The Potency of Biopolymer as a Green Scale Inhibitor

Abstract

Scale formation is one of the major issue in petroleum industry. The development of these scale layers results in production losses and equipment instability because of pipeline blockage, energy leak, corrosion acceleration and severe accidents which will impact the safety of production. Scale precipitation exists due to the progressions of thermodynamics conditions or the fluids incompatibility. This paper provides a review about the utilization of biopolymer as scale inhibitor whether under a laboratory approach or field trial application. The types of scales, chemical scale inhibitors (SIs) and biopolymers are likewise reviewed here. The utilization of chemical SIs are considered as an economical and successful route for the scale prevention. Two main component of the chemical SIs are phosphonate and polymer. A large number of the phosphorous compounds are toxic and very expensive. Besides, a portion of the phosphonate compounds are thermally less stable than polymeric scale inhibitors in the harsh environment which has high temperature and high pressure (HT-HP). Therefore, the development in the petroleum production directs the need to develop novel phosphorus-free scale inhibitor. While polymers have been broadly applied as a scale inhibitor in oil and gas fields because of their enhanced thermal stability and better environmental compatibility. Polymeric scale inhibitors also show better dispersing efficiency. Today, the biopolymers have pulled in a tremendous consideration from the industry to replace the utilization of synthetic polymer due to their interesting qualities such as their lightness, strong mechanical properties and appealing functionality. Biopolymers are insensitive toward brine salinity yet are vulnerable to biological degradation. Specifically, these polymers present enormous potential for environmental application because of their biodegradability, chemical adaptability and reactivity, biocompatibility and nontoxicity.