Fouling control of carbonates in process water pipes by the addition of polyacrylates

• Autor(a) principal: Pinto, André Teodoro Coelho Moreira
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: da Luz, José Aurélio Medeiros, Neuppmann, Pedro Henrique
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Holos
• Texto Completo: http://www2.ifrn.edu.br/ojs/index.php/HOLOS/article/view/10176
• topic: Fouling; scale formation; polyacrylate.

An industrial ore treatment facility, located in the Iron Quadrangle (Brazil), was used for the study of scale formation in pipes. Scale formation is predominantly carbonatic on iron mineral processing. The determination of the best fouling inhibitor polymer was done by dynamic efficiency tests, by fouling measurements performed by ultrasonic monitoring (using On Guard 3S) and by mass monitoring of carbon steel test coupons introduced into industrial pipes. A preliminary analysis was performed for the pumped liquid and it was possible to notice a high correlation between water hardness and scale formation rate. As determined by dissolution by hydrochloric acid and absorption spectroscopy in the infrared spectral region, the scale is carbonatic due to the presence of calcium ions. The dynamic efficiency tests showed that Polystabil VZ and Polystabil KWS (polyacrylates) presented an antifouling character, Polystabil KWS having higher efficiency. The insertion of fouling test coupons provided similar results regarding the efficiency level. Polystabil KWS has resulted in scale values within acceptable parameters for dosages of 6 ppm. As a result of this study, industrial application of the tested product was already adopted in a large iron ore mining company