International Conference on Global Trends in Engineering, Technology and Management (ICGTETM-2016)
A Review on: Effective use of Water Soluble Nano-Polymers
in Heat Treatment Operations as Anti scaling Agent and
Corrosion Inhibitor in Process Industries
Sarika S.Pawar #1, V.P.Sangore*2, I.D.Patil#3
#1
Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology, SSBT’s College of Engineering and Technology, Bambhori,
Jalgaon, 425001 (MS), India.
*2
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, SSBT’s College of Engineering and Technology,
Bambhori, Jalgaon, 425001 (MS), India
#3
Professor and Head, Department of Biotechnology SSBT’s College of Engineering and Technology,
Bambhori, Jalgaon, 425001 (MS), India.
Abstract:
Scaling formation and corrosion in heat exchangers
and boilers considerably decreases the efficiency of
these equipments. Recent advances in the field of
corrosion and scaling prevention techniques signifies
the use of nano polymers in effective control of these
problems. Thus these nano polymer either alone or in
combinations of others, contribute significantly in
controlling technical, economical and environmental
losses.
KeywordsAntiscaling
Nanopolymers,Corrosion inhibition
agents,
I. INTRODUCTION
For the sustainable development effective use of water
&energy resources in process industries is a need to
protect the environment and to meet current and future
human demand of water for its survival. Beyond the
scope of the strategic planning, it is a responsibility of
every individual working in the field of chemical
process industries to use water effectively and to make
the process environment friendly by reducing
excessive consumption of water and energy in
preparing chemical products. There are many
industrial water system includes heat transfer
operations which is an integral part during the
production of industrially important chemical
compounds. As water resources are becoming limited
and efficient utilization of water is required, various
methods have been adopted to reduce the amount of
water used.
As the methods for reducing the amount of water are
put into practice, unfavorable events occur, such as the
occurrence of corrosion and the formation of scale,
ISSN: 2231-5381
because the quality of the water in the system is
progressively deteriorated.
Adhesion of such scale on the inner parts of heat
exchangers and boilers , contamination and corrosion
products brings about a lowering of the heat transfer
rates and decreases the circulation rate of cooling
water owing to increase of the pressure loss, that is, a
lowering of the cooling efficiency, and further serious
difficulties such as clogging of tubes of heat
exchangers, penetration accident of tubes caused by
local corrosion thereof, etc., which possibly lead to a
temporary stoppage the operation of the apparatus.
The transfer of heat from process fluids or equipment
results in a rise in temperature, or even a change of
state, in the cooling water. Many of the properties of
water, along with the behavior of the contaminants it
contains, are affected by temperature which enhances
the chances of a system to corrode and form a scale on
the inner surface of the heat transfer equipments
results in the excessive consumption of water and
energy during the processing operations.
The function of a cooling system is to remove heat
from processes or equipment. Heat removed from one
medium is transferred to another medium, or process
fluid. Most often, the cooling medium is water.
Efficient removal of heat is an economic requirement
in the design and operation of a cooling system. The
http://www.ijettjournal.org
Page 497
International Conference on Global Trends in Engineering, Technology and Management (ICGTETM-2016)
driving force for the transfer of heat is the difference
in temperature between the two media.
Apart from heat exchanger, in cooling water system
having a cooling tower the circulating water is cooled
by evaporation of a part of the water passing through
the cooling tower. Owning to the evaporation
dissolved inorganic salts and suspended substances in
the feed water are condensed in the circulating water
and are deposited onto the heating surface of the heat
exchanger to form scale thereon.
These problems can be minimized by using new
approach in process heat operations by using water
soluble polymers as an antiscaling agents for effective
heat transfer which will control the corrosion & scale
formation in boilers and cooling towers.
Water soluble polymers cover a wide range of highly
varied families of products of natural or synthetic
origin, and have numerous uses. A water soluble
polymer is a polymer that can be diluted in water, with
or without the assistance of co solvents and
neutralizing agents, to form transparent solutions.
They may be classified into two types, totally
synthetic polymers and natural products together with
their chemically modified derivatives and further can
be grouped into three main headings; naturally
occurring, semi synthetic and completely synthetic
polymers.
