Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F5/00—Softening water; Preventing scale; Adding scale preventatives or scale removers to water, e.g. adding sequestering agents
  • C02F5/08—Treatment of water with complexing chemicals or other solubilising agents for softening, scale prevention or scale removal, e.g. adding sequestering agents
  • C02F5/10—Treatment of water with complexing chemicals or other solubilising agents for softening, scale prevention or scale removal, e.g. adding sequestering agents using organic substances
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F5/00—Softening water; Preventing scale; Adding scale preventatives or scale removers to water, e.g. adding sequestering agents
  • C02F5/08—Treatment of water with complexing chemicals or other solubilising agents for softening, scale prevention or scale removal, e.g. adding sequestering agents
  • C02F5/10—Treatment of water with complexing chemicals or other solubilising agents for softening, scale prevention or scale removal, e.g. adding sequestering agents using organic substances
  • C02F5/14—Treatment of water with complexing chemicals or other solubilising agents for softening, scale prevention or scale removal, e.g. adding sequestering agents using organic substances containing phosphorus

Definitions

• the present invention relates generally to scale inhibitors used to prevent the formation of magnesium or calcium containing scale in water evaporation systems, boilers, water purification equipment and the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to a mixture of three scale inhibitors which produces an unexpected synergistic amount of scale prevention, when compared to the results obtained by using the single components or combinations of two of the three components.
• the major scales which can form during the treatment of seawater include calcium carbonate, calcium sulf te and magnesium hydroxide, each presenting different formation prevention and cleaning problems.
• the treatment device is a spray film vapor compression evaporator operating on seawater, it typically will operate at concentration values of 2.0 or less, while calcium sulfate scale formation usually begins to occur when the concentration factor exceeds about 2.5. However, in badly fouled equipment, some calcium sulfate can deposit, so it cannot be ignored in considering scale inhibitor systems.
• magnesium hydroxide is typically encountered in such equipment along with various forms of calcium, magnesium, carbonate and hydroxide compounds. Calcium carbonate will almost always form in vapor compression equipment along with the magnesium hydroxide and calcium sulfate. They often form complex compounds instead of the pure individual compounds.
• the pH of the system can be affected by the scale inhibitor, the initial concentration of the alkalinity and carbon dioxide concentration, the degree of carbon dioxide stripping in the treatment equipment, any thermal decomposition of alkalinity which may occur during treatment and by the ionic strength of the feed water and the ionic strength of the water as treatment proceeds.
• Threshold scale inhibiting (TSI) compounds have been known for many years, and the term is used to describe compounds which can inhibit scale formation when the inhibitor is added in small quantities compared to the quantity of the scale forming salts.
• certain carboxylic organic acids or salts can tie up calcium or magnesium ions in the feed water.
• Hydroxy acids, such as citric acid weakly tie up the hardness ions, while chelating salts, e.g. EDTA, do a more effective job of tying up such ions.
• chelating salts e.g. EDTA
• the major drawback of such scale inhibitors are that they act stoichiometrically, and therefore must be added in large quantities. The compounds then do not fit the classic definitions of being TSI.
• TSI compounds were inorganic polyphosphates. As little as 10 to 25 ppm of such compounds can suppress the precipitation of from 100 to 300 ppm of calcium carbonate.
• Polyacrylic and polymaleic acids were also found to posess TSI properties, as were organic phosphonates such as HEDP (1-hydroxyethane-l, 1-diphosphonic acid) and various organic aminophosphonates. The latter presented somewhat of a mystery to researchers in the field, because they are not polymeric, but it is now believed that in waters containing scale forming ions, they do indeed form polymers with the hardness ions acting as links in the polymer formation process.
• the organic phosphonates may be less effective, probably because of a blockage of the polymerization by the iron salts or the suspended solids.
• TSI compounds To be effective as TSI compounds, several factors must be considered. They include the hydrophilic and hydrophobic character of the groups on the polymer and the length of the polymer, which will in term affect the solubility of the polymer in the feed water. Carboxyl, phosphoryl and sulfonic groups in the acid or sodium form add hydrophilic properties, while the same compounds in the calcium or magnesium salt form are hydrophobic.
• Solubility must also be considered, in that the chemical must be soluble in one form for addition to the treatment water and insoluble in another form after it has abstracted hardness ions from solution.
• Most TSI polymers have molecular weights in the range of 1,000-10,000, higher molecular weights being insoluble or not sufficiently soluble in the water to be effective. in addition to the aforementioned characteristics, it is necessary that the ion exchange sites of the TSI material be spaced properly along the chain length so that the valence sites can be tied up by the hardness ions.
• the TSI compound must remain in suspension until it contacts a crystalline surface, at which time the Helmholtz double layer surrounding the polymer must contract to allow bonding to the crystalline surface.
• the spacing of the ion exchange sites • must match the spacing of the ions encountered in the crystalline structure, and perhaps most importantly, the TSI compound must bond with the crystalline surface at the nucleation sites in such a manner that the growth of additional scale is inhibited. Typically, this is accomplished by the production of a hydrophobic surface layer that prevents the deposition of any scale at the nucleation site and distorts any additional scale that does form so that it can be easily removed. Active sites on the crystals thereby become ' deactivated.
