Scale Inhibitors

Most industrial and commercial water contains alkaline earth metal cations, such as calcium and magnesium and several anions such as bicarbonate, carbonate, sulfate, oxalate, phosphate, silicate, and fluoride.

When combinations of these anions and cations are present in concentrations which exceed the solubility of their reaction products, precipitates form until their product solubility concentrations are no longer exceeded. These precipitates are alkaline earth metal scales. For example, when the concentrations of calcium ion and carbonate ion exceed the solubility of the calcium carbonate reaction product, a solid phase of calcium carbonate scale will form as a precipitate.

Scale inhibitor compositions, alone or together with polymeric structures, are described and characterized by having, in addition to a phosphonomethylamino group, a sulfonic acid and/or carboxylic acid group. By incorporating several types of functional groups into a single molecule, control of scale formation and deposition under more severe conditions than normally encountered can be attained. TETRA has scale inhibitors which address a broad range of fluid types.

PayZone® SI 139 Scale Inhibitor

A triphosphonic acid based on adenosine monophosphoric (AMP), PayZone SI 139 scale inhibitor inhibits calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, and barium scales in light-density completion, treatment, and injection fluids, including seawater. It is temperature-stable to 350°F/176°C.