Rajendran S et al.[1] have indicated that some
polymers can be used as corrosion inhibitors because,
through their functional groups, they form complexes
with metal ions and on the metal surfaces. These
complexes occupy a large surface area, thereby
blanketing the surface and protecting the metals from
corrosive agents present in the solution.
The water based polymers are quick drying non
inflammable, having mild odour and more
environmentally acceptability than any other
polymers. Most conventional coating polymers at
present can be produced in a form that will allow them
to be solubilized in water. These include alkydes,
polyesters, acrylics epoxies. There are various types of
polymerization methods of water soluble polymers
such as bulk polymerization, solution polymerization,
copolymerization, emulsion polymerization and
suspension polymerization.
Umoren et al.[2] studied the corrosion inhibition of
mild steel in H2SO4 in the presence of gum arabic
(naturally occurring polymer) and polyethylene glycol
ISSN: 2231-5381
(PEG) (synthetic polymer). It was found that PEG was
more effective than gum arabic and acetylthiourea
chitosan polymer (ATUCS)
Water soluble polymers are used widely as stabilizers
or protective colloids in emulsion polymerization
Apart from that they also acts as an antiscaling agent
in chemical process industries for controlling
corrosion & scale formation.Polymers find many
applications in oil recovery and production, including
areas such as; drilling fluids, cementation of well bore,
reservoir fracturing, controlling fluid flow in the
reservoir and multistage processes of oil production
and refining. The water soluble polymers market
encompasses several categories, including starch,
cellulose ethers, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol
and other synthetic water soluble polymers.
Fernando E.Felissia et.al[3] studied the adverse effects
of scale formation in the digester during kraft pulping
and found that when polymers are combined with
diethylene triamine penta(methylene phosphoric
acid)(DTMPA) an important interactions enhances the
quantity of calcium extracted from the pulp.
However the effectiveness of nano polymers as an
antiscale agent or corrosion resistance depends not
only on the characteristics of the environment in
which it acts, the nature of the metal surface, and
electrochemical potential at the interface, but also on
the structure of the inhibitor itself, area of the inhibitor
on metallic surface, formation of complexes of
polymeric based nano material with metal etc.
Sekine et al.[4] extensively investigated action of
variety of polymers against corrosion, including
cationic polymers such as polyethyleneimine
derivative,
polyacrylamide
derivative,
polydicyanodiamide derivative, and anionic polymers
such as polymaleic acid derivative, polyacrylic acid
derivative, and polyacrylic acid and according to their
findings polymers having the -COOH functional
groups are effective polymer-based systems for
controlling the corrosion.
To control scale formation in cooling water systems,
water desalination processes, and oil field operations
polymeric based scale inhibitors can be used
effectively. David Hasson et al.[5] studied extensively
studied scale controlling techniques by dosage of an
polymer based antiscalant and developed costeffective ecologically benign scale inhibitors and they
found that the most promising green scale inhibitors
are based on poly(aspartic acid).
http://www.ijettjournal.org
Page 498
International Conference on Global Trends in Engineering, Technology and Management (ICGTETM-2016)
During the concentration of phosphoric acid fouling
on the tube-side of the heat exchangers of the
evaporator units is a big problem. Scaling on the heat
transfer surfaces occurs because of high
supersaturation of phosphoric acid liquor with respect
to calcium sulphate. R. M. Behbahani et al[6] studied
the solubility of different calcium sulphate types in
phosphoric acid solution and its dependency on acid
concentration and temperature. They found that the
reaction of calcium sulphate crystallization followed a
second order rate with respect to the supersaturation
and they estimated the activation energy for the
surface reaction of the deposit formation around57
kJ/mol.
Nano polymers of polyacrylic based found industrial
applications in controlling the scale formation in heat
exchangers during the production of valuable
commercial chemical products. S.Mishra et.al[7]
investigated the use of polyacrylic acid as an
antiscaling characteristics on copper and mild steel
metal surfaces. They found that the deposition of salt
decreases with increasing concentration of polyacrylic
acid with increased time duration.