• the proposed mixture includes an amino alkylene phosphonic acid mixed with an acrylic or methacrylic acid polymer or copolymer, or a copolymer thereof with an ehtylenically unsaturated compound, or a graft copolymer of a polysaccharide (e.g. starch), preferably in stoichiometric amounts calculated for the specific hardness system to be encountered.
• a polysaccharide e.g. starch
• Synergism is claimed, and maleic acid is mentioned as one of the possible unsaturated acids for use in the graft copolymer embodiment.
• a different proposal is set forth in United States Patent No. 3,751,372 issued August 7, 1973 to Zecher et al. for Scale and Corrosion Control in Circulating Water Using Polyphosphates and Organophophonic Acids".
• the alleged synergistic mixture of the patent is a combination of a water soluble organophosphonic acid, preferrably 1-hydroxy alkylene, 1-1-diphosphosnic acid with either certain inorganic polyphosphates (or their corresponding acids) or polyfunctional acid phosphate esters of a polyhydric alcohol.
• the application mentioned in this patent is scale prevention in the circulating cooling water of evaporators.
• the synergistic compositions include mixtures of polyphosphates and methylene phosphonates.
• the proposed treating agent is a salt of an amino-methylene phosphonate.
• a number of additives are suggested including anti-foam agents, water-soluble polymers, tannins, lignins and deareating materials, all designed to inhibit scale formation.
• the preferred water-soluble polymers are polyacrylamides.
• the polyanionic polymers include such materials as acrylic acid polymers, polyamides and polynitriles, while the polycationic materials are complex materials selected from four categories described at columns 3-4 of this patent.
• This patent is owned by American Cyanamid Company.
• the American Cyanamid Company also owns another patent related to magnesium hydroxide scale prevention, i.e. U.S. Patent 4,166,041 issued to Goodman on August 28, 1979 for "Process for Magnesium Scale Control Using Mixtures of Polycationic and Polyanionic Polymers".
• the polyanionic polymer used in this patent is derived from an ethylenically unsaturated dibasic acid (e.g. maleic) or an ethylenically unsaturated sulfonic acid.
• the polycationic material is selected from the four categories mentioned in the Goodman patent.
• a copolymer of maleic acid or anhydride and allyl sulfonic acid is used to prevent scale formation in evaporative desalination units.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide an antiscalent system which can be used in a variety of devices which treat or utilize water which contains scale forming ions.
• a further object of the present invention is to provide an antiscalent system which can substantially increase the time between cleaning or water treating equipment, such as desalination systems.
• a still further object of the present invention is to provide an antiscalent system which is effective in reducing calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide and calcium sulfate scale formation in feed waters which contain varying quantities of the ions which lead to such scales.
• an antiscaling system which includes three primary components: a maleic acid homopolymer, an organophosphonate and a sulfonated styrene-maleic acid copolymer.
• the preferred organophosphonate is
• HEDPA 1-hydrosyethane-l, 1-diphosphonic acid
• the three component systems may be used in seawater desalination units, cooling towers, boilers, distillation devices, reverse osmosis units and the like. Further ways in which the objects are accomplished will become apparent to those skilled in the art after the description of the preferred embodiment has been read and understood. It will also be appreciated that the antiscalent system of the present invention is a threshold scale inhibitor system and may be used in small quantities, e.g. in the range of from 0.1 to 200 ppm or more.
• synergism has been a goal of researchers working in the field of scale inhibition chemistry.
• I have found a synergistic mixture of compounds which acts as a threshold scale inhibitor and provides improved results over the other systems previously described and those presently available on the market.
• the mixture which I have invented includes a blend of two polymers and an organophosphonate, e.g. HEDPA.
• HEDPA organophosphonate
• the organophosphonate probably builds additional length to the branches created or bonds to other polymer chains.
• Tests 1 and 2 from Table 1 ran 385 minutes before reaching a turbidity end point. This compared to a test using Wayplex HEDP-A which reached only 85 C before precipitation occurred, 39 minutes for component B when used alone, and 143 minutes when components A and B were used together in what was believed to be the maximum synergistic composition.
• the maleic acid or anhydride homopolymer a variety of Ciba-Geigy compounds were used, some in the acid and some in the sodium salt form.
• the acid polymers are sold under the trademarks Belgard EV, Belclene 200 and Belgard EV63, while the sodium salts are sold under the trademarks Belgard EVN, Belclene 201, Belgard EVN170 and Belros 285.
• the sulfonated maleic-styrene copolymers (Component C) which were found to be useful include the aforementioned Versa TL-3, as well as S-SMA 3000 polymer manufactured by Arco Chemical Co.
• the threshold scale inhibitor of the present invention can be prepared from mixtures of the three components which vary widely in percentage composition.
• the maleic homopolymers can be used in amounts ranging from 1-50%, 20-30% being preferred.
• the HEDP-A can be used from 30 to 90%, 50-60% being preferred.
• the copolymer can be used from 1 to 50%, 10-25% being preferred.
• the mixture itself can be used i amounts as small as 0.1 to 200 ppm or more and at temperatures between 0 C to over 300° C, depending on the type of treatment apparatus involved, such as cooling towers, boilers, distillation apparatus, reverse osmosis apparatus, electrodialysis apparatus, heat exchangers and the like, i.e., devices where the formation and cleaning of scale has been a problem in the past.
• Neutralizers selected from the group of sodium, potassium, or other monovalent hydroxides may also be added to the scale inhibitor of the present invention. While the foregoing description has referred to several embodiments, some of which are deemed to be optimum for scale prevention in desalting devices, the invention is not to be limited by the foregoing description but is to be limited solely by the scope of the claims that follow.-

