Barite Nucleation and Inhibition at 0-200°C, With and Without Hydrate Inhibitors

摘要

This work is the first detailed and reliable study of barite nucleation kinetics in the presence and absence of scale inhibitors at 0-200°C. In this study, we developed an apparatus to study the nucleation kinetics of barite scale formation at high temperature in the presence and absence of scale inhibitors by monitoring pressure change over a micrometer sized in-line filter, which has been proved to be an easy and accurate method to study mineral scale nucleation kinetics at high temperature conditions. Additionally, we investigated the nucleation kinetics of barite at 0-25°C with and without hydrate inhibitors. By using this newly developed "pressure" method, we successfully measured the nucleation kinetics of barite in 1M NaCl solutions at a temperature range from 100-200°C and at various supersaturation conditions. We also evaluated the inhibition efficiency of barite precipitation at this very high temperature range. Based on the experimental results, the relationship of precipitation kinetics of barite as a function of temperature and saturation index was established. The inhibition efficiency of phosphonate inhibitor (BHPMP) on barite precipitation has been evaluated over the same range of condition. Results of this study have been incorporated into the scale prediction software, ScaleSoftPitzer.