Abstract
Traditionally, phosphonate based scale inhibitors have dominated the global squeeze treatment market and for very good reasons: they combine high performance with ease of measurement. However, increasingly stringent environmental legislation has resulted in the development of new, enhanced polymeric scale inhibitors that contain low levels of phosphorus, such as phosphonate end-capped polymers. These polymers are highly effective with particularly low MIC (minimum inhibition concentration) values, but this creates analytical problems as they can’t currently be easily measured at these low levels. Therefore, to realise the full performance and environmental benefits of such polymers it is necessary to be able to readily and easily measure them at low concentrations in a variety of brine chemistries.
A novel separation and pre-concentration procedure has been developed that can be combined with industry standard analytical methods (e.g. Hyamine) to detect such scale inhibitors. It is simple to use, flexible, requires no specialist knowledge or equipment and can measure sub-ppm levels of inhibitor reliably and accurately in even the most concentrated brines.