Sedahmed et al. [8] investigated the effective
utilization of formulation containing polyethylene
oxide, polyacrylamide, and carboxymethyl cellulose
(CMC) as an corrosion resistance for the metal iron in
acidic and neutral mediaum using electrochemical
methods and found that this formulation is found to
act as an excellent inhibitor for controlling severe
problem of corrosion and scaling arising during the
processing operations.
Evaluation of efficiency of scale inhibition is also
important to identify the antiscaling and corrosion
characteristics of an agent targeted for the specific
applications in industrial manufacturing. I. Drela et.al
[9] developed the solution conductivity measurement
method. It consist of determining a supersaturation
level of any scale forming compound in a given water,
at defined conditions, in the presence of a specified
amount of scale inhibitor and also without inhibitor.
During their investigations they studied the corrosion
inhibition activity of phosphonate compounds on mild
steel in neutral water. According to their findings 2phosphonobutane-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid (TBTC),
ethylenediaminetetramethylenephosphonic
acid
(EDTMP) and phosphono-N-methylenephosphonic
derivative of polycaproamide (PMPP) has been found
ISSN: 2231-5381
effective in preventing CaCO3 crystallization from
water and amongst these EDTMP shows the best
stabilizing properties while PBTC shows poorest one.
Umoren et al. [10,11] studied the inhibitive effect of
exudate gum from Dacroydes edulis on the corrosion
of aluminum in HCl solutions using weight loss and
thermometric methods at 30°C to 60°C by and the
results indicates that the exudate gum controls the
corrosion of aluminum in HCl solution.
II.CONCLUSION
The corrosion and scaling formation in heat
exchanger, boilers and cooling towers adversely
effects the efficiency of these equipments in process
operations. Water soluble nano polymers are found to
act as effective corrosion resistance and antiscaling
characteristics. The specific action of inhibition largly
depends on the nature of the metal surface ,
physicochemical properties of the nano-polymer such
as functional groups and steric factors etc.
III.REFERENCES
1.
Rajendran S, Sridevi SP, Anthony N, John Amalraj A,
Sundearavadivelu M (2005) Corrosion behaviour of carbon
steel in polyvinyl alcohol. Anti-Corros Method M 52(2):102–
107
2. Umoren SA, Obot IB, Ebenso EE, Okafor PC, Ogbobe O,
Oguzie EE (2006) Gum arabic as a potential corrosion
inhibitor for aluminium in alkaline medium and its adsorption
characteristics. Anti-Corros Method M 53(5):277–282
3. Fernando E.Felissia, Maria C. Area, Olga M.Barboza, Dora
I.Bengoechea (2007) Anti-scaling agents in kraft pulping,
bioresources 2(2),252-264
4. Sekine I, Sanbongi M, Hagiuda H, Oshibe T, Yuasa M,
Imahama V, Shibata Y, Wake T (1992) J ElectrochemSoc
139(11):3167
5. David Hasson, Hilla Shemer, and Alexander Sher , Ind.Eng.
Chem. Res., 2011, 50 (12), pp 7601–7607
6. R.M.Behbahani,H. Müller-Steinhagen,M. Jamialahmadi The
Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering Volume 84, Issue
2, pages 189–197, April 2006S.
7. Mishra , I.D.Patil, Effect of Polyacrylic Acid as Antiscaling
Agent on Heat Exchangers,wiley Volume 25, Issue 5,May
2002 .Pages 573–577
8. Sedahmed GH, Nagy Soliman M, El-Kholy NS (1982) J Appl
Electrochem. 12(4):479
9. I.Drela,P. Falewicz, S. Kuczkowska , New rapid test for
evaluation of scale inhibitors,Elsevier,Volume 32, Issue 10,
October 1998, Pages 3188–3191
10. Umoren SA, Obot IB, Ebenso EE (2008) Corrosion inhibition
of aluminium using exudate gum from Pacchylobus edulis in
the presence of halide ions in HCl. Electron J Chem 5(2):355364
11. Umoren SA, Ogbobe O, Igwe IE, Ebenso EE (2008) Inhibition
of mild steel corrosion in acidic medium using synthetic and
naturally occurring polymers and synergistic halide additives.
http://www.ijettjournal.org
Page 499