Description

The Scale Eval apparatus is designed to study the precipitation and deposition of scale at reservoir and pipeline conditions of pressure and temperature. The device can be utilized to study the efficiency of chemical inhibitors to prevent the formation of mineral scales such as calcium carbonate, calcium barium and barium sulfates. Specifically, the minimum inhibitor concentration (MIC) required to prevent the deposition of scale can be determined as well as inhibitor comparison tests under the same conditions. The system uses the tube blocking test principle which is an industry practice, to evaluate at constant temperature, the minimum inhibitor concentration (i.e. MIC) in dynamic flow conditions. Inhibitor efficiency is measured by the deposition rate in terms of pressure loss in the pipe (scale and pre-scale tests). Mathematically, the inhibitor efficiency is defined as the ratio of clog time with an inhibitor over regular clog time. Experiments can be performed both manually and automatically.