High performance maleic acid based oil well scale inhibitors—Development and comparative evaluation

Scale formation in industrial systems is an important engineering problem that leads to decreased system efficiencies, increased frequency of chemical cleaning and an increased number of outages due to metal integrity failure. In order to minimize the formation of scale deposits, threshold scale inhibitor treatments are common practice in an industry. This paper describes synthesis, characterization and comparative evaluation of two low molecular weight maleic acid copolymers as potential calcite scale inhibitors. GPC, FT-IR and thermal analyzers were employed for molecular characterization; scale inhibition efficiency was studied through static jar test, dynamic tube block method, iron dispersing ability test and through electrochemical technique such as electrochemical impedance technique. SEM analysis demonstrated inhibited and un-inhibited crystal morphology. Complete scale inhibition was possible at a low dose of 20–25 ppm throughout the test regime.