Crystal growth of calcite at conditions of gas processing in solvent mixtures of monoethylene glycol and water

Abstract

Growth kinetics of the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate, calcite, has been studied in seeded stirred batch experiments in MEG-water solutions at 40 °C and 70 °C, conditions relevant for the processing of natural gas. It was found that MEG changes the growth order from two in pure water to one in solvent mixtures of MEG and water. Assuming parabolic growth (growth order is equal to two), it could be shown that MEG decreases the growth rate constant for calcite from 0.52 nm/s to 0.11 nm/s (70 °C) when the MEG-content is increased from 0 wt% MEG to 65 wt% MEG. Decreasing the temperature from 70 °C to 40 °C has a similar effect on the growth rate constant as raising the level of MEG to 65 wt%.

Keywords

crystallization / crystal growth kinetics / calcium carbonate / calcite / solvent mixtures / monoethylene glycol (MEG)

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