TECHNIQUE FOR QUANTIFYING THE SCALE SUPPRESSION EFFECT OF INHIBITORS

Anti-scalants are widely used to mitigate heat exchanger fouling in cooling water systems and in desalination applications. However, due to the inadequate understanding of inhibition phenomena, choice of an anti-scalant for a particular application from available products is difficult and relies heavily on empiricism. There is a critical need to develop correlative tools that could serve to quantify scale suppression effects. The present paper proposes a technique for characterizing fouling retardation effects induced by anti-scalants, using the well-recognized Kern-Seaton model. Preliminary results obtained from limited available data are encouraging and justify further development of the proposed technique.