Factors that influence efficiency of antiscalants

The capacity of an antiscalant to inhibit nucleation and growth of a system under

crystallization is
dependent on the type of antiscalant, the governing process conditions and the
chemistry of the
system. This section briefly explains the effect of the following parameters on the
efficiency of
commercial antiscalants:
1. The concentration of antiscalant
2. Temperature
3. Super saturation
4. pH,
5. Cationic impurities
The effects of the antiscalant concentration, temperature and super saturation are
considered
together while the effects of pH and cationic impurities are considered separately.

The interaction between antiscalant, temperature and

super saturation
Antiscalants cause nucleation kinetics of precipitants in solution to slow down. This
is seen by the
effect that the addition of small quantities of antiscalant exerts on the induction
period.
The extent to which a unit-change in concentration of antiscalant will prolong the
induction period
(or rather the antiscalant-induction time relationship) of a given system depends
firstly on the type
of antiscalant (c.f. section 2.8.1 and Table 6 and Table 7). Section 2.8.1 shows that,
for the inhibition
of gypsum precipitation polyelectrolytes and phosphonates are some of the most
efficient
antiscalants.
In a system subject to crystallization, (in the absence of impurities in solution) an
increase in the
concentration of an effective antiscalant subsequently causes the induction period
to increase (Refer
to Table 8). This tendency has been proven for PAA (Amjad, 1985; Amjad & Hooley,
1986;
Ben Ahmed et al., 2008; Liu & Nancollas, 1970; Oner et al., 1998; Shih et al., 2004)
and phosphonate
based antiscalants (Amjad, 1985; Shih et al., 2004; Weijnen et al., 1983). Some
researchers
hypothesized, that antiscalants slow down kinetics by increasing the interfacial
tension between the
crystal surface and the solution (Ben Ahmed et al., 2008). As mentioned previously,
antiscalants slow

down nucleation by blocking the most active growth sites on the crystal surface. An
increase in the
concentration of antiscalants therefore increases the extent of blockage, resulting in
an increase in
the induction time.
The antiscalant-induction time relationship is strongly dependent on the chemistry
and temperature
of the system. Nucleation and growth kinetics increase with an increase in
temperature and super
saturation according to classical nucleation theory (c.f. section 2.6). Consequently, a
given
concentration of antiscalant is less effective when operating conditions are
kinetically favourable.
(Amjad, 1988; Liu & Nancollas, 1975; Amjad & Hooley, 1986) among others (refer to
Table 9) have
shown that an increase in temperature of 10C caused a given concentration of
antiscalant to reduce
in efficiency by a factor of two.