Environmentally Friendly Phosphonated Polyetheramine Scale Inhibitors—Excellent Calcium Compatibility for Oilfield Applications

Abstract

Scaling is one of the most frequently stated problems in the oil industry, and scale inhibitors (SIs) are applied to prevent its formation. Organophosphonates are well-known types of SIs, particularly useful for squeeze treatments, which can be found as both non-polymeric and polymeric molecules. However, the performance of phosphonate-based SIs is often limited by poor compatibility with calcium ions. In addition, many phosphonated SIs exhibit poor seawater biodegradation. Therefore, there is still a need to develop effective SIs with reliable calcium compatibility, thermal stability, and environmental acceptability. A series of linear and branched phosphonated polyetheramines were synthesized. The final products were evaluated for their calcium carbonate (calcite) and barium sulfate (barite) scale inhibition performance using a high-pressure dynamic tube blocking rig at 80 bar and 100 °C. This study showed that the best phosphonated polyetheramines had excellent performance on both barite and calcite scale formation compared to some common commercial phosphonated SIs. In addition, all of the synthesized SIs showed superior compatibility with calcium ions and good thermal stability at 130 °C. The linear phosphonated polyetheramines gave the best seawater biodegradability, with BOD28 up to 47% by the OECD 306 procedure.

Fosfomycin and Its Derivatives: New Scale Inhibitors for Oilfield Applications

“…The presence of ether linkages in their structure backbones may enhance the ability to overcome complexing with Ca 2+ ions, as investigated previously in our research. 20 It was also found that SI-3 (close analog of HPAA ) displayed cloudiness at 10,000, and 50,000 ppm inhibitors and 10,000 ppm Ca 2+ ions, as shown in Table S2 .…”

“…Organophosphorous compounds are widely used as SIs for squeeze treatment applications. 20 However, most of these chemicals are not compatible with producing water, including divalent cations such as Ca 2+ ions, affording a Ca 2+ -SI precipitate. Therefore, there is a clear need to check the tolerance activity between the proposed SIs and calcium ions.…”

“…It has been shown that the presence of this functional group improves biodegradation performance. 20 Another non-polymeric phosphonate-based SI was synthesized via hydrolysis of fosfomycin, affording SI-3 ( Figure 2 ). The inhibition performance will be assessed against calcite and gypsum scales according to the NACE Standard TM0374-2007.…”

Green and High Effective Scale Inhibitor Based on Ring-Opening Graft Modification of Polyaspartic Acid

“…However, phosphonate and sulfonate polymers are being restricted due to environmental legislation [10][11][12]. With the increase of environmental awareness, environmentally friendly scale inhibitors have been drawing broad attention all over the world [13][14][15][16][17].…”

Polyetheramine as swelling‐inhibitor for expansive soil: Performance and mechanism

“…Polyetheramines (PEAs) are crucial compounds for various polymeric industries and many other applications. 1,2 Various molecular weights, primary amino groups, and repeating unit feature ( C O C ) has attracted attention. On the other hand, due to the unique structure, abundant source, and approved biocompatibility, natural clays also have been widely applied in many fields in recent years.…”