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• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Hydrology & Water Resources (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• Water Supply & Treatment (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Preventing Corrosion Or Incrustation Of Metals (AREA)
• Crystals, And After-Treatments Of Crystals (AREA)
• Acyclic And Carbocyclic Compounds In Medicinal Compositions (AREA)
• Separation Using Semi-Permeable Membranes (AREA)
• Pharmaceuticals Containing Other Organic And Inorganic Compounds (AREA)
• Organic Low-Molecular-Weight Compounds And Preparation Thereof (AREA)
• Medicines Containing Material From Animals Or Micro-Organisms (AREA)
• Medicines Containing Plant Substances (AREA)
• Percussion Or Vibration Massage (AREA)
• Fire-Extinguishing Compositions (AREA)
• Polysaccharides And Polysaccharide Derivatives (AREA)
• Medicines That Contain Protein Lipid Enzymes And Other Medicines (AREA)
• Addition Polymer Or Copolymer, Post-Treatments, Or Chemical Modifications (AREA)

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• 1986
  • 1986-01-30 US US06/824,230 patent/US4713195A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
• 1987
  • 1987-01-16 CA CA000527509A patent/CA1272424A/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1987-01-19 IL IL81297A patent/IL81297A/xx not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1987-01-20 MX MX4985A patent/MX162396A/es unknown
  • 1987-01-26 MY MYPI87000068A patent/MY101542A/en unknown
  • 1987-01-27 BR BR8705374A patent/BR8705374A/pt unknown
  • 1987-01-27 FI FI874237A patent/FI874237A7/fi not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1987-01-27 GB GB8722708A patent/GB2200624B/en not_active Expired
  • 1987-01-27 AT AT87900943T patent/ATE87890T1/de active
  • 1987-01-27 WO PCT/US1987/000047 patent/WO1987004696A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 1987-01-27 AU AU68917/87A patent/AU589491B2/en not_active Ceased
  • 1987-01-27 GR GR870123A patent/GR870123B/el unknown
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  • 1987-01-27 EP EP87900943A patent/EP0256057B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1987-01-27 DE DE8787900943T patent/DE3785265D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1987-01-28 NL NL8700201A patent/NL8700201A/nl not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1987-01-29 EG EG58/87A patent/EG18261A/xx active
  • 1987-01-29 ZA ZA87640A patent/ZA87640B/xx unknown
  • 1987-01-30 ES ES8700234A patent/ES2004516A6/es not_active Expired
  • 1987-04-10 KR KR1019870003419A patent/KR920007870B1/ko not_active Expired
  • 1987-09-30 NO NO874121A patent/NO169482C/no unknown

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