018CXTD01].

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