The effect of ethylene oxide groups in alkyl ethoxy carboxylates on its scale inhibition performance.

To study the effects of ethylene oxide (EO) number in alkyl ethoxy carboxylates (AEC) on scale inhibition, ten AEC compounds are prepared. The effect of EO number on the scale inhibition against CaCO 3 , CaSO 4 and Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 scales and effects of the operating conditions on scale inhibition against CaCO 3 are investigated by static test. The effect of EO number on the corrosion inhibition is measured by the weight loss of rotating hung steel slices. The influence of AEC on formation of CaCO 3 , CaSO 4 and Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 is investigated using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The results indicate that the scale inhibition of AEC depends actually on EO number, the scale inhibition against CaCO 3 and Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 scales decreases with increasing EO number. The ability of the inhibitors to tolerate high alkalinity and high hardness reduces with increasing EO number. AEC-3, AEC-4 and AEC-5 have good performance with scale inhibition more than 80% at the pH, concentration of calcium carbonate and temperature ranges of 7.0–9.0, 250–750 mg/L and 50–80 °C, respectively. Morphologies of the scales are highly modified in the presence of AEC. The corrosion inhibition of AEC shows a significant critical threshold regarding the concentration of AEC, the corrosion inhibition increases with increasing EO number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]